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John
Albert GARDNER III
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Kidnapping - Rape
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
February 13, 2009 / February 25, 2010
Date of arrest:
February 28, 2010
Date of birth: April 9, 1979
Victims profile:
Amber Dubois, 14 / Chelsea King, 17
Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife / Strangulation
Location: San Diego County, California, USA
Status:
Sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole, one term of 25 years to life imprisonment,
and an additional 24 years of imprisonment
on
May 14, 2010
John Albert Gardner III (born April 9, 1979)
is an American convicted double murderer and sex offender. He
confessed to the rape and murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois from
Escondido, California, the February 2010 rape and murder of 17-year-old
Chelsea King from Poway, California, not far from Gardner's mother's
home, where he lived, in the Rancho Bernardo community.
Additionally, Gardner attempted to rape Candice
Moncayo of San Diego County, and had been previously incarcerated for
the molestation of a 13-year-old girl.
Prior conviction
Gardner had been convicted in 2000 of molesting a
13-year-old female neighbor. He spent five years in prison and
completed his parole in 2008, although it was determined that he had
violated the terms of his parole seven times, including living too
close to a school in 2007. Gardner was also investigated by his parole
officer for possession of marijuana, though this incident was later
dismissed. He was also being tracked by a GPS anklet up until 4 months
before the murder of Amber. He was too close to schools, in front of a
daycare at one point, and also on prison grounds dropping off a friend
according to the GPS data.
Murders
Gardner's first murder victim was 14-year-old Amber
Dubois, who disappeared in February 2009. Her skeletal remains were
later recovered by police in March 2010, after the police had
questioned Gardner about her murder. Gardner had been arrested on
February 28, 2010, in the Del Dios district of Escondido, California,
when his DNA matched discarded clothing from Chelsea King, a senior
from nearby Poway High School.
King had disappeared on February 25, 2010, while
she was jogging in the early evening at the Rancho Bernardo Community
Park, near Lake Hodges. FBI divers found her body five days later (on
March 2, 2010) buried in a shallow grave on the southeast corner of
the lake's inlet, where some of her clothes had been found.
DNA evidence from King's clothing, along with a
December 2009 attempted attack on a female jogger who managed to fight
him off, led Escondido and San Diego police to patrol the area for a
man fitting Gardner's description. He was arrested on February 28 at a
bar and restaurant in Del Dios, at the western shore of Lake Hodges in
Escondido. A witness has indicated that Gardner returned to the park
subsequent to King's disappearance.
Guilty pleas
On April 16, 2010, Gardner pleaded guilty to the
murder and rape of both Dubois (who disappeared on February 13, 2009,
and whose skeletal remains were found on the grounds of the Pala,
California Indian Reservation on March 6, 2010) and King, after
prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
He admitted to kidnapping, raping, and stabbing
Dubois. He also admitted dragging King to a remote area where he raped
and strangled her, and then buried the body. In addition, Gardner
pleaded guilty to attempting to rape Candice Moncayo in December 2009.
Sentencing was set for June 1, 2010, although it
took place on May 14, where Gardner was sentenced to two terms of life
in prison without the possibility of parole. The parents of Amber and
Chelsea, and the surviving victim Candice Moncayo, made impact
statements prior to sentencing describing the impact Gardner's crimes
had on their lives, and their determination to see to it that "Chelsea's
Law"–signed into California state law by then-Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger on September 9, 2010–was passed to help prevent similar
crimes in the future.
During the trial, the Kings retained Michael Fell,
a California criminal lawyer and former prosecutor, who specializes in
representing victims under Marsy's Law, the state constitutional
amendment that guarantees legal rights for victims of crime. Fell
successfully prevented sensitive crime scene and autopsy photos from
being released to the public.
Sentencing
On May 14, 2010, Judge David Danielsen sentenced
Gardner to two terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole, one term of 25 years to life imprisonment, and an additional
24 years of imprisonment.
Sex offender John Albert Gardner III sentenced
to life in prison
He was spared the death penalty as part of a deal
for pleading guilty to murdering Chelsea King and Amber Dubois during
rape attempts
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
May 15, 2010
Amid anguished and angry comments from the parents
of his victims, registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III was
formally sentenced Friday to life in prison without the chance of
parole for the murder and rape of two teenage girls in northern San
Diego County.
The families of Amber Dubois, 14, and Chelsea King,
17, spoke in court of the bright, hopeful, innocent lives that were
violently destroyed by Gardner and of how their broken bodies were
discarded like trash.
The courtroom in San Diego County Superior Court
was packed with family members, investigators and reporters — many of
whom had tears in their eyes.
Dubois' family showed a video of their daughter,
accompanied by recorded music, and described her as a loving teenager
who enjoyed reading and "was kind beyond measure" and "not about the
mall or being self-involved." The day she disappeared, she was
carrying money to buy a lamb for a 4-H project.
King's family spoke of their daughter as a perfect
child, an honor student at Poway High School destined for college and
a career helping others. A video was shown with comments from her
school friends about their loss and their memories of her laugh and
selflessness.
Gardner, shackled and with armed sheriff's deputies
standing near him, kept his head down during the family statements and
wept. He looked up only briefly when King's mother, Kelly, twice
demanded, "Look at me," and waited for his response.
Gardner, 31, pleaded guilty last month to murdering
the teens, both during rape attempts. He admitted strangling King and
stabbing Dubois. As part of a plea bargain, he was spared the death
penalty.
"There are not enough words to describe the agony
my family has gone through minute by minute" since her daughter's
abduction, said Dubois' mother, Carrie McGonigle.
King's father, Brent, said she "looked for the good
in everyone. I'm not sure she could comprehend the pure evil that sits
before us.…I am filled with a rage that I didn't know I possessed."
Dubois disappeared in February 2009 while walking
to class at Escondido High School. King vanished a year later while
jogging near Lake Hodges. A pair of panties found on the jogging path
two days later led investigators to Gardner, whose DNA was in a state
database after his five-year prison sentence for attacking a 13-year-old
girl.
After his arrest in the King slaying, Gardner
admitted killing Dubois and led investigators to her remains northeast
of Escondido. In a television interview while in jail, Gardner said he
was seized by an uncontrollable rage and could not stop when he began
attacking the two victims. He blamed a life full of disappointment and
maltreatment.
"I hate myself, I really do," Gardner told KFMB-TV
Channel 8. "There is no taking back what I did, and if I could, yes, I
would. 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."
Both families have called for changes in how the
criminal justice system treats sex offenders. The King family, with
the backing of a state legislator and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has
called for a "Chelsea's Law" that would give life sentences to sex
offenders who attack minors, and also require a lifetime of GPS
monitoring for sex criminals.
Dubois' parents have criticized the system for
letting Gardner out of prison early and for not putting him back
behind bars when he was found to be violating his parole, among other
things, by living close to a school.
King's father called Gardner "a monster and an
animal." Dubois' father, Maurice, said Gardner was an animal-like "predator"
who should never have been let loose.
Brent King said he hoped that Gardner, after his
death, "goes to the deepest level of hell as described in the classics
as 'a burning lake of blood.' "
He also criticized Gardner's mother, a psychiatric
nurse, for not turning her son in to authorities after Dubois
disappeared.
Candice Moncayo, 22, a jogger whom Gardner
attempted to abduct just weeks before King was killed, said she still
has nightmares about his attack.
"I have spent countless hours terrified and
nauseated like a scared rabbit," she said, her voice breaking. "I came
here to stand as witness for Chelsea and Amber."
