A convicted sex offender who molested a 7-year-old Temecula boy while showing him magic tricks was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in state prison.
William Arthur Hammond, 71, of Menifee pleaded guilty in November to two counts of lewd acts on a child under 10 years old, along with a sentence-enhancing allegation of failing to disclose his sex registrant status, under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
In exchange for Hammond’s admissions, prosecutors dropped a related lewd acts count.
Superior Court Judge Mark Mandio certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
According to sheriff’s investigators, the child, whose identity was not disclosed, was fondled by Hammond on the afternoon of Feb. 17, 2018, while the boy was at his great grandmother’s house in the 44200 block of Cabo Street in Temecula.
Hammond was visiting with the elderly woman, whom he had befriended the previous year, when the victim arrived with his mother, identified in court documents only as “B.C.,” and two younger siblings.
According to a bail-setting affidavit filed by sheriff’s detectives, the defendant immediately volunteered to entertain the children while B.C. spoke with her grandmother in another room.
Hammond played the piano for the children and then showed them magic tricks, focusing his attention on the victim, investigators said.
While seated next to the 7-year-old, Hammond reached over three times and rubbed the boy’s privates over his pants, according to the affidavit.
“William also made the victim touch his crotch … by grabbing the victim’s hand and placing it on his body,” the document stated.
The other two children were not molested.
The defendant left the property just before B.C. gathered the victim and his siblings to head home, according to investigators. At that point, the woman’s grandmother informed her that she was aware Hammond had done “bad things to children in the past,” according to the affidavit.
B.C. then asked her eldest son whether Hammond had behaved inappropriately around him, and the boy replied affirmatively, revealing his and the convicted felon’s interactions, investigators said.
The victim was interviewed by Child Abuse & Neglect Unit specialists from the Riverside University Health System, and he detailed what had transpired, leading investigators to conduct an interview with Hammond.
“Hammond explained that if the victim was accusing him of touching, then it probably happened, but he didn’t remember,” according to the bail affidavit.
The defendant was taken into custody on the spot.
According to court records, he was convicted in 1983 of sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy in Oceanside and one of the terms of his parole was to register as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290. The law prohibits an offender from having contact with minors, other than relatives.