“Chelsea’s Light: A Brother’s Journey”

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A documentary film about one of San Diego’s most gripping murders is scheduled to make its debut Tuesday night in the Gaslamp Quarter.

“Chelsea’s Light: A Brother’s Journey from Pain to Purpose” will be screened for the San Diego Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Reading Cinemas Gaslamp, 701 Fifth Ave. The film depicts Tyler King, brother of slain Poway High School senior Chelsea King, and his efforts to prevent crimes against children.

Chelsea was killed in 2010 after she was accosted by convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III while jogging in the hills above Lake Hodges. The Poway High student was just 17 years old.

In the course of investigating Chelsea’s murder, police learned that almost exactly a year earlier, Gardner killed 14-year-old Escondido High student Amber Dubois.

Gardner — a registered sex offender long before he killed the girls — was convicted in 2000 of sexually molesting a 13-year-old neighbor.

He was sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole for the girls’ murders. He was also sentenced to 25 years to life for attacking a 22-year-old jogger two months prior to killing Chelsea, and received an additional 24 years because of various prior convictions.

Following their daughter’s murder, Brent and Kelly King championed California’s Chelsea’s Law, which mandates life prison terms for those convicted of violent sex crimes against children and increases law enforcement oversight of paroled sex offenders.

The King family also launched a scholarship program in Chelsea’s name and an annual Finish Chelsea’s Run 5K event that draws thousands of runners each year.