Shane Loomis
A Westlake Village man sentenced in February 2021 to four years in prison for killing a woman in a drunk driving crash has been paroled after spending 16 months behind bars.
Shane Loomis, 49, was freed from custody June 10, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A member of the department in a letter to the Gannon family shared with the Acorn said Loomis qualified for early release under Proposition 57, a ballot measure approved by California voters in 2016 that allows greater parole consideration for nonviolent felons and authorizes additional sentence credits for rehabilitation, good behavior and education.
“Per Prop 57 he qualifies to serve 50% (of his original sentence) and then, effective Dec. 28, 2021, he qualified to start earning 66% credit, so between that and all the credits (he was) able to earn for programming and taking courses, his projected release date works out to be in June,” the department said.
At the time of sentencing, Judge Bruce Young said Loomis would have to serve at least 80% of his term, or around three years. He served 33%.
Loomis, former president of the Ventura County Bar Association’s Family Law Bar, had a blood alcohol content over 0.18% when he lost control of his Porsche and drove off Erbes Road just before midnight March 16, 2019, killing his passenger, 38-year-old Amanda Gannon, and badly injuring himself. The legal BAC limit is 0.08%
Word of Loomis’ release did not sit well with family and friends of Gannon, a single mother from Hawaii who came to the mainland in 2010 to pursue a better life for her son.
At the time of her death, she was working as a supervisory officer for UBS financial services in Beverly Hills.
Amanda Gannon
“(Victims Services) sent me a letter saying that his tentative release date is June 11 or 12, but there wasn’t much information about what we could do about that,” said Virginia Gannon, Amanda’s mother.
“We’re very disappointed . . . in the system.”
According to the terms of his release, Loomis faces two years of parole. However, in a letter to the Gannons supplied to the Acorn, the Department of Corrections said his case will be reviewed in a year and Loomis could be discharged if he doesn’t violate parole or get in trouble.
After learning of the early release, the Gannons spent hours on the phone with the state to see if they could register their feelings on the matter.
Amanda’s father, Robert Gannon, said he would get passed from person to person, department to department.
“I never got to an end person. That’s just how it is . . . but he was sentenced to 48 months and the judge said he had to serve 80% of that.
“My math doesn’t work out to that,” Robert Gannon said.
Attempts to reach Loomis’ attorney were unsuccessful. Loomis not allowed to practice law.
Amanda’s son, Andrew “Paka” Sanborn, who was 18 at the time of his mother’s death, is doing OK, despite having lost his father a few months after Amanda died, the Gannons said.
Her family has established a scholarship for single mothers in her name through the University of Hawaii Foundation.
“We miss Amanda every day. Some days are worse than others,” Virginia Gannon said.