CHELSEA KING - 17 yo - Poway/Rancho Bernardo CA

From Cindy Adams at Examiner.com

Chelsea King news: Accused killer John Gardner had MySpace
page, violating parole rule
The convicted sex offender accused of raping and murdering San Diego
teen, Chelsea
King, maintained a MySpace page, violating one of his rules of
parole.
Chelsea, 17, disappeared near Lake Hodges on Feb. 25 and her body was
found several days later in a shallow grave near the lake. John Gardner
has been charged with her rape and murder, but pleaded not guilty at his
arraignment.
Read the entire article at: http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2010m4d1-Chelsea-King-news-Accused-killer-John-Gardner-had-MySpace-page-violating-parole-rule

The social networking site MySpace
says it removed the profile of John Albert Gardner III, a convicted
child molester who is charged with killing a 17-year-old San Diego area
girl. The company said Thursday that Gardner used a false name, false hometown
and false birthday to register for the account. MySpace confirmed it
was his site by working with the FBI and San Diego County Sheriff's
Department. A copy of the profile uses the names Jason Stud and Energizer Bunny. It
lists Playboy Mansion as his hometown, uses sexually explicit language
to describe his interests, and lists ''CSI'' and ''Bones'' among his
favorite television shows. MySpace says Gardner set up the account in December 2007, nine months
before he ended parole.

Parole officers should have done a better job watching a paroled California sex offender, but closer scrutiny
may not have stopped the murder of one teenage girl and the assault of another
woman, a draft report released Thursday said.

Even if suspect John Albert Gardner III had been sent back to prison for one
of his repeated parole violations, he would not have qualified as a sexually
violent predator, according to the report to the California Sex
Offender Management Board.
That contradicts previous statements from mental health officials who said
Gardner would have been strongly considered for commitment to a mental health
hospital.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked
the 18-member board of law enforcement officials, victims and treatment
providers to investigate why Gardner was classified as low-risk and not punished
for the seven parole violations.The board began discussing the report Thursday. Its final report to the
governor is due by the end of the month.
Gardner, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King of Poway, whose body was found in a park last month,
and to the attempted rape of another woman in December.
He is being investigated but has not been charged in the death of 14-year-old
Amber Dubois of Escondido, who disappeared in February
2009.
The report pointed out that those crimes occurred after Gardner has been
released from parole and was under no formal supervision.
Even while Gardner was on parole, "it is unlikely that a revocation would
have changed anything with respect to the crimes that Gardner is now charged
with committing," the report said.
However, it acknowledged that parole agents had failed to review whether
Gardner should have been reclassified as a high-risk offender after he was found
living too close to a school and daycare center while on parole.
They also should have immediately required him to move farther away instead
of letting him live nearby for nearly two years, the report said.
His location could have been enough to send Gardner back to prison, but the
parole board decided to keep him on parole for the remainder of his three-year
term, which ended in 2008.
Authorities also could have sought parole revocation after Gardner was cited
for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana in 2008, the report said.
"There was an opportunity to potentially violate his parole," said board
member Pamela King of the San
Bernardino County Public Defender's Office. "They had that opportunity for
an extended amount of time and they chose not to violate."
The report was prepared by Deputy Attorney General Janet Neeley and
Robert Ambroselli, director of the
state Division of Adult Parole Operations, which supervised Gardner for three
years after his release from prison in 2005. Gardner spent five years in prison
for molesting a 13-year-old neighbor girl in 2000.
Most of Gardner's parole violations were considered technical, including four
for letting the battery on his ankle bracelet run low and one for missing a
meeting with his parole officer.
Other violations surfaced later, including his use of a social networking Web
site.
The report called on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to
devise new policies for deciding which offenders should be banned from the
Internet and better ways to track violations.
The 19-page draft report said Gardner would not likely have been classified
as a sexually violent predator and been sent to a state mental hospital because
the molestation he committed in 2000 involved a victim he knew, not a
stranger.
Still, the report said California should provide treatment to sex offenders
in prison and after their release, and follow the model of other states by
requiring sex offenders to periodically undergo polygraph tests.
In addition, there should be more money for local law enforcement to help
supervise offenders, and better communication with local agencies to catch
potential violations, several of which were missed in the Gardner case, the
report said.
It also questions whether tracking Gardner's movements with an electronic
device after he was released from parole supervision would have made a
difference. It cites research that GPS tracking can help solve crimes but rarely
prevents them.
"There is no crystal ball and you cannot prevent every crime from occurring,"
King said.

