A serial rapist who is the heir to a makeup fortune will no longer be paroled this year, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Andrew Luster, 60, great-grandson to Max Factor Sr., was convicted in absentia in 2003 of 86 felonies connected to a spree of rapes between 1996 and 2000 in which he trolled college bars for young women and incapacitated them with gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, before assaulting them.
He fled to Mexico, though bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman captured him, resulting in his extradition back to the U.S.
After two decades, a two-person parole panel in August granted Luster early release, though District Attorney Erik Nasarenko cited “significant errors of fact surrounding Luster’s offenses” in pushing for that release to be reversed.
The full Board of Parole Hearings agreed with Nasarenko, and Luster won’t be eligible for early release again until a parole hearing in April 2025.
“His heinous acts, which include drugging and raping his victims, warrant a full and complete prison sentence,” Nasarenko said in the release. “During his time in state prison, Luster has continued to minimize his conduct and releasing him would be a grave injustice to the survivors and a threat to public safety.”
While officials praised the Parole Board’s reversal, they noted that even without parole, Luster will be freed when his sentence ends on Oct. 31, 2026.
Senior Deputy District Attorney and original Luster prosecutor Tony Wold added that in his 27-year career, “Luster remains one of the most dangerous rapists I have ever prosecuted.”
“Unfortunately, even if parole continues to be denied, Luster will be released from prison in approximately two years,” Wold said. “It is the intention of the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office to make sure the public is protected from him for as long as the law allows.”
