Sacramento County judge orders molester freed from prison

A Sacramento judge has ordered the release of an imprisoned child molester who has served more than 20 years on his 15-to-life term. Superior Court Judge Sharon A. Lueras issued her 17-page order on Wednesday in response to a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Robert Winston Precobb, a 55-year-old multiple offender. Precobb was convicted in Sacramento in 1988 on one count of molesting a victim under the age of 14. He received the 15-to-life sentence based on prior convictions in 1979 and 1980, in cases that involved victims who were 12 and 17 at the time, according to Lueras' order. In her ruling, Lueras found that a 2006 California Supreme Court decision changed the law underpinning one of those prior convictions that qualified Precobb for his 15-to-life term. The high court's decision found that non-forcible oral copulation with a 17-year-old boy - the facts of Precobb's 1980 case - can't be used as a predicate offense to trigger a life sentence. Lueras then resentenced Precobb to 14 years and four months - time he's already served - and ordered him released from Mule Creek State Prison.

source: Article 'Sacramento County judge orders molester freed from prison' by Andy Furillo; www.modbee.com/2010/02/26/1064936/sacramento-county-judge-orders.html; Modbee.com; 26 February 2010