Luster Gets 124 Years in Rapes

Andrew Luster, the wealthy great-grandson of cosmetics magnate Max Factor who fled during his high-profile rape trial, was ordered Tuesday to serve 124 years in state prison for knocking out three women with a potent anesthetic and sexually assaulting them at his oceanfront home in Ventura County.

Luster, 39, jumped his $1-million bail and bolted Jan. 3 -- three weeks before a jury convicted him of 86 criminal counts, including rape of unconscious victims, rape by use of drugs, and poisoning. He remains at large and is suspected of fleeing the country.

As authorities continued to pore over phone records and financial statements in hopes of locating the fugitive, prosecutors urged Superior Court Judge Ken Riley to impose the equivalent of a life sentence in prison to ensure Luster does not escape punishment.

Luster’s three rape victims also urged the judge to sentence the assailant and close a painful chapter in their lives.

“Mr. Luster should be here today,” said a 23-year-old woman identified as Carey Doe, a former UC Santa Barbara student. “He should have to face his victims so our voices haunt his dreams.”

She told investigators that Luster raped her at his Mussel Shoals beach house after they met at a popular college bar in July 2000.

During a search of the home, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives found videotapes that showed the defendant engaging in sex acts with two comatose women, later identified as Tonja Doe and Shawna Doe. The women were ages 23 and 17 at the time the tapes were produced in 1996 and 1997.

“How can I possibly begin to outline all of the ways in which Andrew Luster has damaged my life?” asked Tonja Doe, who dated Luster for several months and was unaware of the rape tape until a detective showed it to her two years ago.

She recounted the nightmares and stress-induced injuries that followed viewing the tape and seeing “the torturous acts” that Luster committed on her body, including inserting various objects into her vagina while she was sleeping.

“I am still afraid of falling asleep at night,” she said.

Said Shawna Doe: “It’s been 2 1/2 years since I first learned that Andrew Luster raped me and videotaped his crime.... There is no way to describe what I feel on a day-to-day basis. I’m only 23 and I’m going to live with this for the rest of my life.

“He didn’t have any regard when he raped me,” she continued. “He didn’t have any remorse during his trial. He should be sentenced to the maximum for his crimes.”

But defense attorney Roger Diamond asked Riley to hold off on sentencing for at least six months to a year, arguing that his client’s rights on appeal could be jeopardized.

Under state law, a convicted criminal has 60 days in which to file a notice of appeal and loses those appellate rights altogether if he or she has fled the jurisdiction. Diamond also argued that the law does not allow sentencing to go forward unless the court finds it is in the interest of justice.

“The court would be abusing its discretion to sentence now,” he said, suggesting that the victims’ testimony could be preserved and considered by a judge at a later date after Luster returns or is apprehended.

Diamond likened his client to film director Roman Polanksi, who was convicted of unlawful sex with an underage girl but never sentenced after he fled the country. “There was no sentencing in that case, although he has been nominated for an Academy Award,” Diamond said.

In court papers, Diamond suggested that if the judge were to sentence his client, the penalty be no more than three years in state prison. “The crimes do not call for a life sentence,” he said in court. “He is suffering. He is not someone who got away scot-free.”

But Riley rejected Diamond’s request to stay the proceedings and for a three-year prison term. Instead, the judge imposed a sentencing formula recommended by Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox.

Luster was convicted on charges that included 20 counts of rape by use of drugs, 17 counts of rape of unconscious victims, two counts of poisoning and four counts of drug possession. He was also found guilty of oral copulation by use of drugs and sodomy by use of drugs.

Rather than heap on prison terms for each count, Fox requested that Riley impose six consecutive years on each count of rape by use of drugs, plus four years on one poisoning charge, adding up to 124 years.

Riley also ordered Luster to pay more than $1 million to a state restitution fund for crime victims.

“The bottom line,” he said, “is Mr. Luster could be here today if he wanted to be, and he is not.”