‘They Come Like Thieves In The Night’: Mother Of Victim Blasts California Policy That Could Grant Serial Killers Parole

The mother of a murdered police officer has joined family members of other victims in suing the California parole board over a policy that could open the door for clemency or resentencing for serial killers and other convicts sentenced to life without parole.

Under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new rule would allow the California Board of Parole Hearings to recommend criminals who have served 25 continuous years in prison to the California governor for commutation of sentence and to a court for resentencing.

The policy excludes a limited number of convicts, including those sentenced to death and those required to register as sex offenders. But it does not exclude those serving life without parole — some of whom are individuals convicted of first-degree murder under special circumstances. The policy also states that inmates who do not receive a recommendation will be reviewed again after three years, as long as they still fit eligibility requirements. The regulations will take effect in October. (RELATED: LA Waves White Flag In Concealed Carry Case)

Phyllis Loya, now 78, lost her son, Police Officer Larry Lasater, when he was fatally shot in the line of duty in 2005. While one of his killers was sentenced to death, the other was sentenced to life without parole — a sentence to which this policy might apply in the future. Loya is now partnering with other victims’ families and with the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (CJLF) in a lawsuit that describes the new policy as unauthorized and unfair to victims’ families.

Loya slammed the California legal system for showing compassion to criminals rather than victims.

“They come like thieves in the night to rob us of justice,” Loya said. “That’s what it feels like to me every time this happened.”

“I know that not everyone feels as strongly as I do about our police law officers, but I don’t know how anyone could not be concerned about the plight of innocent little children getting killed, and elderly people getting killed, and sometimes tortured and raped,” she said.

She blasted Gov. Newsom’s office, saying it had previously referred to victims’ stories as “political rhetoric.”

“They’re not rhetoric. They’re stories about devastated lives,” Loya said. “He doesn’t live our nightmare.”

The Caller reached out to Newsom’s office but did not receive a reply in time for publication.

Loya fears this policy could set a dangerous precedent by allowing a parole board to make regulations instead of the legislature, while harming both California society and the families of victims.

The lawsuit, filed on July 15, argues that the regulations “create an extensive process of evaluations and hearings for inmates not yet or not ever eligible for parole,” according to court documents. The litigation also contends the board is unauthorized to create parole regulations for inmates who are ineligible for parole.

WORST OF THE WORST: A new California parole board policy would open a potential path to resentencing or clemency for serial killers, mass shooters, cop killers, and baby killers serving life without parole — and a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court is racing to stop it… pic.twitter.com/mvUdr3sxe2

The board has countered this argument, saying that if “the Legislature intended to bar” those serving life without parole from the board’s consideration, “it would have done so.”

The Caller reached out to the board but did not receive a reply in time for publication.

But the policy could also cause new pain for victims’ families, according to the litigation.

Loya described her son as witty and compassionate, a man thoughtful enough to ask arrested individuals about their radio preferences while he drove them to the county jail. Lasater, a Marine captain, transitioned to law enforcement because he and his wife wanted a baby. His son was born two-and-a-half months after he was fatally shot.

Loya knows the pain victims’ families feel when they must relive the circumstances of their loved ones’ death every time they return to court. After her son was killed, she promised herself that she would be in the courtroom whenever Lasater’s killers were. She kept that vow until an illness made her unable to attend three recent court appearances.

But that commitment has taken a toll. Loya has suffered four heart attacks over the last 20 years. She describes stress over repeated appearances in court as a factor in those illnesses. The last time she was in court, the judge was considering an appeal over trying one of Lasater’s killers — a 38-year-old man at the time of the hearing— as a juvenile, but the family had to listen to the defense attorney asking about how much blood her son had on his face after the shooting. (RELATED: 18-Year-Old Bragged On YouTube After Allegedly Mowing Down Two Girls With Car)

She focused on the pain of reliving those moments.

“Sometimes you get knocked down by waves, and you struggle to breathe until you can come up again and hope for calmer waters. And that’s what it’s like to sit in these courtrooms day after day after day, year after year after year. How many times do they get to take us back?”

Loya said she only heard about the policy when a friend from CJLF approached her. She argued the move follows a pattern of governmental lack of transparency to victims — similar to the lack of transparency she witnessed when Newsom announced a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019.

Loya also fears that many of the individuals to whom this policy applies could still be dangerous. Almost 40% of California inmates released in 2020 and 2021 were reconvicted in the three years following their release, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation report. In 2023, over 5,000 individuals were serving life without parole in the state, according to a UCLA study.

When the regulations take effect, 2,456 inmates would immediately be eligible, according to Board of Parole Hearings documents. The same documents estimate that 3,959 inmates could become eligible by the end of 2035. These inmates could include child murderers, serial killers, mass shooters and torture murderers, according to CJLF.

California law already offers special consideration for parole to multiple groups of offenders. The Youth Offender Act, which took effect in 2014, provides special parole consideration for some individuals who were younger than 26 when they committed their controlling offense and who have already spent 20 to 25 years in prison. The Elderly Offender Act, which took effect in 2018, provides similar parole consideration for those over 50 who have been in prison for at least 20 years.

Scott Peterson, who is currently serving life without parole after being convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son in 2002, is one prominent criminal serving life without parole to whom this policy might eventually apply, according to reporting from multiple outlets.