A well-known fitness trainer convicted of attempting to sexually assault a relative in Rancho Santa Margarita in 2012 was sentenced Friday to a year in prison, but has already served that time.
John Spencer Ellis, 56, was convicted March 3 in a retrial of a felony count of attempted sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor. He had won a new trial on appeal and had already served a year behind bars so won’t face anymore time in custody.
The argument on Friday was whether Ellis should have to register as a sex offender. Orange County Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly denied a motion to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor and ordered Ellis to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Ellis “took advantage of (the victim) and forever changed her relationship with her family,” Deputy District Attorney Tara Meath said in a sentencing brief. “The case has had a profound effect on (the victim) and how she views and functions now in the world.”
Ellis’ attorney, Ed Welbourn, said in a sentencing brief that undergone sex offender counseling in prison and has seen his “businesses deteriorate … Mr. Ellis lost his financial stability, was forced t utilize food stamps, saw his health decline and suffered severe anxiety and distress. Mr. Ellis also underwent major back surgery due to the injuries that he sustained while incarcerated.”
Ellis “has committed to rebuilding his life, has maintained a large network of supportive friends and family and has a plan for the future,” Welbourn said. He “hopes to move to Mexico where he will live modestly and build his medical marketing business with his fiancee Melissa.
“If Mr. Ellis is forced to register (as a sex offender), however, his future plans will be shattered. He will be unable to reside in Mexico, he will be separated from his fiancee and Marissa (and their dog Jordan) will be homeless,” Welbourn said.
The victim came forward to authorities in November 2018 when she was 17 and the defendant sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said in a trial brief. She said she “was never close” to him, but her mother prodded her to better her relationship with him, so she joined him for gym workouts because they shared a common interest in martial art.
The workouts were “normal” initially but then led to suggested massages and soft tissue work after workouts, prosecutors said. Ellis sexually assaulted her during one of these workouts as he “reached his hands inside of her workout shorts.”
Another assault happened when he “reached inside her sports bar and began massaging her breast,” prosecutors said. Another assault occurred while making a “chiropractic adjustment.”
In October 2012, she sent a text message to him “asking him to stop,” prosecutors said.
The victim kept quiet about the assaults until September 2018 when her mother visited her in Spain, where she was living at the time, prosecutors said. The victim said she was concerned Ellis would “retaliate and that her mom wouldn’t believe her,” prosecutors said.
A month later, the victim recorded a call with Ellis confronting him about the assaults, which led to an apology and Ellis crying, prosecutors said. The victim gave that recording to her mother, who personally confronted the defendant, who replied, “At least I didn’t have sex with her.”
When Ellis was first convicted Oct. 9, 2023, of the same charge he was sentenced in November 2023 to a year in prison. Jurors in the 2023 trial acquitted him of a felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object of a victim younger than 18. Two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery were dismissed Oct. 2, 2023.
Give him his one way ticket to Mexico.