The parents of slain Poway High teenager Chelsea King – who
authorities contend was killed by a Lake Elsinore convicted sex offender
— and a state assemblyman unveiled a proposed law in Sacramento today
to strengthen penalties for forcible sex crimes and tighten monitoring
of offenders.
Chelsea, a cross-country runner, was out for an after-school run near
Lake Hodges Feb. 25 when she was allegedly raped and killed by
convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III of Lake Elsinore.
Her parents, Kelly and Brent King, went to the state capital
accompanied by Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego.
“Today is the day we start our race,” Brent King said at a news
conference before departing. “It’s a race Kelly and I didn’t choose to
run in. We were selected to run in it.”
Tonight, supporters will take a bus to join them. The 57-passenger
bus will leave from North County Fair at 7 p.m. and will return around 7
p.m. Tuesday, according to King family spokeswoman Sara Muller
Fraunces. The ride is free, but the King family is asking for donations
to tip the driver, she said.
On Tuesday, the Kings and their supporters are expected to carry more
than 1,000 sunflowers onto the east steps of the capitol. The 11:45
a.m. event, dubbed Sacramento Sunflower Ovation, was organized via
Facebook and timed to coincide with the formal introduction of Chelsea’s
Law.
Chelsea’s Law would mandate stricter sentencing guidelines for
violent sex offenders and institute more intensive monitoring of
parolees. The bill calls for mandatory life sentences for certain
violent attacks and life-long GPS tracking.
The measure would fill gaps in existing law, San Diego County Sheriff
William Gore said at the news conference.
“It allows us to hopefully deter these people from making further
crimes, but if they do it helps us make a quick apprehension.”
Chelsea — a straight-A student, athlete and musician — was found in a
shallow grave five days after she was reported missing.
Gardner, 30, had been staying with his mother in Rancho Bernardo,
near where Chelsea was slain.
Ten years ago, Gardner pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a
13-year-old neighbor girl at his mother’s home in Rancho Bernardo.
A psychiatrist recommended Gardner receive the maximum sentence of 30
years in prison, but the District Attorney’s Office made a plea deal to
spare the victim from testifying at trial. Under that deal, Gardner
served five years of a six-year sentence.
Since Gardner’s arrest in Chelsea’s case, state corrections officials
have revealed that Gardner racked up seven parole violations during the
three years he was on parole from the 2000 attack but none were
significant enough to send him back to prison.
Detectives are also looking at Gardner in the disappearance and
apparent murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, whose body was found March 6
— more than a year after she was reported missing after last being seen
walking to Escondido High School.
A preliminary hearing for Gardner in Chelsea’s killing is set for
Aug. 4.
The bill introduced by Fletcher calls for life imprisonment without
the possibility of parole for any forcible sex crime against minors that
include one or more aggravating factors, including the age of the
victim, whether a kidnapping substantially increased the risk of harm,
the perpetrator has a previous forcible sex crime conviction, and
whether he tied, bound or drugged the child.
The measure would also double the maximum penalty for a forcible sex
crime to 16 years in prison, prohibit a convicted sex offender from
entering a public park where children regularly congregate without prior
approval of a parole agent, double the period of parole to 10 years for
all forcible sex crimes, and establish lifetime parole and GPS
monitoring for offenders who
commit such crimes against children under 14 years old.

With two teary-eyed mothers looking on, sex offender John Albert
Gardner pleaded guilty Friday to murdering their teenage daughters after
prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.Gardner, 31,
faces life in prison without parole for killing 14-year-old Amber Dubois
and 17-year-old Chelsea King in San Diego County.He also pleaded
guilty to attempting to rape another woman who was jogging in San Diego
and waived his right to an appeal.Gardner, wearing a dark blue
jail jumpsuit with his shackled arms hanging at his sides, said nothing
but "yes" repeatedly as the judge asked him for his pleas.Parents
Brent and Kelly King, and Maurice Dubois and Carrie McGonigle were in
the courtroom to hear the admissions. Kelly King and McGonigle were
teary-eyed throughout the proceeding. Sobbing could be heard when
Gardner entered his pleas.District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said
Gardner led investigators to the skeletal remains of Dubois two days
after authorities charged him with the murder of King. He did so on the
condition that prosecutors not go public with the information or use it
against him in court."This was a somber decision," Dumanis said.
"To end the anguish of the unknown for the Dubois family and to bring
Amber home, we agreed."Officials, however, retained the ability
to use any evidence obtained from the crime scene to build their case.Escondido
police and crime lab technicians worked round-the-clock to find
evidence linking Gardner to the killing of Dubois, but Dumanis said they
did not succeed.Dubois vanished in February 2009, and the
investigation produced few solid leads until King disappeared Feb. 25
during an afternoon run in a San Diego park about 10 miles south of the
site where Dubois vanished.Gardner was arrested three days after
King disappeared. He initially pleaded not guilty to her killing.In
a surprising turn, Gardner admitted Friday to kidnapping, raping and
stabbing Dubois. He also admitted dragging King to a remote area where
he raped, strangled and buried her.Gardner offered to plead
guilty to both murders if prosecutors agreed to not seek the death
penalty."Accepting this plea has been an extremely difficult
decision," Dumanis said after the hearing. "We have the evidence to
pursue a murder charge against the defendant for Chelsea's murder, but
not for Amber's murder."Prosecutor Kristen Spieler told the judge
the victims' families agreed to the plea agreement.Brent King,
Chelsea's father, said his family wanted to spare their 13-year-old son
the drama of a protracted trial and appeals process, which prosecutors
said could drag on for decades."There's nothing satisfying about
this moment. It is only one more unbearably painful day that we will
have to carry in our memory as long as we live," Brent King said.The
Kings also wanted to help the grieving family of Dubois."While
our unequivocal first choice is the death penalty, we acknowledge that
in California that penalty has become an empty promise," he said.Later
he added: "The Dubois family has been through unthinkable hell the past
14 months. We couldn't imagine the confession to Amber's murder never
seeing the light of day, leaving an eternal question mark."Sentencing
was set for June 1.Defense attorneys left the courtroom without
talking to reporters.Chelsea King's body was discovered March 2
in a shallow lakeside grave after a massive search. Prosecutors said
Gardner was linked to the crime by DNA found on her clothing.The
bones of Dubois were discovered March 6 in a rugged, remote area north
of San Diego, a day after Gardner led authorities there. She vanished
with a $200 check to purchase a lamb she was going to raise for Future
Farmers of America. The check was never cashed.Gardner served
five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2000 to molesting a
13-year-old neighbor girl. Records show he later violated parole by
moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free.Gardner's
history of parole violations has led to calls to strengthen
California's already stringent laws on sex predators.Brent and
Kelly King, the victim's mother, have traveled to Sacramento to announce
the introduction of "Chelsea's Law," which would send some child
molesters to prison for life after a first conviction and monitor others
with tracking technology until they die.

