John Albert Gardner III has been arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King of Poway, California. A body matching her description was found in a shallow grave about ten feet from the edge of Lake Hodges, where the teenager was last seen jogging Thursday. Authorities are also looking at Gardner in the disappearance of Escondido High freshman Amber Dubois, who was last seen in the same area February 13, 2009.
The case has sparked a great deal of debate because John Gardner is a convicted sex offender and was sentenced to six years in prison for “lewd or lascivious acts with child under 14 years,” for which he served five years and was released in 2005. Gardner was on probation until 2008.
Psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Carroll interviewed Gardner after the 2000 assault and said “It is my opinion that (Gardner) would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community” in court records. He also described Gardner as without remorse and “an extremely poor candidate for any sexual offender treatment,” according to the documents, and recommended he serve the maximum 30-year sentence.
But, the prosecution wanted to avoid having the 13-year-old girl testify in court so they accepted a deal for six years that would prevent the case from going to trial.
Press conference video of the announcement that a body was found:
Here are the court documents from Gardner’s 2000 case with detailed descriptions of the crimes committed by John Albert Gardner as well as the evidence that this was an remorseless monster that would more than likely commit more similar crimes in the future:
The People of the State of California (Plaintiff) Vs. John Albert Gardner
Date: August 24, 2000
Time: 1:30 PM
Dept: 31 (Hon. Peter Deddeh)Comes now the plaintiff, the People of the State of California, by and through its attorneys, PAUL J. PFINGST, District Attorney, and, David Hendren, Deputy District Attorney, and respectfully submits the following People’s Sentencing Memorandum related to the above-named defendant.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Defendant John Gardner was arraigned on the complaint on March 20, 2000. On April 11, 2000, a preliminary examination was held, and defendant was bound over for trial on all counts and allegations contained in the complaint, and defendant was arraigned immediately on the information.
On May 31, 2000, defendant pled guilty to two counts of Penal code section 288(a)(1) as stipulated lesser included offenses of counts one and two (Penal Code section 288(b)(1)), and one count four, false imprisonment, a violation of Penal Code sections 236/247(a). The balance of the information was dismissed, and neither the People nor the court made any agreements on representations with regard to the sentencing of the defendant.
STATEMENT OF THE FACTS
On March 16, 2000, 13-year-old eight grade victim (redacted) was waiting for the school bus with her friend, 14-year-old (redacted) Defendant, a former neighbor of victim’s who was a month shy of being 21-years of age, drove by and offered the girls a ride to school and the girls accepted. (Redacted) said that she decided to remain at school while (redacted) decided to go watch movies with John.
Defendant and (redacted) were the only ones home at defendant’s townhouse, and they began watching the movie “Patch Adas”. Defendant started giving the victim a massage, and began kissing her despite her refusals. Defendant then picked victim up, put her on the couch and began rubbing his erect self against her private parts. Defendant persisted despite the victim’s protestations. Defendant then picked victim up and brought her upstairs to his bedroom where he got on top of victim. The victim told him “I don’t want to do this” and defendant then eventually brought the victim back downstairs to the living room. Once there, defendant put his hand down victim’s pants on her buttocks. Defendant put the victim on the couch, began rubbing himself against her and touching her in private places. Defendant would not stop, and was trying to take victim’s pants off despite her repeated objections throughout these events. Defendant unzipped (redacted)’s pants, pulled them down, and pulled her underwear halfway down her thigh and forcefully prevented her from pulling her pants back up. Defendant said something to the effect of “you know what, I can’t take this anymore” and hit victim repeatedly in the face while rubbing himself and touching victim in her private area under her clothes and sucking her breast over her clothes.
(Redacted) said defendant “was suffocating me. He had his hand on my mouth, and I couldn’t breath[sic], and I got pretty fuzzy after he hit me, and I’m not sure if I blacked out.” The victim believes defendant put his hands over her mouth to stop her from screaming. Defendant repeatedly hit victim in and about the head. Victim was crying throughout this incident after defendant began hitting her. (Redacted) thought she was going to be raped, and eventually ran out the door with only one shoe on, holding her pants because she had not yet had a chance to zip them up, and ran to a neighbor’s house across the street that had its garage door open. As she did so, she saw defendant get into his vehicle and drive away.
The neighbor, Sue Jones, testified that (redacted) was terrified, and said she’s been raped. Mrs. Jones said, “I think it was (Redacted)’s left side of her face had all been beaten. It was all swollen, and I barely recognized her this morning [at the preliminary exam], and her pants were unzipped, and she was all kind of raggedy sort of.” Ms. Jones said (redacted) was “very upset, crying hysterically the whole time . . . [for] probably two hours, even when the cops were there.” Ms. Jones described the injuries to (redacted)’s face: “It was all just really, really swollen and enlarged and hadn’t gotten black and blue yet, but you could tell she had been hit.”
[The victim] suffered a laceration to the inside of her lip, a contusion under her left eye, bruising around the left eyelid area, numerous bruises on the left side of her head and face and another bruise behind her left ear. The area around the inner portion of her left thumb and palm was red and bruised, and there was a red mark on her neck.
Ms. Jones immediately called 9-1-1 at 9:58 a.m. on March 16, 2000, and the victim got on the phone and immediately stated how the defendant hit her and assaulted her, and identified defendant by first and last name as the perpetrator. The victim was still so traumatized when the police came, that she threw up in the presence of the police.
Defendant John Gardner was found at a nearby gas station and taken into custody approximately 19 minutes after the original 9-1-1 call was dispatched to the police.
