Lemon Grove

A former employee at a Lemon Grove institution for retarded adults was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in state prison for sexually assaulting two male residents under his care.

Roberto Martinez Gaxiola, 40, of San Diego was convicted Dec. 9 of five felony sex charges after a short jury trial. The attacks occurred about one year ago at the Mt. Vernon Group Home.

“The totally abhorrent thing about this crime . . . is that you, an employee of this home, abused their trust,” said Judge William H. Woodward, who oversaw the case as a Superior Court judge.

Even with the tough sentence, however, Woodward warned the victims’ relatives that Gaxiola could be released in five years if he gets credit for good behavior while in prison.

Gaxiola, who had no convictions prior to this trial, was convicted of two counts of oral copulation of an incompetent person, two counts of sexual battery of an institutionalized person, and one count of sodomy of an incompetent person.