Chelsea King no doubt died a terrible death.
Now her parents are trying to keep many of those details from the
public, specifically the media, as they have retained an attorney to
help keep some case documents secret.

Sara Muller, a spokeswoman for the family of the murdered Poway High
student, said Tuesday the action was in response to efforts by the media
to acquire records.

The Kings hired Pat Swan, a former federal criminal prosecutor, who in
turn met with Judge David Danielsen and several other attorneys in
private Tuesday to ask for an emergency order that would keep the
details surrounding the Poway teen's death a secret.

According to the family, media outlets
have asked the San Diego County Superior Court to remove a gag order
barring authorities from discussing the evidence and release
records tied to search warrants. Chelsea's parents claim they want the
records sealed to preserve her dignity.

Attorney Guylyn Cummings, who represents a couple of media
outlets, attended the meeting and stated the argument would essentially
take away the public's right to know.

"It's an interesting issue because when people are victims of crime, the
details generally become public," Cummings noted.

Sex offender John Gardner pleaded guilty April 16 to the murders of
Chelsea and 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido.
King went missing in late February after an after-school run at a Rancho
Bernardo-area park. Her body was discovered days later. Amber's remains
were found in March, more than a year after she disappeared, with
Gardner reportedly leading authorities to her body.

The following statement was made public Tuesday on behalf of the King
family:

"Attorney Swan will advocate for suppression of certain documents
under victims' rights statutes. This action has become necessary in
response to efforts by some media outlets to obtain the release of all
records related to Chelsea's death, which runs counter to the King
family's wishes to honor their daughter's memory, and to allow the
community to heal."

A man who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering two San Diego-area
teenage girls said in his first interview since his arrest Thursday that
he was overcome by rage and couldn't control himself.
John Albert Gardner III also sidestepped a question from
a reporter on whether he targeted others, laughing off the
question as a "good try" .
Gardner pleaded guilty April 16 to murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King and
14-year-old Amber Dubois in a deal with prosecutors that spared him the
death penalty. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 14 to life in prison
without parole."I was aware of what I was doing, and I
could not stop myself," he said in a telephone interview that aired
Thursday. "I was in a major rage and pissed off at my whole life and
everyone who had hurt me and hurt the wrong people."Gardner,
31, said his lawyers pushed for the plea agreement and that he never
cared about being sentenced to die."I hate myself, I
really do," he said. "There is no taking back what I did and if I could,
yes, I would. Are you kidding me? But I was out of control. If I was
able to stop myself in the middle of it, I would have, and I could not. I
was out of control."Chelsea's body was found March 2 in a
shallow, lakeside grave, five days after she was attacked running in a
San Diego park. Gardner was arrested three days after Chelsea
disappeared, linked to the crime by semen found on her clothing.Gardner
led authorities March 5 to Amber's remains in a remote, rugged area
north of San Diego, more than 13 months after he abducted her while she
was walking to school in suburban Escondido."I had no
promises and I showed them where Amber was because I felt bad," Gardner
said. "I had no promise of any deal when I did that."San
Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has said Gardner led authorities
to Amber's remains on condition that the information not be used against
him in court. Investigators were unable to link Gardner to the crime
independently, a major reason that Dumanis agreed to take the death
penalty off the table in exchange for his admission of guilt.Gardner
said he would discuss details of how he killed his victims only with
their families, if they ask.Gardner served five years of a
six-year prison sentence for molesting a 13-year-old San Diego neighbor in 2000.

Police believe a registered sex offender stalked a young woman about a
year before his arrest and guilty pleas in the rapes and murders of two
Southern California teenage girls, according to search warrants
unsealed Wednesday.A police officer in Escondido identified John
Albert Gardner III as the driver of a gray vehicle that followed a woman
on April 2, 2009, the documents state.The woman, perhaps 20
years old, had flagged down the officer for help and said the driver had
been following her all day for no reason.The woman left the area
before the officer could ask more questions. She has never been
identified."The officer quickly contacted the vehicle as it tried
to depart the area and identified the driver as Gardner," the warrant
said without elaborating.The warrants also said there were other
incidents involving Gardner and his "association" with teenage females,
including one in Escondido, perhaps in February, the same month Gardner
killed 17-year-old Chelsea King.The documents did not elaborate
further on that issue.Gardner, 31, will be sentenced to life in
prison without parole on May 14 after pleading guilty to raping and
murdering King and 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who vanished while walking
to school in Escondido in February 2009.Lt. Craig Carter, a
spokesman for Escondido police, did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.Gardner was registered to live in the north San
Diego suburb from August 2008 to January 2010. He was released from
prison in 2005 after serving five years of a six-year sentence for
molesting a 13-year-old San Diego neighbor. He completed parole in
September 2008, seven months before the alleged stalking incident.Marc
Carlos, a San Diego criminal defense attorney, said the suspected
stalker could potentially have been charged, or at least detained, if
the victim identified him. Without that, prosecutors would be unable to
link him to the crime."It was a missed opportunity not because of
the police but because the female didn't stay around," Carlos said.
"What proof do they have that it was him?"The warrants — unsealed
by Superior Court Judge Richard Whitney on a request by news
organizations including The Associated Press — said investigators turned
up no evidence in a search of Gardner's phone records after King
disappeared Feb. 25 while running in a San Diego park.A search
warrant unsealed last week said an 11-year-old girl told San Diego
police a man followed her home from school the day before Gardner killed
King.Gardner, in an interview that aired last week on KFMB-TV,
sidestepped a question on whether he targeted other victims."Good
try," he said and laughed.The newly unsealed warrants said
Gardner worked from August 2007 to October 2009 for Can-Do Electric
Inc., an El Cajon company.Bob Cantrell, president of the company,
said Gardner worked as an electrician and was well-liked by his
co-workers. He was hardworking, spoke up at training sessions and
improved his skills during his time at the company."Our hearts
are broken over the entire situation," Cantrell said. "We're praying for
the families of the girls and for John and hoping the healing can get
started."

