Child-sex offender faces felonies for living in High Desert home but claiming homelessness
A registered sex offender last convicted in California less than six years ago for child-sex abuse is now behind bars on two felony charges for allegedly "giving false information to law enforcement" by claiming to be homeless despite having taken up residence in a High Desert home.
John Ray Delgadillo, 57, was arrested shortly before noon last Wednesday on the outskirts of Apple Valley at a home that authorities say he's been living in without registering it as a residence he uses in legally-required updates to his sex-offender status, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a public advisory.
His offender status stems from a felony conviction in 2017 for committing "lewd or lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years of age," according to the California Department of Justice's "Megan's Law" database, which states that Delgadillo's incarceration for the child-abuse conviction ended at some point in 2018.
After his release, Delgadillo "listed himself as a transient while registering as a sex offender with the Victor Valley Sheriff’s Station in Lucerne Valley," the sheriff's advisory states. This means he reported no residency address and registered only as homeless in San Bernardino County, the largest county in the U.S. by land area.
But "deputies had reason to believe Delgadillo was not a transient" sometime prior to last week, the advisory states. An investigation by detective Christopher Dekeyrel and deputy Laura Markshad determined he'd instead been "living at a residence in the 23400 block of Ottawa Road in Apple Valley."
The advisory didn't disclose a specific address for Delgadillo's alleged residence. Still, the block of Ottawa Road that it does identify includes a land-lease complex of more than 90 rental homes known as Apple Valley Village Mobile Home Estates.
This led to a search last Wednesday in which "Delgadillo was arrested at his residence without incident" and booked at High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, where he remained in custody on an unpaid bail of $25,000 as of Thursday evening, according to the advisory.
County booking data reviewed by the Daily Press lists Delgadillo's arrest location last Wednesday as 32818 Verdugo Drive in unincorporated Lucerne Valley — about 13 miles east of his alleged Ottawa Road residence — which appears to be the address of a small sheriff's station between State Route 18 and the intersection of Barstow Road, Old Woman Springs Road and State Route 247.
Delgadillo appears to have been moved from the Adelanto jail before last week's end. The booking data as of Sunday listed his housing facility as West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
Delgadillo's latest arrest has now yielded him two felony charges from the county District Attorney's Office, according to court records: One for failing to register all addresses he regularly occupies with "each of the jurisdictions in which he or she regularly resides;" a second for maintaining his sex-offender status as exclusively homeless, violating a provision of California law that says "a transient who moves to a residence shall have five working days within which to register at that address."
Delgadillo pleaded not guilty to both felony charges in a video arraignment held under the San Bernardino County Superior Court's Rancho Cucamonga district Judge Arthur Benner II at 1:30 p.m. last Friday, court records show.
Deputies searching for Delgadillo's alleged Apple Valley residence last Wednesday also "discovered a marijuana grow and extraction lab," according to the advisory, which says the sheriff's "Marijuana Enforcement Team responded to conduct the investigation" of this discovery. No drug-related charges appeared to have been filed in addition to the sex-offender case as of Sunday.
It's unclear how long investigators allege Delgadillo has been living at the 23400 block of Ottawa Road without reporting the residence as mandated in his sex-offender registration updates. It's also unclear if this residence falls within Apple Valley's city limits, as most of the 23400 Ottawa Road block — including the Apple Valley Village Mobile Home Estates complex — sits just outside the city's east-most limit, making it part of the unincorporated desert that's overseen by county authorities instead of a local government.
Delgadillo is next set to appear at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Victorville Superior Court for a "pre-preliminary hearing" and bail hearing under Judge Christian Towns. Afterward, he returns to the Victorville courthouse at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 12 for his preliminary hearing.
Charlie McGee covers California’s High Desert for the Daily Press, focusing on the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities. He is also a Report for America corps member with The GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and worldwide. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Child-sex offender arrested for unregistered move to High Desert home
