A distracted mother failed to watch her 10-year-old daughter for every minute in a store, and that was allegedly enough time for a convicted sex offender to molest the girl, according to court testimony that resulted in a judge ordering the suspect to trial.
Orion Charles Hitches, 33, of the Riverside County town of Jurupa Valley, will face a court hearing Dec. 27 after he was arrested for the alleged assault in September 2015. He has acted as his own attorney since the first half of this year.
Following a preliminary hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Becky Dugan found there was sufficient evidence to warrant a felony trial for Hitches on three counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old and one count of possessing child pornography.
Dugan scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for Dec. 27.
Hitches is being held in lieu of $4 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Vanessa Sloniker, Hitches came into contact with the 10-year-old victim, whose name was not released, on the afternoon of Sept. 26, 2015, while inside a store in the 7800 block of Limonite Avenue.
Sloniker alleged that Hitches sidled up next to the child as her mother was browsing shelves and touched her intimately several times in the moments that her mother was distracted.
As Hitches fled the location, the victim revealed to her mother what had happened, according to Sloniker.
Investigators were able to ascertain the defendant’s identity the same day, in part because the ex-convict forcibly detached his ankle-mounted GPS monitoring device that was installed under the terms of his parole, Sloniker said.
Hitches was arrested without incident at his Archer Street residence.
According to court records, he has prior convictions for forcible lewd acts on a child, forcible sodomy and forcible rape.
Jurupa Valley is west of the city of Riverside, near the intersection of the 15 and 60 freeways.
— Staff and wire reports