The registered sex offender accused of killing Chelsea King told a probation officer 10 years ago that he came from a family of alcoholic men and his father sometimes abused him.

John Albert Gardner III also told the officer that he had earned good grades in high school and had briefly worked at a now-defunct amusement park.

Gardner's self-description in 2000 came after he admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

The psychiatrist who evaluated Gardner for the criminal court case concluded that he was unrepentant but not mentally ill, and suffered from no psychotic disorder.

Rather, Dr. Matthew Carroll found, Gardner "is simply a bad guy" with "significant predatory traits" and was a "danger to the community."

The portrait of Gardner ---- who is accused of raping and killing Poway teen Chelsea King and is a focus of the investigation into the death of Escondido teen Amber Dubois ---- comes from a decade-old court document released Tuesday.

The release of documents followed a five-minute status hearing in San Diego Superior Court for Gardner, 30, who was charged last week with murder and special circumstance allegations that the slaying happened during the rape or attempted rape of Chelsea. The charges set the stage for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.

Superior Court Judge David Danielsen agreed during the proceedings Tuesday to postpone Gardner's preliminary hearing until Aug. 4.

Danielsen also granted a request from Gardner's attorneys to issue a gag order preventing attorneys and police from talking publicly about the case.

Chelsea, 17, disappeared Feb. 25; her father found her car parked at the Rancho Bernardo Community Park, where she sometimes went for an after-school run in the area of Lake Hodges.

On March 2, law enforcement search teams found a body believed to be Chelsea's in a shallow grave near the shore.

The next day, prosecutors charged Gardner with murdering Chelsea and said he is linked by DNA to her death and possible rape, as well as the alleged attempted rape of a jogger who fought off an attacker in that same park on Dec. 27.

He has pleaded not guilty in both incidents.

Gardner also has emerged as "a focus" of the police investigation into the death of Amber Dubois, 14, who disappeared Feb. 13, 2009, while walking to Escondido High School. Her bones were found Saturday in a remote stretch of Pala.

Prosecutor, probation asked for six years

The newly released document is a probation report from a 2000 case in which he admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old neighbor girl in a violent attack at his parents' Rancho Bernardo home.

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss some of the charges.

But there was no deal in place as to sentencing.

According to the documents, the psychiatrist who evaluated Gardner recommended he get as much prison time as possible, which in that case was potentially up to 11 years.

The probation officer, however, recommended that Gardner, who had no significant criminal history, get six years.

So did the prosecutor, also citing Gardner's lack of criminal history.

And six years is what the judge agreed to give Gardner.

Gardner served five years of that sentence; state law required that he serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

He was on parole from 2005 to 2008; records indicate he was not sent back to prison for any parole violations.

Gardner's background up to 2000

Probation reports give judges a rundown of the defendant's background before sentencing. The following information comes from what Gardner told the probation officer for that July 2000 report.

Gardner was born in Culver City, just south of Los Angeles, in 1979. His parents moved to Palmdale when he was 2 and divorced when he was 6.

He said his biological father was a good father who did not handle young children well. Gardner told the probation officer that his father used a belt to spank him, and "went over the line to abusiveness." But he said he believed this was normal punishment for misbehaving children.

Gardner eventually moved with his mother, a nurse, to Running Springs, a community in the San Bernardino Mountains. He graduated from Rim of the World High School, with a 3.2 GPA, in 1997.

His mother remarried when he was 9 to a man Gardner described as "an awesome dad." He also has four half-sisters.

He said he was treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with medications including Ritalin, Zoloft, Paxil and Wellbutrin. But he said he stopped taking the meds when he was 16.

As a teenager, he worked as a lifeguard at a mountain resort, and later operated one of the rides at Santa's Village, a now-defunct amusement park in the mountains. When the park closed, he moved to L.A. and worked in fast food.

Gardner's mother and stepfather divorced in 1998.

He moved to San Diego that year and landed a full-time job making $9.60 an hour at a sporting goods store. He took a leave from that job after he was charged with assaulting the eighth-grade girl.

Gardner maintained innocence

The probation officer reported that Gardner maintained he was "absolutely innocent," and pleaded guilty only to avoid getting "reamed" at trial.

Gardner had offered the victim a ride to school. The girl agreed, but decided to ditch class and hang out with Gardner, with whom she was friends.

The victim told prosecutors that Gardner sexually assaulted her in the living room of his parents' home, then forced her to a bedroom, where he pulled down her pants and underwear, covered her mouth with his hand to stop her from screaming and began hitting her repeatedly when she refused his advances.

She fled the home with her pants unbuttoned, wearing only one shoe, and pleaded with neighbors to call police.

Gardner told a different version to the probation officer. He said he dropped the truant girl off at her apartment complex and headed home alone ---- and was surprised when he was later arrested and accused of attacking the girl.

Gardner "unequivocally" blamed the child's "vicious" mother for the injuries, according to the probation report.

'Significant predatory traits'

The report from Gardner's 2000 case also includes a synopsis of the court-ordered psychological evaluation of the then-20-year-old ---- an evaluation required by law because Gardner admitted to child molestation.

Dr. Matthew Carroll, who evaluated Gardner, found Gardner had no attraction to prepubescent children and thus was not a pedophile.

But Carroll came away with this finding: "The defendant does not suffer from a psychotic disorder. He is simply a bad guy who is inordinately interested in young girls.

"However, this predilection toward younger girls is a problem," Carroll continued, apparently referring to a 1999 encounter with a 14-year-old. "He (Gardner) manifests significant predatory traits and is a danger to the community."

Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.