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Ceres sexual predator denied parole
• Crimes committed in Ceres between 1992 and 2001
parole board

Ronald Jerrell Inman, 63, of Ceres was found unsuitable for parole during an August 2 hearing of the State Board of Parole Hearings held at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad.

Deputy District Attorney Margot Roen appeared at the hearing and asked the board to deny parole. She also read a statement from one of his victims who is now an adult who recounted how Inman had stolen his innocence at an impressionable time of his life.

Between 1994 and 2001, Inman used his position as a school soccer coach in Ceres to gain the trust of several boys’ families to the point where their parents allowed him, alone, to take the minors to Raiders football games, ski trips and have them stay overnight at his home where he had the boys use his hot tub. Inman sexually molested several of those boys over the course of several years. One of the boys reported to police that his soccer coach had molested him starting at age 11.

When police searched Inman’s home they found over 100 images of child pornography on his computer. Inman initially denied all allegations.

On August 7, 2002, Inman was convicted by a Stanislaus County Superior Court jury of 14 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts with four different children under the age of 14, two counts of simple assault involving another young boy, one count of exhibiting harmful matter to a child and one count of attempting to exhibit harmful matter to a child. He was sentenced in 2002 to serve four consecutive life terms in state prison plus one year for the exhibiting harmful matter count. An appellate court upheld his conviction and sentence in 2004.

At his parole hearing Inman continued to deny that he had sexually molested one of the victims, a young boy he had fostered. Commissioner Schneider found much of Inman’s testimony to be implausible and called him a “predator” who showed “callousness like no other.” Schneider found that Inman lacked awareness and insight into his crimes, especially due to the fact that he refused to acknowledge that he “groomed” his victims prior to molesting them, and admonished Inman to stop acting like the victim because the boys were the true victims.

Deputy Commissioner Newman told Inman that he lacked any sort of remorse for his crimes. Both commissioners felt strongly that Inman had not made any significant changes since entering prison and had not even begun any attempts at rehabilitation. The Board concluded by denying release on parole for a period of five years.

This was Inman’s first parole hearing. Due to his age, he is eligible for elder parole consideration and may petition the Board for another hearing earlier than in five years should his circumstances support it.