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Authors: Corey Mitchell

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According to numerologists, the number 8 also deals with everyday practical matters. It requires hard work and attentionto detail. The bottom line with the number 8 is that in order to get what you want out of life, you must reap before you sow.
People with the number 8 as their key number tend to be team leaders, but not the ultimate boss. They keep the ship running. Eights also view intimacy as a waste of time. There are more important things out there that need tending, they seem to think.
Others interpret it to signify death and resurrection: the infinitecycle. The infinity symbol can be both masculine and feminine energies that comprise a harmonious synergy betweenthe two. It may represent karma or the repayment of karma.
Possibly the most bizarre read is of the Ogdoad—eight deities who were the basis of the creation of Egypt. They were comprised of a masculine/feminine pairing and represent an “aspect of the primordial chaos out of which the world was created.” The gods are men with the hair of snakes, while goddesses have the heads of frogs.
Correctional Officer Concepcion Aguilar believed that Krebs owned a round black key chain with the number 8 on it.
Despite Krebs’s seemingly good behavior, he was no angel.
He was busted for having “pruno,” prison-generated alcohol,in his cell. He had an altercation with one of the female correctional officers. Some of the other guards mentioned that Krebs sulked quite a bit. If he got into a verbal disagreementwith one of the guards or one of the other prisoners, he would avoid a physical confrontation. Instead, he would dejectedlywalk back to his bunk bed and begin to fiddle with his belt buckles.
In 1996 Krebs moved out of the textile job into an even better gig. He became Officer Aguilar’s porter, or personal janitor. Every inmate wanted to be a porter. It was an easy job and one got to work alone.
Krebs’s hard work and good behavior would ultimately be a huge benefit to him.
THIRTY-THREE
On September 2, 1997, the California Board of Prison Terms granted parole for Rex Krebs. He had only served ten years of his twenty-year sentence.
The California Board of Prison Terms, according to its Web site (
www.bpt.ca.gov/home.html
), “conducts parole considerationhearings for all inmates sentenced to life terms with the possibility of parole, establishes terms and conditionsfor all persons released on parole in California, and conducts parole revocation hearings for violations of the terms and conditions of parole.”
The Board of Prison Terms also conducts hearings for prisoners who suffer from mental disorders and prisoners or parolees in “revoked status who meet the criteria for sexuallyviolent predator status.” The Board of Prison Terms also has the power to resentence some prisoners if they believetheir sentencing duration is not fair or is not harsh enough.
The Board of Prison Terms is comprised of nine commissionersappointed by the governor of California. Commissionerships are full-time positions that allow commissionersto travel around the state and participate on parole-hearing panels comprised of three representatives, two of whom must be commissioners.
According to the California Board of Prison Terms Web site, the board’s mission statement is “to protect and preserve public safety through the exercise of its statutory authorities and policies, while ensuring due process to all criminal offenders who come under the Board’s jurisdiction.”
This seemingly innocent, progressive mentality must be viewed under the harsh light of the reality of Rex Krebs’s potential for recidivism at the time of his parole. According to the Center for Sex Offender Management organization’s study entitled “Recidivism of Sex Offenders,” Rex Krebs would have been a perfect candidate for
not
being released back into society. The center’s study describes a process whereby the criminal justice system can determine whether a sex offender who is up for parole should be set free. The fear is that a paroled sex offender may commit a similar offense once faced with the temptations of the modern world.
The report cites a 1980 study, conducted by John Taylor and Vikki Henlie Sturgeon, which is a five-year follow-up on a 1973 study of mentally disordered sex offenders releasedfrom the maximum-security Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo, California. Their study indicatedthat ten of the fifty-seven rapists who were under supervision for the study were reconvicted of rape within five years.
Nineteen percent.
Most within the first year of their release.
Prisoners with no mental disorders were even worse. Nineteen of the paroled sex offenders, or 28 percent, were reconvicted of rape within the next five years.
Moreover, these are just the reported rapes.
Another study, conducted by the National Crime VictimizationSurveys, also spotlighted in the center’s study, pointed out the seriousness of underreporting the crime of rape. According to the results, only 32 percent of all sexualassaults are reported to the police. An additional study cited by the center showed that in a group of 4,008 women studied, of the women who reported that they were rape victims, 84 percent of them did not report the attack to the authorities.
According to the center’s study, there is a plethora of reasons why rape victims do not report:
• Further victimization by the offender
• Other forms of retribution by the offender or by the offender’s friends or family
• Arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of an offenderwho may be a family member or friend and on whom the victim or others may depend
• Others finding out about the sexual assault (includingfriends, family members, media, and the public)
• Not being believed
• Being traumatized by the criminal-justice system response
Such underreporting of rape would possibly skew the Sturgeonand Taylor numbers even higher that a paroled rapist will rape again. This information was available to the Board of Prison Terms when its commissioners released Rex Allan Krebs.
