Ontario man pleads no contest to child molestation

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- An Ontario man has pleaded no contest to eight counts of child molestation as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors that carries a 22-year prison sentence.

Jack Edward Andrews, 58, opted for the plea bargain Tuesday in West Valley Superior Court rather than risk a life sentence if convicted at trial.

After he was arrested in June on suspicion of molesting two of his daughter's friends, Andrews confessed to molesting five additional girls over a 12-year span, according to police reports.

"What I've done is such a heinous sin ... such a crime that even a Christian would probably have trouble understanding," Andrews said during his confession, according to police reports.

Before his arrest, Andrews worked as a painter for the Chino Valley Unified School District. He told police none of the girls he molested were from the district.

Molestation allegations first surfaced when two classmates of Andrews' daughter told a teacher at Vista Grande Elementary School in Ontario that Andrews touched their genitals when they visited his daughter at the family's apartment.

Andrews told police in his confession that he had been committing similar acts with 8 to 12-year-old girls for more than a decade -- with the most recent act the day before his arrest, while he played football with one of his daughter's friends.

Andrews remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

He is scheduled to be sentenced April 8. His plea bargain must be approved by a judge for the 22-year sentence to be imposed.