Oldest youth inmate soon to be released

Sometime in the next several weeks, Donald Gerald Schmidt, the oldest inmate in the California Youth Authority system, will likely learn when and where he will be released.
Schmidt, now 38, was convicted as a 17-year-old in 1988 of sodomizing and drowning 3-year-old Mariah Sivola in Lompico the year before. He has been imprisoned as a minor since.
Schmidt will soon go before the California Parole Board, which will likely decide to release him after two hung juries in 2009 failed to decide whether he has a mental illness that would make him dangerous if released.
Typically, the youth authority holds prisoners only until they are 25. Schmidt has been imprisoned in the youth system beyond age 25 under a special petition.
After the second hung jury last June, the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office decided not to try Schmidt again and agreed to release him with a three-year parole after he spent another year in the system.
“I’m very satisfied with the results in the fact he will be paroled to put all of this hard work into action,” said Santa Cruz public defender William Weigel, who has handled Schmidt’s case since 2000. “He’s been in treatment for decades.”
The conditions of Schmidt’s three-year parole are stringent. However, he is not required to register as a sex offender, because his crimes do not require it, according to California penal code section 290, Weigel said.
According to the terms of his parole, Schmidt must wear a GPS tracker. He must tell his parole officer about anyone he dates or is intimate with, so that the officer can tell the person about Schmidt’s history; he cannot use the Internet to look up pornography or communicate with minors; he must live in an approved halfway house and can’t move without permission; he cannot use alcohol or drugs; he must be tested for drugs; he must attend counseling for anger management, substance abuse and sex offender treatment; and he cannot be around minors.
Weigel said the parole board will decide where Schmidt will live during the term of his parole. He said the board usually looks at where a parolee has family or other connections and noted that Lompico is not likely to be the place.
“It is conceivable but very unlikely in this particular case.” Weigel said. “His only connection to this community is the crime.”