'That man is a monster,' California serial child molester granted parole. Victims are outraged

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A Sacramento man once described by a judge as “the monster parents fear the most” seemed destined to spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation in 1999.Instead he is now set to go free after being granted elderly parole — much to the anger and horror of some of his victims, as well as the prosecutor who oversaw his case.

“He shouldn’t be breathing the same air that we’re breathing at all,” one victim, who was kidnapped and assaulted when she was just 4 years old, told The Times in an interview.“I disagree with him getting paroled out because he’s a horrible person.

That man is a monster.”David Allen Funston approached children playing outside their homes in the Sacramento suburbs and used candy and toys to lure them into his vehicle in 1995 and 1996, prosecutors said.Following his conviction, he was sentenced to 20 years and 8 months in prison, as well as three consecutive sentences of 25 years to life.

Now 64, he is incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino.Under California’s elderly parole program, inmates are generally eligible for a parole suitability hearing if they are over 50 years old and have been incarcerated for at least 20 continuous years.The individual can then be released if the parole board determines they do not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.Funston was initially denied elderly parole in a May 2022 hearing, according to records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

However, he was granted parole at a board hearing in September, and that decision was recently upheld in a review Wednesday by the full board, CDCR records show.CDCR did not respond to a request for comment Friday on Funston’s estimated release date or on the Board of Parole Hearings’ rationale for deeming him suitable for elderly parole.But those ...