Monster who raped and impregnated stepdaughter ordered to stay in jail after Newsom law offered early parole

A California pedophile who raped his underage stepdaughter and got her pregnant was ordered to remain behind bars — after he was previously recommended for early parole under a law supported by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Israel Ceja, 63, was set to walk free from San Quentin State Prison under Newsom’s elderly parole law granting freedom to older convicts, after a two-person panel from the state Board of Parole Hearings in January recommended early release from his 139-year sentence.

One of parole commissioners at the hearing who approved Ceja’s parole even acknowledged that the pedophile was still attracted to young girls, but said his sick thoughts could be overcome by prayer.

Ceja was the latest in a string of sickos set for early parole under the controversial 2020 legislation loosened by Newsom, prompting protests from victims and law enforcement officials.  

During Ceja’s January hearing, Parole Commissioner Neil Schneider mentioned the inmate’s plan to relocate to Mexico after his release, calling his intentions “authentic” and “very real,” according to Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.

Schneider also noted Ceja’s admission that he is attracted to young girls, saying it is something that could be managed with prayer, Reisig said.

Schneider couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, while a spokeswoman for Gov. Newsom declined to comment on the case.

At a press conference to protest Ceja’s parole last week, victim Roxanne Cruz, 42, tearfully begged the parole board not to release her tormentor.

“It’s not just little girls that he likes. He doesn’t care. He’ll go after little boys,” Cruz said.  

“I’m just afraid that this time, he won’t get caught,” she added. “Because he won’t leave me alive.”

The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office last month fired off a letter to the governor, urging him to reverse the parole panel’s decision to let Ceja walk.

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Newsom asked for a majority of the parole board to hear Ceja’s case.

A majority of the board reviewed the case on Tuesday and determined that Ceja will receive another parole hearing in the months to come to again determine his eligibility for release.

Reisig blasted the decision to give Ceja yet another opportunity for early release.  

“I don’t believe that child rapists are ever, ever appropriate for releasing back into the community,” Reisig told The Post. “Especially on this bogus elder parole nonsense.”

Ceja began molesting Cruz after he married her mother in 1993, according to Reisig. The girl was just 11 years old at the time.

The horrific abuse persisted for years until she fainted in public in 1999 and was taken to a hospital, where doctors learned she was pregnant. The fetus’s DNA identified Ceja as the genetic father.

The sick stepdad had even tried to induce a miscarriage by having the underage girl jump from their house, Reisig said.

Additionally, in 1999, Ceja pointed a gun at Cruz, accused her of looking at other men and then pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the weapon didn’t fire and she was able to escape. 

A Yolo County jury in 2000 convicted Ceja of forcible rape, assault with a firearm, child endangerment and lewd acts.  A judge sentenced him to 139 years in state prison.

The elderly parole law permits inmates who are 50 years or older and have served at least 20 years in prison, or those who are 60 and have served 25 years, to apply for early release. 

Convicts sentenced to death or life in prison without parole are not allowed.

Under the original law, inmates were eligible for elder parole only after serving at least 25 years of their sentence and reaching age 60.

Newsom revisited the rule in an effort to ease prison overcrowding starting in 2021

The new law sparked has fury statewide.

A state parole panel in November recommended Valley State Prison inmate Gregory Lee Vogelsang, 57, for early release after he molested more than five children in the 1990s and was sentenced to 355 years in prison for his crimes.

The board reconsidered the panel’s recommendation last month following public outcry, and a new hearing for Vogelsang is expected to be scheduled between July and September.

State corrections officials in February granted parole to one of Sacramento County’s most reviled child predators, David Allen Funston, who kidnapped and molested at least eight children in the mid-’90s.

Amid public protest against the decision, Funston was hit with fresh charges just hours before he was due to be released.

Ceja is still being held at San Quentin.