This week Guilty Rich examines the case of Andrew Luster, who was born into a life of privilege and thought he was above the law as he carried out a series of rapes.
Luster is the great-grandson of cosmetics magnate Max Factor, Sr., and should have been one of the heirs to the family fortune.
However, when he received his $1 million trust fund he moved to a $600K cottage by the beach and grew more distant from his family, preferring to party hard and surf than get involved in any of the philanthropic work the family are famous for.
He had the playboy lifestyle and seemingly not a care in the world, but in 2000 a young woman reported that she’d been raped by Luster at his cottage. When police investigated they found videos Luster of made of himself sexually assaulting three women, having first given them the date rape drug GHB.
He paid $1 million bail but then fled the country to Mexico where in June 2003 he was captured by infamous bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman.
Luster was convicted whilst on the run and sentenced to 124 years in prison. His subsequent appeals were thrown out since he’d held the court contemptuously when he fled its jurisdiction.
Under California law if your crimes harmed other people then you have to serve 85% of your sentence before you are eligible for parole. This meant that Luster would have to serve 105 years before he could ever get out.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelLuckily for him, his last throw of the dice in the form of a habeas corpus petition led to his sentence being reduced to 50 years in 2013. Meaning he could get parole from 2028, when he’d be 64-years-old.
Two of the women Luster raped also won civil cases against him and he was forced to sell all his belongings after they were awarded $40 million.
Guilty Rich airs on Thursdays at 10:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.