Child Molester Denied Parole

District Attorney Jill Ravitch has announced that defendant Carl Hoyt Gibson, 89 years old and formerly of Sonoma, was denied parole on December 12, 2019, at a hearing at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s California Healthcare Facility in Stockton.

In 1994, Gibson, then 64 years old, was convicted in Sonoma County of 27 felony offenses related to the repeated sexual assault of a child between the years 1986 and 1993. Following Gibson’s convictions, he was sentenced to serve 68 years in prison, a sentence that seemed to guarantee the remainder of Gibson’s life would be in prison. The victim, who was 14 years old in 1994 at Gibson’s sentencing, believed she would never have to see Gibson again.

Due to recent changes in California’s sentencing and parole laws, Gibson was given an opportunity to be considered for release from prison prior to concluding his 68 year sentence. California now considers releasing any state prison inmate who is older than 60 years old and has served 25 years of their sentence. As a result of this change in the law, the victim received a notification from the prison that they would be considering releasing the man who committed crimes against her from when she was 6 years old until she was 13. The victim exhibited her bravery by attending the parole hearing at the Stockton facility along with a prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office. At the conclusion of the hearing, at which both the victim and the District Attorney’s Office requested the Board of Parole Hearings deny Gibson parole, the Parole Board issued a 3 year denial.

The parole hearing was attended by Deputy District Attorney Andrew Lukas. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department conducted the investigation underlying the case.