A sex offender who admitted murdering two teenage
girls was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday after crying
as the victims' families denounced him, the legal system and his
mother.
John Albert Gardner III received two consecutive life terms without
possibility of parole for murdering Chelsea King, 17, and Amber Dubois,
14, and a third life term with a 25-year minimum for the attempted rape
of Candice Moncayo, a jogger who escaped by smashing him in the nose
with an elbow. Gardner, 31, breathed heavily and cried at times
during emotional statements by the girls' parents and Moncayo before
Superior Court Judge David Danielsen pronounced the sentence.
Carrie McGonigle, Amber's mother, said there were not enough words to
describe her "minute-by-minute agony." "I've thought often about
her final moments," she said of her daughter. "Was she scared? Was she
calling my name?" Addressing Gardner, she said: "Most of all I'm
confident that you'll never make it to heaven." Gardner avoided
the death penalty by reaching a plea deal with prosecutors. His guilty
plea last month has sparked a far-reaching review of how California
deals with sex predators, a campaign that advocates hope to take to
Washington and state capitals. Calls to stiffen penalties for
child sex offenders began almost the moment Gardner was arrested Feb.
28, three days after he attacked Chelsea while she was on an afternoon
run in San Diego, strangled her, and buried her in a shallow, lakeside
grave. Amid their anger, the girls' parents spoke lovingly of
their daughters on Friday. "Chelsea was everything this man was
not," said her father, Brent King. "She was as good as this man is
evil." Impact statements from the families also faulted the
justice system for not keeping Gardner confined after an earlier assault
on a girl, despite a dire warning in a psychological report. Family
members also blamed his mother, Catherine Osborn, who was seated in
court. "She knew what you were capable of and did nothing," said
Kelly King, Chelsea's mother. Gardner served five years of a
six-year prison sentence for beating and molesting a 13-year-old girl in
San Diego in 2000. He faced a maximum of nearly 11 years in prison, but
prosecutors called for six years. A court-appointed
psychiatrist urged the maximum sentence allowed by law. He said in court
documents that Gardner was a "continued danger to underage girls" and
"an extremely poor candidate" for treatment. Maurice Dubois,
Amber's father, read the report by psychiatrist Matthew Carroll during
his impact statement. He likened his daughter's killer to a
mountain lion whose instincts are to stalk and attack. If the zookeeper
frees the lion from captivity, he asked, who is responsible for the
killings that come after? The case has put California's parole
system under the microscope. Gardner lived little more than a
football field's length from a San Diego preschool for at least 16
months while on parole from 2005 to 2008. That violated a condition of
parole that prohibited him from living within a half-mile of a school. A corrections department official let him stay until his lease expired
in 2006 but no one noticed he was still living there until a year later.
The parole board could have sent him back to prison but kept him on
parole, where he had six other less serious potential violations. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered a state board to review the
parole system. Brent and Kelly King are leading a campaign for
"Chelsea's Law" to allow life sentences for some convicted child
molesters in California and lifetime electronic monitoring of others.
The bill, which cleared its first legislative committee last month,
would also ban sex offenders from parks. Chelsea was a
straight-A student who ran on the cross-country team in suburban Poway,
played French horn in a youth symphony and was active in her school's
peer counseling program. The discovery of Chelsea's
semen-stained clothing during a massive search quickly led authorities
to Gardner. Days later, he led investigators to Amber's remains in a
remote, mountainous area north of San Diego. The investigation
into Amber's disappearance had gone nowhere since the Future Farmers of
America member disappeared walking to school in suburban Escondido in
February 2009. Gardner led authorities to Amber's remains on
condition that the information not be used in court. Investigators were
unable to independently link him to the crime, and his guilty plea to
that murder was a big reason why the death penalty was dropped.
Gardner also pleaded guilty to attempting to rape the jogger on Dec. 27,
near the spot where he attacked Chelsea.

Authorities are set to speak publicly about the sex
offender who raped and murdered two teenage girls and the
investigation that led to his capture and conviction.San Diego County's district attorney, sheriff and
other law enforcement officials are holding a news conference Monday to
answer questions about John
Albert Gardner III, three days after he was sentenced to life in
prison.The officials have remained largely silent about the case
so far, even after a judge lifted an order that had prohibited them from
discussing it publicly.

On Friday, the 31-year-old Gardner received two life terms without
possibility of parole for murdering 17-year-old Chelsea
King and 14-year-old Amber Dubois. He got a third life term with a
25-year minimum for the attempted rape of Candice Moncayo, a jogger who
escaped by smashing him in the nose with an elbow.

