‘Ski Mask Rapist’ denied parole after early hearing

George Anthony Sanchez, dubbed the “Ski Mask Rapist” for committing more than two-dozen Bay Area rapes in the 1980s, was denied parole this week after a pair of state policies — one new, one old — afforded him a hearing that victims complained violated the spirit of his 406-year prison sentence.

In being denied parole Wednesday, Sanchez will not get another hearing for seven years, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Sanchez, 58, was convicted in 1989 of 117 felony counts involving attacks on 25 women from1984 to 1987. He was evaluated by the state parole board under the Elderly Parole Program, a policy that became law two years ago aimed at moving old and infirm inmates out of prison if they are no longer physically or mentally capable of posing a public danger.

The elderly parole policy is intended to apply to offenders who reach age 60 and have spent at least 25 years in continual prison custody. But Sanchez, who is not yet 60, was also entitled to early parole consideration because the majority of his crimes occurred before age 26, qualifying him as a “youthful offender.”

One of Sanchez’s victims attended the Wednesday hearing at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, where he is being held, while another participated through audio conferencing. Five others submitted letters objecting to the idea of his release. Prior to the hearing, two victims told this news organization that the severity and depravity of Sanchez’s crimes — he ambushed and threatened his victims, ages 16 to 83, with a pellet gun resembling a real handgun — should exclude him from any chance of being freed.

“On behalf of the brave victims who came forward, and those who had to endure his physical torture and abuse and go through the trauma of having to relive it, we’re relieved he was not placed on parole,” Deputy District Attorney Steven Dick said.

Advocates of the Elderly Parole Program have said Sanchez is not representative of the policy’s target population, and that the law is meant to spare taxpayers from footing the bill for expensive in-custody medical care for frail inmates whose imprisonment is no longer protecting the public. Offenders who have been sentenced to death or life in prison without parole, or who have been convicted of certain crimes like murdering a police officer, are exempt from elderly parole consideration.

Still, Dick said there ought to be some re-examination of the policy to ensure that cases like Sanchez’s don’t qualify.

“Hopefully this will spur a discussion regarding the new youth and elder parole laws, and whether a serial rapist or child molester should be included in those statutes,” he said.