Andrew Stuart Luster (born December 15, 1963) is
heir to the
Max Factor
Max Factor is a line of cosmetics from Coty, Inc. It was founded in 1909 as Max Factor & Company by Maksymilian Faktorowicz.
Max Factor specialized in movie make-up. Until its 1973 sale for US$500 million (approximately $ billion in 2017 dolla ...
cosmetics
Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
fortune and a convicted sex offender.
He is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant
Max Factor Sr. In 2003 he was convicted of multiple sexual assaults using the date-rape drug
GHB
''gamma''-Hydroxybutyric acid (or γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also known as 4-hydroxybutanoic acid) is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter and a depressant drug. It is a precursor to GABA, glutamate, and glycine in certain brain areas. ...
.
Early life
Andrew Luster is the son of Henry Luster, a
psychiatrist, and Elizabeth Luster (née Shore). His mother was the adopted daughter of
Max Factor, Sr.'s daughter Freda.
He grew up in
Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malib ...
, and attended
Windward School
Windward School is an independent school in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It was founded by writer/teacher Shirley Windward in 1971. The school currently enr ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
After graduating, Luster moved to
Mussel Shoals, California, living on a $1 million
trust fund
A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the " sett ...
and living in a $600,000 cottage on the beach. According to the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
,'' this move and Luster's "freewheeling lifestyle" weakened his "already tenuous" ties to the Factor family, which was heavily involved in the arts and
philanthropy.
Sexual assault charges and conviction
In 2000, Luster was arrested when a student at a local college told police that she had been raped at Luster's home.
Upon investigation, police charged Luster with drugging three women with the date-rape drug GHB, sexually assaulting them, and video-taping the assaults, having found videotapes of the assaults when they searched his home.
After paying $1 million bail, Luster failed to appear in court to defend himself against the charges in January 2003.
Luster was convicted ''
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
'' and sentenced to 124 years in prison.
Luster's legal case earned major attention due to his family's wealth, and in January 2003 the FBI issued a warrant for
Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution. In June 2003, he was captured by American
bounty hunter
A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outsid ...
Duane "Dog" Chapman in
Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Both Luster and Chapman were subsequently arrested by Mexican police.
Luster was handed over to American authorities. Chapman's felony kidnapping charge was reduced to a misdemeanor, and his lawyer advised him to flee Mexico when he was released on bail.
[ Chapman later wrote that he believed his actions in Mexico were legal due to working closely with a Mexican police officer while in that nation, but the American judge in Luster's case refused to grant Chapman any reward or bond.][ Chapman also explained that during his pursuit of Luster, he consulted with "a forensic expert who specialized in sex crimes" who believed Luster's preference for raping unconscious, passive victims indicated a necrophile tendency that might lead to murder.]
The California Court of Appeal
The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts. refused Luster's appeal, citing that Luster had been a fugitive. Longstanding precedent holds that fugitives flout the court's authority, and thus forfeit their right to appeal. The California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
and the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
later refused to overturn this ruling.
Prison sentence and civil suits
Luster is currently incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California
Chowchilla is a city in Madera County, California, United States. The city's population was 19,039 at the 2020 census. Chowchilla is located northwest of Madera, at an elevation of .
The city is the location of two prisons: Central Califor ...
. Under California law, since his crimes harmed other persons, he is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence before becoming eligible for release with time off with good behavior. Had his original sentence stood, Luster would not have even been considered for release until he served 105 years—effectively a life sentence.
In late 2009, Luster filed a petition for ''habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'' as the final possibility of having his case reviewed by another court on appeal. Luster was represented in that suit by Jay Leiderman
Jason Scott "Jay" Leiderman (April 12, 1971 - September 7, 2021) was an American criminal defense lawyer based in Ventura, California. ''The Atlantic'' Magazine called Leiderman the "Hacktivist's Advocate" for his work defending hacker-activists a ...
and J. David Nick. The ''habeas corpus'' petition was granted in April 2012. On March 11, 2013, the Ventura County Superior Court vacated Luster's 124-year sentence but not his conviction, based on the trial judge's failure to state specific reasons for imposing consecutive sentences, and ordered a new sentencing hearing April 4, 2013.
On April 16, 2013, Ventura County
Ventura County () is a County (United States), county in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, California ...
Superior Court Judge Kathryne Stoltz reduced Luster's sentence to 50 years—48 years for the rapes and two years for the drug-related charges. Luster's lawyers have indicated there will be an appeal.
In 2016, opponents of California Proposition 57 released a brochure that stated that Luster could be released early due to the lack of clarity for what defines "violent crimes." In response to this brochure, California Governor Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...
told Fresno County
Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...
sheriff Margaret Mims that Luster was originally sentenced to 100 years in prison and was a registered sex offender, "and on both accounts would not be getting out." Brown's administration later clarified that since Luster would have to register as a sex offender, he would not be eligible for parole even if Proposition 57 passed.
Two of the victims won civil lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
s against Luster, who was ordered to pay a total of $40 million. Luster subsequently sold most of his property and declared bankruptcy.
Media portrayals
After Luster fled the United States, a movie based on his crimes, '' A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster'' was produced with the intention of aiding in his capture by ending with a photo of him, and a request for witnesses to his whereabouts to notify authorities. Because the film was in production when Luster was captured, the ending was re-written to incorporate his capture.
On August 28, 2009, the true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
TV Series ''Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice
''Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice'' is an American crime TV series that examined real-life cases of crime, passion, and greed involving privileged or famous people. The episodes were shown on truTV (formerly Court TV) and on Star ...
'' aired an episode on the case in Season 3, Episode 4, "Evil Deeds".
On August 31, 2017, Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...
aired the first episode of ''Guilty Rich'', which recounted the story of Andrew Luster's crimes, arrest, flight, and ultimate conviction and incarceration.
References
External links
Luster
crimelibrary.com
{{authority control
1963 births
21st-century American criminals
American people convicted of rape
American people convicted of sodomy
American surfers
Criminals from Nevada
Fugitives
Living people
People convicted in absentia
People extradited from Mexico to the United States
People from the Las Vegas Valley
Prisoners and detainees of California
Wealth in the United States