A man who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering two teenage girls
admitted involvement in other "assault-type" crimes but did not
implicate himself in additional killings, authorities said Monday.John
Albert Gardner III spoke with investigators for more than two hours
after he was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility
of parole for the attacks on 17-year-old Chelsea King and 14-year-old
Amber Dubois, San Diego County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos said."He
didn't shed a lot of light, but he did speak about other cases," said
Brugos, who declined to elaborate about victims or provide other
details.The remarks came during a news conference involving a
number of San Diego County's top law enforcement officials who had
repeatedly refused to answer questions about the case since Gardner, 31,
was arrested Feb. 28 in suburban Escondido.Sheriff Bill Gore
said the news conference was intended to fill in the blanks, but
authorities revealed little new information about the case that sparked
widespread calls to change the way California tracks and punishes child
sex predators.Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher did acknowledge a
misstep after an officer was flagged down by a woman motorist who
reported she was being followed by a man in a nearby Ford Focus.The
officer approached the car and questioned Gardner, who was with his
girlfriend's 3-year-old son. However, the officer didn't pursue the
stalking report further because the woman left the scene and has never
been identified.Gardner was cited for driving with an open
container of alcohol in the April 2009 incident, but the information was
not given to detectives investigating the disappearance of Dubois
nearly two months earlier while she was walking to school."Revisiting
this, it certainly would have been better if the officer had made
personal contact with the detective," Maher said. "He didn't."Neighbors
had described seeing a red truck near the spot where Dubois vanished.
But Maher noted that Gardner was not driving a red truck when he was
cited for having the open container.The officer "did everything
he could under the law," Maher said.Gardner, a registered sex
offender in Escondido at the time, didn't become a suspect in the Dubois
case until he was arrested nearly a year after her disappearance by
police investigating the King abduction.Days after his arrest,
Gardner led authorities to the remains of Dubois in a rugged area north
of San Diego.Also Monday, San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins
defended his department's response to a jogger's report that she was
tackled by a man in December near the spot where King was attacked two
months later.Some critics have said police should have done more
to alert residents about the first attack, which was initially treated
as an attempted robbery because the assailant demanded money.Gardner
pleaded guilty to attempting to rape the jogger, who escaped after
smashing his nose with her elbow and later spoke at his sentencing
hearing.Collins said police attempted to have the jogger meet
with a sketch artist, but there were scheduling conflicts on both sides
before she returned to college in Colorado.Police collected DNA
from the woman's elbow that was tested after King disappeared but showed
no link to Gardner, police said."We didn't have a lot of
information on the suspect," Collins said.King's disappearance
unleashed a massive investigation in which the FBI said it searched 363
homes near the park with the consent of residents.Authorities
declined to detail how Gardner abducted King and Dubois.Carrie
McGonigle, the mother of Dubois, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning
America" and said Gardner told her in a jailhouse interview that he
trapped the girl on a fenced street and forced her into his car.Gardner
was previously convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000.

State parole agents missed numerous chances to send a convicted child
molester back to prison before he raped and killed two San Diego-area
teenagers, the corrections department said Wednesday.John Albert
Gardner III wore a tracking device for a year before he finished parole
in September 2008, but his parole agent did not review the data because
he was considered a low-risk sex offender, Inspector General David Shaw
said.The data from the GPS ankle bracelet showed numerous
violations by Gardner, including the apparent commission of a new felony
by going to a state prison parking lot, the report said.He
repeatedly violated other parole conditions, including getting within
100 yards of places where children gather, that also could have put him
back in prison, the report said.Better monitoring "could have
sent Gardner back to prison, making it impossible for him to murder two
young girls and commit the attempted sexual assault," Shaw said in his
report. "The department did not identify Gardner's crime and parole
violations because it did not require parole agents to review the GPS
data."In addition, the public is endangered because the
department continues to poorly track 4,500 other sex offender parolees
who are not considered high-risk, Shaw said.After Gardner was
released from parole, he raped and murdered 17-year-old Chelsea King and
14-year-old Amber Dubois in San Diego County.Gardner, 31,
pleaded guilty to those crimes and was sentenced last month to life in
prison without the possibility of parole. He also pleaded guilty to a
separate charge of attempted rape.Gardner was a registered sex
offender off parole and living in Lake Elsinore at the time of the
attacks. In 2000, he was released after serving five years of a six-year
sentence for molesting a 13-year-old girl.Matthew Cate,
secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a
letter to Shaw that the report criticized a parole policy that no
longer existed. The department changed its policy in March to more
actively supervise even parolees considered less dangerous.Previously,
the movements of lower-risk parolees were reviewed only when they were
suspected of a new crime or misconduct. Now agents are required to
randomly review their movements for two, 48-hour period each month.Shaw's
report said the new policy, "though improved, remains deficient"
because random reviews are unlikely to reveal violations. It still
ignores 87 percent of the GPS data collected for lower-risk offenders.Gardner
told the inspector general that he drove to Richard J. Donovan State
Prison on July 12, 2008, to drop off and pick up a friend so she could
visit a prison inmate.The San Diego County District Attorney's
Office told Shaw's investigators that prosecutors would have charged
Gardner with a third strike offense for visiting the prison, potentially
sending him to prison for 25 years to life.The report found
Gardner violated at least three other conditions of his parole on a
regular basis. The offenses included living within a half-mile of a
school, renting a storage facility and leaving his home in violation of a
curfew.In hindsight, Cate said, the answer would be to review
every offender's movements every day. But he said it was unclear how
this can be done, given limitations on technology and overworked parole
agents.Steps could include setting priorities for which
suspicious movements or electronic violation alerts should be
investigated or reviewing parolees' movements in higher volume to detect
patterns.

