VISALIA, Calif. (KMJ) — Parole has been denied for 68-year-old William Irvin for the 1994 sexual assault of a Visalia woman.
Irvin was convicted of breaking into the woman’s home after her husband left for work.
The woman was in the shower with her 3-year-old son while her infant was asleep in her crib.
The woman stepped out of the shower and was confronted by Irvin holding a kitchen knife.
He made her leave the 3-year-old in the show and raped her for nearly an hour in her son’s room.
When he was done, he made her shower in the other bathroom while he wiped down fingerprints.
Detectives were able to collect enough evidence to arrest Irvin at his home the next day.
He was convicted months later of penetration by a foreign object, five counts of forced oral copulation, first-degree residential burglary, assault with great bodily injury and a deadly weapon, sexual battery, and misdemeanor dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, and sentenced to over 343 years in prison.
Irvin possessed a number of prior criminal convictions, including a 1992 strike for assault with a deadly weapon against another female victim.
This was Irvin’s first parole hearing, which was granted under California’s Elderly Parole Program passed in AB 1448 (2017).
Under the law, inmates who are 60 years or older and have served 25 continuous years of their sentence are eligible for parole consideration.
A senior deputy district attorney argued against Irvin’s release in this case. The victim, her husband, and a TCDA victim advocate were also present during the hearing.
