The man suspected of raping and murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King pleaded guilty in 2000 for attacking a 13-year-old Rancho Bernardo girl.

      During a 10News interview Monday night, Lynda Boltman said her then-14-year-old daughter and her 13-year-old friend met John Albert Gardner III near Westwood Club as they were waiting for a school bus that would take them to Bernardo Heights Middle School.

    When they missed their bus in March 2000, Boltman said Gardner, then 20, offered to take both girls to school. After dropping off her daughter, he took the other girl back to his Westwood townhome, where he attacked her.

    His mother still lives at the townhome in the 17000 block of Matinal Road. It is three-tenths of a mile from Westwood Elementary and a little over one-tenth of a mile from the Westwood Club.

 Authorities searched that home on Sunday.

Court records show Gardner, who pleaded guilty to committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years and false imprisonment, was sentenced to six years in prison.

After his release, he registered as a sex offender and listed his residence as being in Lake Elsinore. That home has also been searched in connection with Chelsea King’s disappearance.

At the time of his August 2000 sentencing, it was stated in court records that Gardner “picked a very vulnerable, meek, young victim who trusted him, and lured her to a location where she would be particularly vulnerable, and then had (his) way with her.

“The defendant obviously has an unnatural interest in very young girls, since he also had sexual contact with a different girl who was 14 years old. Thus, defendant’s actions are extremely predatory, and this makes him very dangerous despite his minor prior record.

“When combined with his callous attitude and refusal to admit any wrongdoing, defendant demonstrates that he is an extreme danger to others and needs to be imprisoned to protect society.”

In the court records, Dr. Matthew Carroll, a staff psychiatrist, said “The fact that the defendant takes no responsibility whatsoever for his actions makes him an extremely poor candidate for any sexual offender treatment.”

While Jan Caldwell, sheriff’s spokeswoman, would not confirm authorities have also linked Gardner to a Dec. 27, 2009 attack on an adult female jogger, other news sources have confirmed the unidentified suspect and Gardner are the same individual.

The Rancho Bernardo News Journal reported on its Web site last December that police were looking for a man who attacked a female jogger on a Rancho Bernardo Community Park trail near the 10400 block of Poblado Road in Westwood.

The victim was able to escape during the 10:30 a.m. attack by elbowing her attacker in the nose, possibly breaking it.

Police said she described her attacker as a white male, about 25 years old, approximately 5 feet 11 inches tall, 230 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

According to the sheriff’s department, Gardner is 6 feet 2 inches tall, 230 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Caldwell also would not confirm on Monday that authorities are looking at Gardner as a possible suspect in the Amber Dubois case. In February 2009, then 14-year-old Dubois disappeared while walking to Escondido High School.

            Gardner was arrested at 4:20 p.m. Sunday outside the Hernandez Hide-A-Way restaurant near Lake Hodges. He is under suspicion of committing the first-degree murder and rape of Chelsea King, a Poway High senior who disappeared from Rancho Bernardo Community Park last Thursday.

            Gardner will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

            While Gardner is facing a murder charge in the King case, Caldwell said late Monday afternoon that authorities still have not given up hope of finding the 17-year-old alive.

            “We are moving heaven and earth to bring Chelsea home to her mother and father,” Caldwell said, adding, “All stops are being pulled out” to locate the teen.

            Those measures include utilizing sonar equipment to search 14 miles of Lake Hodges shoreline. Caldwell described the environment as “tough” and said the lake has very high reeds and dense brush.

            While adding that “We’re not saying she’s in the water,” Caldwell did say the lake search area has expanded from its original scope that focused since Thursday night on the Rancho Bernardo Community Park trails and surrounding area.

            King’s car was discovered by her father, Brent King, around 6:45 p.m. Thursday in the Rancho Bernardo-Glassman Recreation Center parking lot near the tennis courts. He went looking for his daughter after she failed to return home when expected.

            “We will search as long as we need to search,” Caldwell said Monday afternoon, adding the current team includes 37 search and rescue personnel and 60 investigators from other agencies throughout Southern California.

            “The mutual aid have been overwhelming to us … (and we) appreciate it,” she said.

            Despite rain, more than 1,000 local residents also came out on both Saturday and Sunday to help in the search, post fliers and tie blue ribbons on trees and signs in Rancho Bernardo and Poway. The color was selected because King has blue eyes.

Chelsea King is 5 feet 5 inches tall, 115 pounds, with a petite build and strawberry blonde hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call the San Diego Sheriff’s Department at 858-565-5200.