9th Circuit orders new sentencing for Long Beach rapist

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man sentenced to 254 years for sexually assaulting four women in Long Beach should be resentenced because he committed his crimes when he was 16, a federal appeals court decided Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals said a 2010 Supreme Court decision that barred life sentences for most juvenile offenders applied retroactively and to offenders sentenced to fixed-year terms.

Roosevelt Brian Moore, who had no prior criminal record, was sentenced after being found guilty in 1991 of attacking four women over a five-week period in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach.

The then-16-year-old was convicted of nine counts of rape, seven counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of attempted second-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree robbery, forcible sodomy, kidnapping with intent to commit a felony sex offense, genital penetration by a foreign object, and the unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle. The jury also found he used a firearm during the crimes.

Most members of a clinical psychological team that evaluated Moore before sentencing said he appeared capable of rehabilitation. One member disagreed, arguing there was no reason to believe he would not remain dangerous well into the future.

Moore challenged his continued incarceration after the Supreme Court rejected life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of crimes other than murder.

But a state appeals court said the decision did not apply to Moore’s case because he was sentenced to fixed terms for multiple crimes. A federal magistrate rejected Moore’s habeas corpus petition on the grounds the Supreme Court ruling was not retroactive.

The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit panel disagreed.

“Moore’s sentence guarantees that he will die in prison because the trial judge determined at the outset that Moore could not rehabilitate,” the 9^th Circuit said in a 3-0 decision. “Moore has now spent over half of his life in prison. Still, he has no hope of reentering society. His past and future efforts to reform are immaterial.”

The panel said Moore’s sentence was unconstitutional and at odds with the Supreme Court’s decision that most juvenile offenders be given “some meaningful opportunity” to re-enter society. Moore’s case will return to a lower federal court, which must resentence him to a term that provides a possibility of release.

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Twitter: @mauradolan

maura.dolan@latimes.com