A convicted sex offender who left “disturbing” notes for a Berkeley woman he met through Alcoholics Anonymous is set to enter a plea Monday after being charged with stalking by the Alameda County district attorney’s office.
According to court papers, 58-year-old Carl Jones left notes for the woman in early July after they met at AA in June and “developed a friendship to help each other with recovery.”
Police say Jones called the woman repeatedly in June “to the point where it became uncomfortable,” so she told him to stop. They had “several heated conversations,” and he stopped calling by the end of the month.
On July 3, however, the woman found what police described as “a disturbing note” from Jones that had been left in her fence, according to court documents.
The next day, a neighbor approached the woman with “a second disturbing note” from Jones, police said. The woman told neighbors what Jones looked like, and they later saw him walking in front of her house, on 67th Street between San Pablo Avenue and Sacramento Street, on two occasions.
According to police, in the second instance, Jones walked up the woman’s driveway, opened her side gate and went into her backyard.
A neighbor and others caught Jones and held him until police arrived, and he was arrested just before 9 p.m. July 4.
When police arrested him, they found him to have a no-bail warrant related to his sex offender status. According to the state Megan’s Law database, Jones had been in violation of his sex offender registration requirements since June 2013.
If convicted of the stalking charge, Jones could be sent to prison. He was arraigned on that charge July 5.
According to court papers, Jones was convicted in May 2015 for failure to register as a sex offender after a felony conviction in Alameda County; he was placed on probation. He had been convicted in November 2012 of the same charge, and been sent to prison.
Jones had been convicted in November 1982 in Riverside County of oral copulation of a child under 14, and was sent to prison. In July 1991, also in Riverside County, he was convicted of continuous sexual abuse.
His earliest convictions, according to court papers, date back to 1977, when he was sent to prison after burning a building and, later that year, commercial burglary. Both of those cases took place in Riverside County.
Jones is set to appear in court Monday, Aug. 1, to enter a plea at the René C. Davidson Courthouse in downtown Oakland, according to online records from the sheriff’s office. His bail has been set at $385,000, but he is not eligible to post it because of the violation of his supervised release terms.
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