The Center for Sex Offender Management also offers a concise checklist to determine whether to parole a sex offender.A twelve-question checklist could easily provide information about the potential parolee to a parole board and help them make a clear, reasonable choice before granting parole.The characteristics to consider, according to the center, include:
• Multiple victims
• Diverse victims
• Stranger victims
• Juvenile sexual offenses
• Multiple paraphilias (or sexual fetishes)
• History of abuse and neglect
• Long-term separations from parents
• Negative relationships with their mothers
• Diagnosed antisocial personality disorder
• Unemployed
• Substance abuse problems
• Chaotic, antisocial lifestyles
Rex Krebs’s name could appear beside almost every single one of these criteria. Apparently, the Board of Prison Terms failed to use such a checklist when they decided to free Krebs.
The Board of Prison Terms made an egregious error ten years earlier in the case of Lawrence Singleton, convicted in 1979 for the kidnap, attempted murder, and brutal rape and maiming of fifteen-year-old Mary Vincent. Singleton hacked off both of Vincent’s arms at the elbow with a hatchet after he raped her. He left her to bleed to death in a ditch off the side of Interstate 5 in Del Puerto Canyon, California. Vincent somehow managed to crawl to safety and later acted as chief eyewitness against the sadistic rapist.
Singleton only received a fourteen-year-and-eight-month sentence for his crime. Incredibly, the Board of Prison Terms released him for “time off for good behavior.” The main reason the “good behavior” system is in effect is due to prison overcrowding. California prisons, such as CorrectionalTraining Facility in Soledad, are overflowing with nonviolent drug offenders. As a result, the parole board in California—inexplicably—occasionally releases potentiallydangerous recidivist criminals and rapists.
The decision by the Board of Prison Terms to release Singleton proved to be a fatal one. On February 19, 1997, less than seven months before Rex Krebs would go before the board, Singleton stabbed to death Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute from Tampa, Florida, his new home. The police found the nude geriatric Singleton covered in blood as he stood over the mutilated body of Hayes.
The Board of Prison Terms knew they were under scrutiny. Armed with the knowledge of the rate of recidivismamong rapists and the negative publicity because of the Singleton case, the board would make its decision on Rex Krebs.
Should they release the sex offender or make him serve out his twenty-year sentence?
Their final decision proved, again, to be fatal.
THIRTY-FOUR
On September 2, 1997, Rex Allan Krebs met with David Zaragoza, his parole officer, for the first time at the CaliforniaMen’s Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo.
The former inmate stepped outside of confinement for the first time in ten years.
Krebs had $375 in his pocket and an escort to boot.
Zaragoza drove to downtown San Luis Obispo, where he pulled into the dusty parking lot of the Motel 6, located on Calle Joaquin, off Monterey Street. He exited his Jeep Cherokeeand marched firmly to the motel lobby. He noticed the motel manager behind the counter and informed him that he needed a room for a paroled felon. Zaragoza glanced down at Krebs, who stared forlornly at his feet. His bald head stared back at the manager, who checked the register, spotted an open room, and informed the parole officer that he had one room available for one week. The cost would be $150. Zaragoza proceeded to room 101, checked it out from top to bottom for contraband, and gave it his approval.
Rex Krebs had a new home. Only for a while.
Within less than two weeks, Rex Krebs also had a new job. He answered an advertisement in the local newspaper for 84 Lumber, a national lumber company that sells wood products used for home building by exuberant do-it-yourselfers. Krebs filled out an application, hitched a ride to the store on South Higuera Street, and scored an interview with the store manager,Greg Vieau. Apparently, Krebs impressed Vieau enough to warrant a callback interview. Krebs also met with another store manager and the area manager. The three bosses were so impressed with Krebs that they asked him to come back for a second round of interviews, along with two other candidates.
Once again Krebs impressed Vieau. He got another callback.This time it came down to between him and one other applicant. The yard person position entailed brutal work. Whoever was hired would have to unload heavy stacks of wood early in the morning, place them on forklifts, and then transfer them to the company’s trucks for delivery later that same morning. Vieau believed Krebs to be a viable candidate because it appeared as if, physically, he could take care of himself.
The scrawny teenager from Idaho had bulked up in prison.
Krebs took to weight lifting in Soledad like a baby to candy. He was proud of his physique and could handle any physical chore. His biceps seemed to bulge out another five inches and his broad shoulders and flat abs were comparable to a
Rambo
-era Sylvester Stallone.
Vieau knew about Krebs’s criminal history. He did not care. He believed Krebs would be the right man for the job and called him in to offer him the position. When Krebs enteredVieau’s office, he believed he would receive bad news.
“I know why I didn’t get the job,” Krebs dejectedly and prematurely stated to Vieau.
“No, you got the job,” Vieau informed the parolee.
Krebs said nothing. Ten seconds later, a broad grin began to stretch across Krebs’s face.
