The great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor – a convicted rapist jailed for 19 years – was denied parole after prosecutors said he still posed a risk to the public.
Captured and reported by reality TV star Duane ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Chapman, 59-year-old Andrew Luster was convicted in 2003 on 86 charges, including rape of an unconscious person, bestiality and poisoning.
Luster’s conviction, then 40, came after a series of sensational events that gripped the nation at the time, including a high-profile trial in which California prosecutors claimed the scion brought three women to his beachfront home and them raped after he spiked her drinks with gamma-hydroxybutyrate. or GHB.
Even more amazing was his eventual capture by the bounty hunter, which came after Luster — backed by a $3 million trust fund used to travel and surf Port Ventura’s many beaches — bailed out on $1 million bail US dollars fled to Mexico.
Luster, the great-grandson of beauty magnate Max Factor Sr., was arrested in 2000 after a 21-year-old college student told police he raped her. During a search of his home, police officers found tapes of Luster attacking sleeping or unconscious women.
Andrew Luster – a convicted rapist who has been incarcerated for 19 years – was denied parole after prosecutors said he still posed a risk to the public
The 59-year-old scion, pictured in June 2003 after his capture, lured women to his schools of mussels on the beach and raped them after he spiked their drinks with gamma-hydroxybutyrate – or GHB.
The makeup heir – who testifies to his described crimes as “childlike” – later paid $40 million to two unnamed female victims who won civil lawsuits against him, and has since filed for bankruptcy.
He and his legal team had argued that the recorded encounters were consensual. The women who were awarded the $40 million and who featured several of the sex tapes testified at Luster’s criminal trial that they willingly consumed GHB-soaked beverages but never consented to the sexual acts — all of which took place while they were were unconscious.
Prosecutors claimed that Luster’s drug-fuelled reign of terror lasted from at least 1996 to 2000, when he was in his 30s.
As proceedings dragged on and Luster was controversially granted $1 million bail, the sex fiend fled to Mexico — at which point he fell under the radar of Chapman, who was a year away at the time , to catapult to superstardom with his hit show.
Chapman, then 50, received tips from various sources, including Luster’s own attorney, and soon tracked down the disgraced scion – who was convicted in absentia on the run – in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Dog’s crew then reportedly got into a scuffle with Luster, eventually overpowering the fugitive and able to restrain him and put him in a car to California.
After fleeing to Mexico during a 2003 court case, Luster was captured and turned into police by reality TV star Duane ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Chapman, who himself was arrested because bounty hunting is illegal in the Central American county
Chapman, pictured here with half-brother Tim and son Leland after Luster’s capture, reportedly got into a scuffle with Luster, eventually overpowering the fugitive and was able to restrain him and put him in a car to California before they were stopped by Mexican police officers
However, seemingly unbeknownst to the crew, bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico — a law Mexican lawyers were quick to point out when they stopped the procession before they could make it to the border.
Both Chapman and Luster were arrested at the encounter, the latter extradited to the United States and sentenced to 124 years in prison, to be carried out immediately.
Luster was granted the parole hearing after California voters passed controversial Prop 57, which allows parole for nonviolent criminals
However, that sentence was reduced to 50 in 2013 after the then 49-year-old’s lawyers appealed the court’s ten-year-old decision, arguing for it to be reduced to 25 years or less, citing Luster’s “outstanding performance”. in prison.
A California judge then granted him a rehearing, arguing that the court “did not provide specific reasons to issue full consecutive sentences,” as required by law.
Then, in 2016, Luster’s plea for freedom became increasingly explicit after California voters passed controversial Prop 57, which allows parole for allegedly nonviolent criminals.
A loophole in the law also opened the door to reducing jail time for criminals already incarcerated for violent crimes, with some of the crimes for which Luster was convicted are now classified as “nonviolent” under the guidelines.
The embattled scion was then scheduled for a December 2022 parole hearing, which took place on Wednesday and saw Luster’s final request for freedom rejected before spending the rest of his days in prison.
Dog – whose full name is Duane Chapman – has been charged with kidnapping for capturing wealthy cosmetics heir Andrew Luster, who was on the run in Mexico after posting $1 million bail on multiple drug charges and rape of three women
During an interview with Larry King in 2006, Dog — who was then wanted in Mexico after fleeing the country on his own — defended his decision to try Luster for his crimes and recalled how the rapist did had tried to offer her an alias once arrested.
‘He said his name was David Correra. And of course I said wait a minute,” Chapman recalled. “This is Andrew Stuart Luster, wanted on 86 counts of rape, got 12,400 years in prison… of course Luster was fluent in Spanish and told the cops I’m not that guy blah blah blah.”
Dog’s attorney, William Bollard, told Larry King: “At best, the case will be dismissed. At worst, they may remain in court in Puerto Vallarta on a single count of imprisonment, carrying a sentence of six months to four years.’
In 2007, Dog evaded extradition to Mexico when a judge eventually dismissed the case.