The jury trial against Cameron Hooker is finally set to begin

SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. — After numerous delays and adjournments, the jury trial against Cameron Hooker is finally scheduled to begin on Friday in San Mateo District Court.

The two-week trial was originally scheduled to begin on March 29, but was postponed because the prosecution had to prepare a new report No. 6600 (Report on Sexually Violent Offenders).

Hooker is the convicted criminal in the infamous “Girl in the Box” case in Tehama County, which gained national notoriety at the time.

He was found guilty in 1985 and sentenced to 104 years in prison for the kidnapping and torture of Colleen Stan, whom he kept as a sex slave in a box under his bed in his Red Bluff home for seven years between 1977 and 1984.

However, due to changes in state legislation, this sentence was reduced.

The trial has been brewing for years, and after decades in prison, Hooker's fate is once again in the hands of a jury.

Prosecutors will try to convince the jury that Hooker is still a sexually violent offender. If they succeed, Hooker will remain in prison. Otherwise, they say, he will be released to a halfway house.