That grin faded when Krebs arrived at his new job for the first time, on September 15, at 6:45
A.M.
Not because he was not excited about getting a job so fast, but because he knew it would be tough work. Nevertheless, he was up to the task.
Indeed, he began to enjoy the long twelve-hour workdays in the perpetually sunny climate of Central California. The strain on his body made him feel strong. The lifting of the bulky wood tested his muscles to their maximum capacity. The sweat flowed liberally from every pore in his body. He felt free again.
Alive, for the first time.
THIRTY-FIVE
Rex Krebs took the San Luis Obispo Transit bus to get to work in the beginning. One day he hopped on the bus and looked up at the female bus driver. Her name was Carol Nunes. She smiled at him and went on her way. After a few more encounters, she finally struck up a conversation with him. Nunes related to Krebs that one of her coworkers might be interested. “I know a girl who you might get along with. She’s real cute, about twenty-one years old. Her name is Roslynn Moore. We call her Roz.”
“When can I meet her?” Krebs asked with a sense of excitementin his voice.
“Where do you live? I’ll bring her over.”
“Motel 6, Room 101.”
Carol was as good as her word. She brought Roz with her to meet Rex at his motel room. Krebs immediately noticed the creamy coffee color of her mixed-heritage skin. The frail, bespectacled Moore appeared demure but inquisitive to Krebs. She weighed all of one hundred pounds soaking wet and stood 5’2”.
Much smaller than Rex.
This pleased him to no end.
Unlike Krebs, Moore had an education. Her interests as a young teenager were dance and visual arts. She dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina. She graduated from a creative/performing arts high school. Unfortunately, Roz permanently injured her knee. Dancing was no longer an option. She turned her focus to illustration. After she graduatedfrom high school, she attended the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She became disillusioned with the San Francisco art scene and made the decision to relocateto San Luis Obispo in July 1997. Some of her friends had bought a house in San Luis Obispo and invited her to join them. She agreed, packed her bags, and hit the road. As soon as she arrived, she found work with the San Luis Obispo Transit Authority as a bus driver.
A little over a month later, she met Rex Krebs.
That mid-September, Carol Nunes hit Roz up to go out with her. “C’mon, Wayne’s going to the football game,” she referred to her husband, Wayne Nunes. “We need to hit the town.”
“I don’t really want to do anything tonight,” Roz demurred.
“C’mon, we’ll have a good time.”
“All right,” Roz relented.
The two women drove over to Tio Alberto’s, a local Mexican-foodrestaurant, for dinner. As soon as they settled into their chairs, Carol began to talk about a man she met, whose name she could not remember. Carol explained to Roz that the man rode on her bus several times a week and that he had just gotten out of prison. Roz blanched at the mention of prison. Carol went on to explain that she had not seen the man in quite a while and was concerned.
“I remember he told me he lived in the Motel 6,” Carol continued.
“Which one—the one by Margie’s Diner?” Roz inquired.
“I don’t know, but we can check it out.”
The two women headed over to Motel 6, the one next to Margie’s Diner. Once inside the lobby, they asked the managerif he knew their man. He told them he did not, so they decided it must not be the right Motel 6.
They jumped into Carol’s car and moseyed over to the Motel 6 located next to the Denny’s restaurant on Los Osos Road on the southernmost tip of San Luis Obispo. Once again they asked the manager about Carol’s mystery man. The manager informed them that the man did indeed stay at the motel. He phoned the man up, told him there were two women looking for him, and asked if he wanted to speak to them. The manager hung up the phone.
“He’ll be right down.”
Sure enough, two minutes later, Rex Krebs appeared in the lobby. He said hello to Carol and nodded in Roz’s direction.
“Ya’ll want to come back to my room?” he plaintively asked.
Once back at Krebs’s room, Carol and Roz stood outside of his door and spoke with him for the next ninety minutes. Carol expressed her concern over not seeing him on the bus and that she was just looking out for him. Her husband was an ex-convict so she could sympathize with Krebs’s plight. Krebs told her he was doing fine. He appreciated her concern. The three spoke about themselves, their jobs, their hobbies. The girls gave him their phone numbers and told him to call if he ever needed any help. Again Krebs expressed his gratitude.He smiled at Roz as she walked away from in front of his room.
The next day, he called her.
“Hi, Roz, it’s me, Rex Krebs. From last night. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Rex. What’s going on?”
“I just wanted to see if I could come over and see you?”
Roz began to worry. She knew he recently got out of prison. But for what charges? “How about we meet for lunch instead?”
They agreed to meet at Taco Bell downtown. They spent the next two hours talking about their lives.
One week later, they began to hang out together even more. Soon they were in an intimate relationship. The skinny, mixed-race, artsy twenty-one-year-old bus driver and the muscled, short, white, bald thirty-one-year-old paroled rapist did not seem to be your usual pairing.

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