Caretaker locked 90-year-old dementia patient in storage closet, performed lewd acts and then tried to kill 6-year-old girl at her first sleepover

Joel James Gonzales

Joel James Gonzales (Ventura County District Attorney).

A California man will spend more than 16 years in prison after a three-day crime spree in which he attacked two patients at the nursing home where he worked, broke into a house through a doggy door and tried to kill a 6-year-old girl during her first sleepover, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said.

Joel James Gonzales, 28, pleaded guilty in August to felony lewd acts on a dependent adult in August, about a month after a judge declared a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on the charge. Jurors did convict him of attempted murder of the girl, felony assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary and misdemeanor assault.

More from Law&Crime: Video shows nursing home workers mocking dead patients and torturing their private parts: Police

Gonzales worked as a caretaker for dementia and Alzheimer’s at the Royal Gardens elder care facility in Camarillo, which is about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. On October 15, 2020, Gonzales assaulted two patients. Prosecutors said he cornered his first victim several times, pushed her down on her bed and tried to rip her clothes off. The suspect relented after the victim fought back.

In the second attack, Gonzales walked a 90-year-old dementia patient into a storage closet, locked her inside and “performed lewd acts on the victim before staff started knocking on the door,” prosecutors said.

The next day, Gonzales crawled through a doggy door at a Camarillo house, “surprising the homeowner,” according to prosecutors.

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