A depraved pedophile who was sentenced to 350 years in prison for abducting and molesting his friend’s 5-year-old daughter may soon be freed under a woke California law — despite his victim’s family begging he be kept behind bars.
Charles William Mix was expected to die behind bars for kidnapping his roommate’s daughter and smuggling her over state lines into Utah in 2003, KABC reported.
“He befriended her father, gained everybody’s trust, groomed her, and then he stole a child out of her own home,” said the victim’s sister, Claira Stansbury, who was just 9 when her younger sibling was snatched.
Mix could now be freed under California’s progressive Elderly Parole Program, which protects elderly inmates, even those responsible for such vile crimes.
Although Mix was 49 at the time of his abuse, he has since turned 69, making him eligible for the soft-on-crime program that refers inmates over the age of 50 who have served 20 years of continuous incarceration to the board of parole hearings.
The victim, now 27, is still too traumatized to speak about her ordeal — with news of her attacker’s possible parole a fresh pain for her and her family, her sister said.
“We had moved on from it,” Stansbury told KABC. “We were healing from it, and now we have to dive back into it to try continue to keep him in prison.”
The victim’s family is imploring officials to keep Smit behind bars — saying that the victims should be the priority, not the welfare of fairly punished criminals.
“California’s legislatures are concerned with these criminals having life sentences and how is that fair to them,” said Stansbury. “What really needs to be talked about is the life sentences of the victims that they didn’t have a choice in.”
Stansbury’s sister was just 5 when she was abducted from her home in Riverside, California, on June 2, 2003, prompting an AMBER Alert before she was located the next day hundreds of miles away in Richfield, Utah.
Authorities discovered sexually explicit photos of the girl and love letters written by Mix — who later confessed to sleeping naked next to the girl, the outlet reported.
Mix was sentenced to 350 years in prison after being convicted on a variety of charges including willful child cruelty, kidnapping to commit robbery or rape, lewd acts with a child under 14.
Stansbury now plans to speak before the Board of Parole Hearings on her sister’s behalf.
“She’s tried a couple of times to speak to people about it, and she says, ‘It’s harder than I thought it was. I am just not ready yet, but please, I need you to do it,’” said Stansbury.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, also fighting the early release of Mix, slammed the decision as “appalling” and urged the state to stop forcing victims and their families to relive their trauma.
“Our office stands firmly with the victims who must attend parole hearings to keep dangerous felons in prison,” the DA’s office said.
“We have a team of dedicated attorneys and victim specialists fighting against the early release of dangerous felons. Our office is committed to protecting victims and seeing that this practice of early parole, is put to an end.”
Mix’s parole board hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25.