A man serving life in prison for the murders of two California
teenagers is sharing a prison unit with cult leader Charles Manson.Prison
officials said John Albert Gardner III was transferred last week to the
Corcoran State Prison near Bakersfield, which houses the state's only
protective housing unit.Gardner has his own cell but can
socialize with other inmates in the unit including Manson and Mikhail
Markhasev, who was convicted of killing Bill Cosby's son.Gardner
pleaded guilty in April to the murders of 17-year-old Chelsea King and
14-year-old Amber Dubois.Chelsea's body was found days after she
was attacked while running in a park in February. Amber's remains were
found in March, more than a year after she disappeared while walking to
school.

The family of slain California teen Chelsea King says they are moving
back to Illinois.

In a letter posted Friday on the website chelseaslight.org,
Brent and Kelly King and their 13-year-old son Tyler said they will
move next month to Naperville, Illinois, where they lived for 10 years
before coming to the San Diego suburb of Poway in 2007.

Brent King wrote that after the emotional turmoil that followed 17-year-old
Chelsea's murder the family wanted to return to a place where Tyler
could have both familiar surroundings and anonymity.

Convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III has pleaded guilty to the murders
of Chelsea and 14-year-old Amber Dubois. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Family's Open Letter

To our family of Chelsea’s Light changemakers,

We want to share with you, as close to first-hand as possible, some news from Kelly,
Tyler and me.

In January of this year, with Chelsea preparing to
head off to college, and me actively looking for work, we decided we
would put our home on the market in late spring and downsize here in
Poway unless a job offer took us elsewhere.

Two weeks prior to
Chelsea going missing, we received an unsolicited offer on our home,
without it being formally listed. All four of us sat down as a family
and talked about selling our home, and accepted the offer with the
intent of downsizing in Poway.

As you are all aware, our lives
were forever changed on February 25th. We have experienced the deepest
pain a family can endure, and you in return have given us the deepest
outpouring of unconditional love and support we could imagine.

As Kelly and I begin to map out how to best move forward in our “new
normal,” our first priority is our son. After many hours of painstaking
contemplation, several heart to heart conversations with Tyler and with
the trusted counsel of our closest friends, family and health
professionals, we have made the decision to relocate to Naperville,
Illinois where we lived for 10 years prior to our relocation to Poway.

It is in Naperville where Tyler will be able to enter a familiar community
with a sense of anonymity, which for someone of his age and stage in
life, is of the utmost importance to his well being. It is in
Naperville, that Tyler will be reunited with a group of friends with
whom he has remained in close and regular contact with since our move to
California. This tight-knit group will welcome him with open arms. It
is in Naperville where Kelly and I feel we can provide Tyler with an
environment that will enable him to best adjust to his new life without
his best friend Chelsea.

As certain as we are that we have made
the right decision, it did not come easily and without trepidation. Our
San Diego community has cradled us in the darkest time of our lives and
made it possible for us to put one foot in front of the other in a
moment when it felt utterly impossible. The lifetime friendships we have
formed are sacred and in the months since Chelsea went missing, we have
been brought to our knees by the outpouring of love, compassion,
support, generosity and kindness of this magnificent community.

To stay connected to each of you in the community, and continue to nurture
and expand San Diego-based Chelsea’s Light Foundation nationally, we
have secured a second residence in San Diego where we will commute to
and from Naperville on a monthly basis. We have set up our Chelsea’s
Light Foundation office in space graciously offered to us rent-free by a
San Diego company.

We look forward to staying close to all of
our friends and supporters not only in San Diego, but all of California.


Additionally, we look forward to reacquainting with our friends
in Naperville and providing Tyler with a sense of normalcy in these very trying times.

In closing, we sincerely thank each of you who
have gifted us with your love, prayers, emails, letters, calls,
personal time to support Chelsea’s Law, participation in Chelsea’s Light
events, and your remarkable dedication and actions to help protect
children in our Chelsea’s name.

Brent, Kelly and Tyler

Few political issues are as difficult to tackle as laws dealing with California's ever-growing number of convicted sex offenders.
For years, experts on the issue have complained that state laws were
determined more by sound-bite politics than policies that improve public
safety and protect children. Elected leaders, wary of accusations that
they were being soft on sexual predators, have historically stayed clear
of reforming such laws, except to make them harsher.
But this week, Sacramento lawmakers will take up a measure that has
been greatly revised since its introduction earlier this year to include
provisions such as ongoing treatment for sex offenders and sentences
tailored to the severity of a crime.
Backers say the changes to AB1844 would focus the state's limited resources on the worst child molesters
and will make great strides toward fixing how California deals with
people found guilty of sex crimes - even if, at first glance, some of
its provisions appear to ease restrictions for some convicted criminals.
Perhaps just as unusual - the revised bill is the result of a rare
bipartisan collaboration.
The proposal is called Chelsea's Law, after a San Diego teen killed by a registered sex offender
in February. Like many legislative responses to horrific crimes against
children, it began as a punitive measure that would have increased the
sentences and parole terms given to child molesters.
The changes made last month include tailoring those sentencing and
parole requirements to specific crimes, instead of taking a
one-size-fits-all approach. It would match treatment approaches to
ongoing assessments of offenders, and it would use polygraph tests for
parolees.
The measure still doesn't tackle what many experts consider one of
the biggest failures of current sex offender law: restrictions on how
close convicted sex offenders can live to places like parks and schools.
That restriction has forced thousands of parolees into homelessness,
which critics say actually hurts public safety because the offenders
become harder to track.
However, the newly proposed changes do conform with many of the other
recommendations that the state's own experts - the California Sex
Offender Management Board - have made for years.
"The bill, as introduced, was trying to get at some solutions to
pretty complex problems, and as it went through the process it got
better and better," said Robert Coombs, a victim's rights advocate who
chairs the board. The bill still includes harsher sentences for violent
sex crimes against children, lifetime sentences for the most horrific
offenses and lifetime parole for others - "tough on crime" approaches
that are easy to sell to both lawmakers and voters.


