Tesla driver who smashed cars with a pipe in incidents of road rage could be paroled early

The Tesla driver who became notorious for violent, pipe-wielding incidents of road rage through video captured by a victim may be back on highways sooner than expected.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón described Nathaniel Radimak’s “reign of terror” when he was charged in January 2023.

Now, the 37-year-old could be freed after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence, according to files from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation . His earliest eligible parole date is listed as August 2024, though the department noted the date was “subject to change.”

Radimak is being held at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, about 50 miles southeast of Stockton. The minimum- to medium-custody facility also serves as a training center for incarcerated people who aid in firefighting efforts.

He’s been there since Oct. 3, 2023.

Radimak was initially charged with four counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, four counts of criminal threats and one felony count of vandalism, along with two misdemeanor counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse.

He pleaded no contest and was eventually sentenced to five years for stalking and two years for criminal threats (served concurrently) in state prison in August 2023.

He’s credited with 424 days served awaiting sentencing — 212 days for time served and 212 days for good behavior, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.

In June 2022, Radimak threatened a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale, and then in November he threatened a woman at a storage facility in Atwater Village, Los Angeles County prosecutors said. That same day, he got out of his Tesla, threatened a woman on a freeway and broke one of her headlights.

On Jan. 11, 2023, prosecutors said, he struck another vehicle with a pipe on the 2 Freeway near York Boulevard, an incident caught on dash-cam video. He was also accused of following a car from a Pasadena mall later that day, nearly hitting it with his vehicle, then striking it with a metal pole.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .