Sarah Kruzan was 11 when she met her pimp. Sarah was 11 years old–still a child–when she met G.G. The 31 year old stepped in as a substitute father. G.G. took Sarah and her friends–all still children–roller skating, and to the mall. When Sarah was 13 years old–still a child–G.G. raped her. And then G.G. sent this child onto the streets as his prostitute to work 12-hour shifts. She gave all of her money to her pimp for three years. Sarah was under 18, which means that she was raped nightly and repeatedly for three years. When she was 16, Sarah killed G.G.
The judge sentenced Sarah as an adult. She was 16–still a child–when she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Plus four years. For good measure, I guess.
I can’t find the details of the killing. But here’s what I do know:
Sarah was a child when she was first raped. Sarah was a child when she was forced to sell her body. Sarah was a child when the justice system determined that she couldn’t be rehabilitated. Sarah is now 29, and Sarah will die in prison.
Raping a child is not only illegal; it’s despicable. Rape is confusing to adults. Rape is also confusing to children. When an individual is confused, she may not be able to objectively look at her choices. Children don’t always know how to objectively look at their choices. Sarah was confused and unable to look at her choices.
As a society, we have said that adults are assigned the role of helping children make choices. G.G. was an adult. G.G. raped Sarah. The judge who sentenced Sarah was an adult. The judge decided Sarah could not be trusted to ever make appropriate choices. Sarah will never have the opportunity to choose how to live. Sarah will die in prison.
She was a child.
Oh my gosh this is so effed up. do you have some sources you could pass along?
also, i hafta say that this post is probably the answer the one above it about all the “what if”s
we NEED sane people with the credentials to help others! so take heart! and take yoga breaks if you need!
Great article.I had a friend of mine request the court documents about three weeks ago and we still have not been able to acess them.
The whole idea of putting kids in prison for life, is a cruel and unusual idea, and I hope we get some clarity with that, then she may be able to see some light here.
Let me know if you have any ideas on this case, so it can be over turned.
The only way to reverse this is if the people can e-mail the govenor and get the govenor to commute the sentence to something less. Listening to her, she sounds rehabilitated. So, keeping her in prison, couterdicts what prison is for! She sounds rehabilitated. Why not lock up the socail services people for life without parole! How about her school teachers too! Lock them all up! OR SET SARAH FREE!
Sarah’s 8th amendment right were clearly violated, and if her lawyers are unable to see that they are incompetent… i really would like to know who her lawyers were and who is this judge that decided her case.that judge took matters into his own hands and should be taken off the bench. i would also like to know if she had a jury and if she did how can they possibly find her guilty for gilling the man whose been abusing her all these yrs
MORE INFO, HOPE IT HELPS(her lawyer’s name is included):
More than 15 years ago, a slight 16-year-old girl killed her former pimp inside a Riverside motel room, shooting him in the neck with a pistol when he turned his back. She took $1,500 from his pocket and the keys to his Jaguar.
But prosecutors argued at trial that Howard no longer employed Kruzan at the time of the killing, and that a week earlier, she had moved into the Rubidoux home of one of Howard’s rivals — a drug dealer who put her up to robbing and shooting him.
On March 10, 1994, Kruzan agreed to go to the movies with the 36-year-old Howard and spend the night with him at the Dynasty Suites motel on Iowa Avenue. She packed a pistol.
“She seduced and she killed,” prosecutor Timothy Freer, now a Riverside Superior Court judge, told jurors.
Kruzan confessed to the slaying upon her arrest, four days after a maid found her purse left behind at the motel. But it was only when she testified at trial that she stated Howard’s rival had threatened her life if she didn’t shoot him, prosecutors said.
The district attorney’s office offered a plea deal that offered Kruzan possible parole but she refused, officials said then. Her defense attorney, David Gunn, also now a judge in Riverside, asked Hanks to consider a lesser sentence, citing her upbringing and life under a pimp.
It didn’t appear that anyone else, including any relatives, spoke in Kruzan’s support at her 1995 sentencing.
Thanks for the info. I think the hardest thing for me is that we took a child and decided that we no longer wanted her in our society, and decided that she couldn’t be rehabilitated. She’s right when she says that killings should be punished. There are just so many mitigating factors that I’m shocked she was so harshly sentenced.
Sarah’s lawyer now sits on the bench himself now as a judge in Riverside. At the time Sarah committed the murder she was not employed by GG but living with a rival of GG. Sarah’s new pimp requested that she go on a movie date with GG, spend the nite @ The Motel on Iowa Avenue in Riverside. There is where she rob him of $1,500.00 and killed GG by shooting him in the neck then took his Jaguar and left. She got caught because she left behind her purse by accident with all her ID. I am for the cause to FREE SARARH, however, punishment she should have received has been served. Sarah was offer a plea bargain with parole, however, against her advice of her attorney she turned it down.
hey i this this is horrible i would have done the same thing she did i saw her video and i feel bad for her is there any contact info for her so that me and my family could send her letters?
I don’t have any information about her or her inmate number or even where she’s incarcerated. If anyone has that info, please pass it on.
MS. SARAH KRUZAN
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA WOMEN FACILIY
P.O. BOX 1508
CHOWCHILLA, CA 93610-1501
i would like to make a potition to free her if anyone knows how to do something like that
http://criminaljustice.change.org/actions/view/support_freedom_of_trafficking_victim_sara_kruzan_2
The above is a petition for the release of Sarah Kruzan
Here’s a website that includes links to several different petition websites, as well as information on where Sara is incarcerated and where you can write to her if you wish:
http://www.freesarakruzan.org/
Ithink they need 2 let her out the man she kill was runing her life she did not no what life was she did not get a fair shot she need 2 be let go what type of laws is this 2 do this2 kills I say let het go she needs a fair one at life….
let her go free her this is not right.