Chelsea 's underwear led them to 30-year-old John Gardner III . They showed his picture to the first runner and she said , `` He 's the same guy . '' Now he 's been charged with Chelsea 's rape and murder . The suspect was a registered sex offender . In 2000 , he lured a 13-year-old girl into his home on the pretext of watching the movie `` Patch Adams . '' Once he got her inside , he molested her and beat her to a pulp before she escaped . Before Gardner was sentenced , a psychiatrist warned that he showed no remorse and would likely attack a young girl again . He recommended `` the maximum sentence allowed by law . '' The courts sentenced Gardner to six years ; he got out after five . Five years for pummeling a 13-year-old girl in the face and fondling her . That is `` junk justice . '' If Gardner had been prosecuted to the full extent of the law then , he would have been behind bars when Chelsea went for a run on February 25 . Her grieving mom spoke directly to this point to
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Chelsea King , 17 , was a straight-A student , a high school track star and she loved to volunteer . Now , she 's been killed , the latest victim of what you could call `` junk justice . '' When Chelsea went running in a San Diego , California , park , it 's doubtful she had any idea that another young female runner had been attacked in that very same park just a couple of months before . That first victim said she feared her attacker was going to rape her . She managed to get away by elbowing the large man in the nose . If there were falling rocks in that park , a warning sign would be up . If a hungry coyote had been spotted scrounging for food , a warning sign would tell you . But there was no warning at all that a human predator , on the hunt for young women , might be in the park . If there had been a sketch of this suspect , or a warning posted , Chelsea might not have gone running alone there . Police said DNA on