A 74-year-old Chula Vista man was sentenced recently to 10 years in state prison for molesting two girls.
Thomas Aubrey Garrett is a retired San Diego firefighter and was once the commodore of the Coronado Yacht Club. About two dozen supporters attended his sentencing by Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers.
“I’ve learned that what I thought was affection and kindness was unacceptable, and it will never happen again,” said Garrett to the judge. “You have my word.”
His lawyer, James Pokorny, sought probation as did some of his supporters. Some of the supporters waited in the courthouse hallway as all seats were filled.
“We’re here for the individual that he is in private,” said Deputy District Attorney Harrison Kennedy.
“It’s not to punish the public façade that Tom Garrett has had for almost all of his life,” said Kennedy. “It’s to address the unspeakable acts he committed in private.”
Garrett was convicted by a jury in 2013 of molesting a neighbor girl, but a judge overturned that conviction on the basis of jury misconduct in January 2014. Two jurors, a man and a woman, told other jurors in deliberations that they were molested as children, but they did not reveal that information during jury selection.
Garrett’s retrial started in August, but he decided to plead guilty to two felony counts of child molestation just before opening statements were to be made. The charges were filed in 2012.
