A 50-year-old former Bible study teacher pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 36 years in prison today for molesting two girls — starting when they were about 5 or 6 years old — at his Garden Grove home and at the Westminster church where he met the victims.
Christopher Joseph Guardado pleaded guilty to six counts of lewd acts on a child and admitted sentencing enhancements for substantial sexual conduct.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Cheri Pham, who accepted the plea deal the defendant negotiated with prosecutors, also ordered Guardado to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Given his age and time served in custody and that he has to do 85 percent of his sentence, Guardado won’t be freed until he is in his 80s, Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic said.
The prosecutor characterized it as a “de facto life sentence.”
Parents of the victims told Pham how the sexual assaults on their children affected them.
“My daughter’s only 11, and we don’t know what’s going to happen down the road,” one of the fathers of the victims told Pham. “I just hope the (Guardado) family understands this wasn’t just something that happened. This is going to affect us for the rest of our lives.”
A mother of one of the victims told the judge that she was grateful the case was at an end.
“We’re so thankful he’s taking responsibility for his actions,” she said. “We’ve been praying this day would come when he would admit what happened.”
She told the judge that her daughter “kept it inside” for three years before telling her about the molestations.
“He said, ‘Don’t say anything or I’ll go to jail or I’ll get divorced,’ ” the woman said.
Another mother told the judge that she is proud of her daughter for finally coming forward to spare other victims.
“I’m so proud of her for having the strength to come forward,” the mother of the victim said. “She was able to save so many lives… My daughter’s a hero.”
Pham told the defendant’s parents, who were in court, that although they may not like the punishment their son was about to receive it could have been a lot worse if he had been convicted at trial.
“I would have had no discretion but to sentence him to 90 years to life in prison,” Pham said. “So while you may feel this is too harsh a sentence you have to place yourself in the place of the victims.”
The children were defenseless and trust adults to take care of them, the judge said.
“You would not want anyone to hurt (the defendant’s) children,” the judge said. “If anyone were to hurt your children you would want the law to mete out the maximum punishment.”
Guardado has five children ages 7 to 15, Bracic said.
Another girl would have been allowed to testify during the trial, but no charges were filed in her case, Bracic said.
That alleged victim, who was 15 at the time, was babysitting the defendant’s children in April 2001 when he tried to get on top of her and straddle her while asking for a kiss, Bracic said.
Later, the girl awoke to find herself in the defendant’s bed with him spooning her, Bracic said. Guardado had moved her while she was sleeping, she added.
Guardado met the three girls through Calvary Church Pacific Coast in Westminster, where he was a volunteer teacher of first- and second-grade Bible Study classes.
The first incident with the 15-year-old in 2001 was handled “informally” through the church, so it was not reported to police, Bracic said.
The sexual assaults of the younger girls came to light when one of the victims saw the defendant molesting the other victim and reported it to her family, Bracic said.
That led to a meeting at the church when the defendant admitted to one of the fathers of the victims what he did and said he needed help, Bracic said.
The girls were molested in 2010-11, Bracic said.
— City News Service