Four years after his sister’s brutal murder, Tyler King is still fighting.
The 17-year-old wants to make sure that convicted sexual predators — like the one who stole his sister Chelsea King’s life — never get the chance to become repeat offenders.
The teen teamed up with Bruce Caulk, a two-time Emmy award-winning director, to film a documentary that he hopes will help push for “one-strike” laws against the worst child predators.
“One strike, that’s it,” the high school senior told The News. “My sister was raped and murdered. I’ve stared evil in the face. And I believe predators don’t deserve a second chance.”
In February 2010, Chelsea King left her Poway, Calif., home to go for a run near Lake Hodges. Volunteers discovered her body in a shallow grave a few days later.
John Gardner III pleaded guilty to the murder. The man had been convicted for molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000. He got out after 5 years and violated parole numerous times.
In 2000, a psychiatrist had warned that Gardner had “significant predatory traits” and should be kept in prison for as long as possible.
“The system was totally broken and it let us down,” Tyler said. “He shouldn’t have been out when my sister was running. He should have been in jail.”
For his film, Tyler traveled across the country to talk with people who had also lost loved ones to sexual violence. He said the families of victims Amber Dubois, Jonathan Sellers and Kathlynn Shepard understood the numbness that he felt after his sister’s death.
Soon after Chelsea’s death, California legislators unanimously passed Chelsea’s Law, which ensures that child predators convicted of the most serious offenses get life in prison without parole. Other elements in the law increase penalties and parole periods for people who commit sex crimes against minors by using force, violence, duress, menace, and fear. Tyler says the main purpose of his film is to get Chelsea’s Law passed in all 50 states.
The latest Bureau of Justice Statistics study on the recidivism rates of sex offenders dates back to 2003. The researchers tracked 9,700 offenders that were released in 1994. Child molesters received an average sentence of 7 years, but most were released after serving only 3 years. An estimated 3.3 percent of the child molesters in this group committed another sex crime against a child within 3 years.
Despite the low percentage, Tyler isn’t willing to take the risk.
“Every predator has it build into them to do this,” Tyler said. “The safety of children is a much higher priority than keeping sexual predators happy.”
Tyler and Bruce Caulk’s team from Intelliscape Films spent 18 months conducting interviews for the movie. Now that filming is done, they’ve started raising funds to help with post-production. Tyler hopes the film will be ready for debut by July.
“When these kinds of tragedies happen, there are two options,” Tyler said. “You can either choose dark or light. I’m really glad I was able to choose light.”
Visit Tyler King’s Kickstarter page here.
With News Wire Services
