Body Believed to Be Missing California Teen Found
Tuesday , March 02, 2010
A body believed to be that of a missing 17-year-old California teen was found Tuesday afternoon, sources told Fox News.
Chelsea King disappeared Thursday from a wooded park in San Diego County.
King is a straight-A student at Poway High School who plays French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony, competes on her school cross-country team and volunteers in a peer counseling program.
A sex offender suspected in the disappearance of Chelsea King was arrested Sunday in connection with her disappearance.
He served only five years in prison for molesting a girl a decade ago after prosecutors rejected a psychiatrist's advice to seek a stiffer punishment, court documents state.
Prosecutors said in 2000 that John Albert Gardner III's lack of significant prior criminal record justified less than the maximum sentence for molesting a 13-year-old girl.
They also said they wanted to "spare the victim the trauma of testifying." {How about wanting to spare future victims?}
The San Diego Union-Tribune said Tuesday that Gardner had faced a maximum of nearly 11 years in prison under terms of his plea agreement. Prosecutors urged six years — the sentence later ordered by a judge.
In their 11-page sentencing memo,
prosecutors said Gardner "never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim" despite overwhelming evidence.
The girl was beaten before escaping from his home and running to a neighbor.
Psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Carroll wrote in sentencing documents, "There is no known treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not admit to it in any way." {There may not be a treatment, but there is a solution. For certain offenses, such as the one for which John Gardner was previously convicted , offenders receive mandatory life in prison with no chance of parole or the death sentence. Preferably, the death sentence.}
Fox News' Adam Housley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587787,00.html