New approach
"There are still some elements of just straight-up
sentencing enhancements there, but for the most part it is stepping away
from a just over-generalized approach and starting to take a look at
what we know works instead of what we feel works," Coombs said.
The deal worked out between Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego and San Francisco
Democratic Sen. Mark Leno, chairman of the public safety committee,
represents a marked departure from past efforts to tighten those laws.
In 2006, for example, Republican sponsors of a bill known as Jessica's Law went straight to the ballot after the measure was killed in the Assembly Public Safety committee, which Leno then chaired.
That measure included the restriction on convicted sex offenders
living within 2,000 feet of schools or parks. Leno was vilified for his
opposition, but as an April Chronicle story noted, the residency rules
in Jessica's Law are now under attack by an increasing number of state
officials, law enforcement experts and some victims' advocates for
forcing sex offenders into homelessness.
That problem is particularly acute in dense, urban areas such as San
Francisco, where 84 percent of paroled sex offenders are transient.
Studies have shown there is no connection between where a person
lives and whether they will commit another crime, and that instability -
such as homelessness - can actually make a sex offender more likely to
re-offend. Other states - including Iowa and Georgia - have recently
scaled back or eliminated similar residency restrictions. As part of
their agreement, Fletcher pledged to revisit the residency issue with
Leno next year. He hasn't promised to support a potential bill or ballot
measure, "but I am committed to working with him, because there's a
fair conversation to be had about what's in the best interest of public
safety," Fletcher said.

Funding Chelsea's Law
For Leno, one of the biggest issues was reining in the cost of longer parole and prison sentences.
In order to offset the anticipated increase in inmates, Fletcher
agreed to raise the prison threshold for those convicted of an unrelated
crime: repeat offenders that commit petty theft. The change means more thieves will stay in county jails instead of state prison.
Even with that change, it's not entirely clear what Chelsea's Law
will cost; an updated analysis is expected to be released within the
next week. The original bill was estimated to increase state costs by
tens to hundreds of millions of dollars over the next two decades.
However, both Leno and Fletcher argue that portions of Chelsea's Law
could ultimately save the state money while better protecting children.
That's because the state will be required to closely monitor a parolee's
risk of re-offending, and to tailor treatment based on those risks -
likely resulting in fewer victims, less recidivism and lower prison
costs.
This containment model has been proved to work in other states, they said.
Chelsea's Law is not without some opposition: Defense attorneys and
the ACLU have concerns about the longer prison sentences and the lack of
treatment when offenders are in prison. Coombs also said it remains to
be seen how well state officials implement the bill. But, he added,
Chelsea's Law is a step in the right direction after Jessica's Law,
which he considers a failure.
"We're left to pick up the pieces after someone introduces an
initiative that is not well thought out, doesn't address a well-realized
problem and is based more on bumper sticker politics," he said. "This
is probably one of the bigger steps."

A state lawmaker who wants to
put certain child molesters in prison for life after a first offense is
trying to reduce the cost of his bill. Republican Assemblyman
Nathan Fletcher of San Diego has offered several amendments to the
legislation, some of which would save money elsewhere in state
corrections spending. One includes allowing many people convicted of
petty theft to serve their time in county jails, rather than being sent
to prison. Fletcher says the state needs to focus on putting people in prison who pose a real threat to rape and murder. The
bill, Chelsea's Law, is named after Chelsea King, a 17-year-old who was
murdered this year in San Diego County. AB1844 is to be considered by
the Senate Appropriations Committee this week.

The parents of Chelsea King are opening up about how their family is
trying to heal following the murder of their daughter earlier this year.

