May 9, 2026 · Crime Problem · California · San Luis Obispo County

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Convicted Rapist and Murderer to Walk Free as Gavin Newsom Refuses to Stop Release

Alberto Tamez, Jr., 75, convicted of the 1974 rape, kidnapping, robbery, and murder of Genevieve Adaline Moreno in Nipomo, California, is eligible for release from California Men’s Colony after Governor Gavin Newsom (D) chose to take no action to reverse the California Board of Parole Hearings’ December 30, 2025 decision to grant him parole. The governor communicated that decision to the board on April 24, 2026 — the last day of his legally permitted review window.

Moreno was working the closing shift at Old Blues Bar, 605 West Tefft Street in Nipomo, when Tamez robbed her, kidnapped her, dragged her to a eucalyptus grove a quarter mile from the bar, beat her as she pleaded for mercy, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her to death. Her body was discovered at 5:35 a.m. on June 18, 1974. The San Luis Obispo County Medical Examiner, Dr. Karl Kirschner, ruled her death a homicidal strangulation, noting her injuries were “classical for those of homicidal strangulation.”

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow urged Newsom to use his executive authority to block the release. The governor did not. Fifty-two years after Tamez pleaded no contest to first-degree murder, the man who beat, raped, and strangled Genevieve Moreno while she begged him to stop is walking out of a California state prison.

• 1974year of crimeTamez robbed, kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and strangled Genevieve Moreno in Nipomo, CA
• 52+years incarceratedTamez, now 75, served more than five decades at California Men's Colony before the parole board granted his release
• Dec. 30, 2025parole grantedCalifornia Board of Parole Hearings voted to release a man convicted of first-degree murder, rape, kidnapping, and robbery
• Apr. 24, 2026Newsom took no actionGovernor communicated to the Board that he would not reverse the parole decision — the last day of his 30-day review window

Genevieve Adaline Moreno was an employee at Old Blues Bar on West Tefft Street in Nipomo. On the night of June 17, 1974, she was working her shift when Alberto Tamez, Jr. robbed her. What followed was not a sudden crime of passion. Tamez kidnapped Moreno, forced her from the bar, dragged her to an isolated eucalyptus grove roughly a quarter mile away, beat her as she pleaded for her life, raped her, and then strangled her.

Her body was found at 5:35 a.m. on June 18, 1974, in that grove beneath the eucalyptus trees. The San Luis Obispo County Medical Examiner determined she died of homicidal strangulation, documenting multiple injuries to her face, forearms, abdomen, and thighs. The forensic record left no ambiguity about what happened or who was responsible.

Tamez was charged on June 20, 1974 — two days after the body was discovered — with first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, and rape by force and violence. On September 3, 1974, he pleaded no contest to first-degree murder. On September 23, 1974, he was sentenced to life in state prison with the possibility of parole. His California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation number is B59801.

“She was robbed of her life, her dignity, and her future by a man who showed her no mercy.”

DA Dan Dow, San Luis Obispo County · May 2026

In April 2023 — nearly 49 years after his conviction — Tamez filed a petition under California Penal Code § 1172.6 seeking to vacate his murder conviction and be resentenced. District Attorney Dow’s office filed thorough written opposition, making clear to the courts that Tamez was not a peripheral figure in Moreno’s death — he was the sole and actual killer. Tamez withdrew that petition on July 9, 2025.

Five months later, on December 30, 2025, the California Board of Parole Hearings granted him parole anyway. Under the California Constitution (Article V, § 8, as amended by Proposition 89 in 1988), the governor has 30 days to review and potentially reverse a parole board decision in murder cases. Newsom is one of only two governors in the nation with that authority — California and Oklahoma are the only states where the governor can overrule a parole board on murder.

On April 24, 2026, the last day of that review window, Governor Newsom communicated to the Board that he would take no action. Tamez became eligible for immediate release from California Men’s Colony.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, along with Deputy District Attorney Ashley Cervera, filed comprehensive written opposition at every stage — first opposing Tamez’s 2023 attempt to vacate his conviction, then making the case directly against the parole grant. Dow’s office made the record clear: Alberto Tamez, Jr. was not a peripheral figure caught up in a legal technicality. He was the man who committed every act in that eucalyptus grove in 1974.

“I am deeply troubled that our criminal and victim justice system has reached a result where the man who brutally murdered Genevieve Moreno over fifty years ago will now walk free. My office fought this outcome at every stage — opposing his attempt to vacate his conviction, and making clear to the courts that Alberto Tamez, Jr. was not a peripheral figure or a legal technicality.”

DA Dan Dow, San Luis Obispo County · May 2026

Dow also stated that his office was “deeply disappointed that the Board of Parole Hearings granted parole, and that the Governor chose to take no action to reverse that decision.” Justice for Genevieve Moreno, Dow said, demanded that Alberto Tamez, Jr. remain incarcerated.

Under California’s constitutional framework, the governor’s power to intervene in parole decisions is limited — but it is not zero in murder cases. California Proposition 89, passed by voters in 1988 and codified in Article V, § 8 of the California Constitution, specifically grants the governor the authority to “affirm, modify, or reverse” a parole board decision for any inmate serving an indeterminate sentence for murder. The governor has 30 days to act before the decision becomes effective.

Alberto Tamez, Jr. is a convicted first-degree murderer. That puts this case squarely within the constitutional window in which Newsom could have acted. He chose not to. By contrast, in cases involving non-murder offenses — such as the home invasion rape conviction of Roberto Detrinidad, released from San Quentin in May 2026 — the governor genuinely lacks unilateral reversal authority under state law. The Tamez case is different. This is a murder conviction. The governor had the power. He used it to do nothing.