King died at the hands of a convicted sex offender who buried her body in a shallow grave in San Diego. John Gardner pleaded guilty to King's murder and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Chelsea's family is hoping to take this tragedy and use it to help
prevent other families from feeling and loss they are going through
right now. "You have to choose hope and you have to be an agent for
change, that's what our daughter would ask of us," said Brent King,
Chelsea's father. Chelsea King would have turned 18 last month,
and she likely would have started college this week. Instead, her family
is marking a bitter sweet victory in the California legislature and
vowing to bring their cause to other states, including Illinois. For Kelly and Brent King, life without their daughter is a day to day struggle. "We're
learning every day how to navigate our new life. It's not getting
easier, we're just learning to steer through the days," said Kelly King.
It was six months ago today that Chelsea's body was discovered
near San Diego. She had been raped and murdered while out jogging by a
registered sex offender who had broken parole and, unbeknown to
police, had killed another girl one year earlier. "The way our daughter was taken only spoke to one thing. It was a preventable issue," said Brent King. Since
then the Kings have become outspoken advocates for tougher laws against
sex offenders, including a mandatory life sentence for some first-time
child predators. On Tuesday, a bill they spearheaded in California named Chelsea's Law passed a crucial vote in that state's senate. "I had tears streaming down my face. I was so, so very proud," said Kelly King. After
three years in California, the Kings, earlier this summer, returned to
Naperville where they had previously lived for ten years. It was less a
move than a search for the familiar and a chance at a fresh start for
their 14-year-old son Tyler. "In San Diego, Tyler is known as Chelsea's brother. Here, Tyler can be Tyler," said Brent King. "Even
the simplest things in life will be altered by our pain and our grief.
We don't recognize each other. We don't recognize ourselves," Kelly King
said during a statement in court in May. When asked if
returning to Naperville has helped, she said, "it's been a tremendous
comfort. We've been so blessed in so many ways. "Chelsea was
running towards becoming a marathon runner. And she continues to let us
know, 'hey, great job in California.' That was our test, right? We're
going to keep running," said Brent King. "This is our marathon," said Kelly King. The
Kings have started a foundation called Chelsea's Light, and their
Facebook page has almost 100,000 supporters. They say they plan to work
on get-tough legislation against child predators in Illinois, just like
they did in California. Their first priority is to get settled in
Naperville. Their son Tyler started high school this week.

A special 5-mile-long message in honor of slain Poway High teenager Chelsea King will appear briefly high in the sky Thursday above the North County.

At 3:30 p.m., Worldwide Sky Advertising will write out a message that "celebrates the love the San Diego community has shown for Chelsea, and the King family's love for the San Diego community," said family spokeswoman Sara Muller Fraunces.

The message comes the same day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be at Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park to sign legislation named for Chelsea. Brent and Kelly King, Chelsea's parents, will be present for the morning signing event, along with the bill's author, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego.

Assembly Bill 1844, also known as Chelsea's Law, requires a life sentence without the possibility of parole for forcible sex acts against minors. It would also tighten sex offense parole guidelines and require lifelong tracking of certain sex offenders.

Thursday's skywriting message was arranged by Padres announcer Mark Grant and friends of the King family, and underwritten by an anonymous donor, according to the spokeswoman. It will for sure be visible from Poway High School, where Chelsea would have graduated last June had she not been raped and murdered by sex offender John Albert Gardner III on Feb. 25.

The Kings and their extended family planned to view today's skywriting privately from a hilltop spot somewhere in Poway.

Pilot Greg Stinis will spend about 10 minutes writing out the message over 5 miles, Fraunces said, adding that each character will be as tall as the Empire State Building.

Gardner, 31, was sentenced in May to two life terms without parole for murdering and sexually assaulting Chelsea and for abducting, raping and fatally stabbing 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido a year earlier.

A package of bills promoted by Amber's father that are intended to improve law enforcement handling of missing person cases also await the governor's signature.

After helping push Chelsea’s Law through the California Legislature, Brent and Kelly King announced Wednesday five initiatives for their Chelsea’s Light organization. The foundation was formed after the murder of their 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who went missing Feb. 25 while running near Lake Hodges in Rancho Bernardo.The organization will focus on enacting Chelsea’s Law throughout the nation; providing scholarships; funding a peer counseling program at a California high school; developing an outreach and support program for victims of sexual assault; and improving safety education in schools. The Kings said in a news release that they are looking at Florida , Ohio , Colorado or Texas as the next state where they will lobby for Chelsea’s Law, which went into effect Sept. 9, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it. The law imposes tougher penalties on and increases parole supervision for sex offenders. Scholarships will pay for college tuition, awarded based on academic merit and community service, and activities that “Chelsea held dear such as music, art, literature, athletics and preserving our environment,” the release said.Poway High School has a peer counseling program in which Chelsea served as a counselor. The Kings want Chelsea’s Light to help pay for a similar program at a high school. The organization is based in Carmel Valley, in an office donated to the Kings by a leasing services company, MD7. It is currently staffed by volunteers, with the Kings and Chelsea’s uncle, Chuck McCully, as board members. They plan to add three non-family board members soon, the release said. They hope to eventually have a 10-member board of directors.John Albert Gardner, a registered sex offender, is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole for the rape and murder of Chelsea and Escondido teen Amber Dubois.

The parents of murdered San Diego County
teenager Chelsea King said Friday that they will not sue the state of
California over its failure to put the sex offender who later killed
their daughter back in prison after he violated his parole for an
earlier attack on a young girl.
Brent and Kelly King had filed a claim with the state, often a precursor to a lawsuit.
The claim was not approved.
In a news conference, the Kings said a lawsuit would be a long and
difficult process and require them to relive the agony of their
daughter's murder. Chelsea, 17, an honor student at Poway High School,
was abducted in late February while jogging near Lake Hodges.

John Gardner III pleaded guilty to murdering Chelsea King and an
Escondido teenager and is serving a life sentence. He had served four
years in prison for attacking a 13-year-old girl; although he violated
his parole on several occasions he was allowed to remain free, officials said.
The Kings, working with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-La Jolla),
convinced the state Legislature to pass what is called Chelsea's Law
calling for tougher sentences and better monitoring of sex criminals who
target young victims. The bill was signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Kings said they hope to meet with Gov. Jerry Brown about additional moves to safeguard children from sex criminals.