A registered sex offender who attacked a girl in the restroom of a Riverside elementary school faces 15 years to life in state prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child younger than 10 years old.
Logan Allen Nighswonger, 34, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 in Superior Court in Riverside after the May 29 plea that he negotiated with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. The judge will have the final say on the length of the sentence.
As a condition of his plea, felony charges of committing a lewd act with a child under 14 with force, and assault with intent to commit mayhem, as well as a misdemeanor count of illegally entering school grounds, are scheduled to be dropped, said John Hall, a DA’s Office spokesman.
Nighswonger will serve that sentence at the same time as one he will receive in a separate case for pleading guilty on May 29 to a charge of possession of child pornography, Hall said.
On Aug. 19, 2022, Nighswonger scaled the 6-foot-high chain-link fence at S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary on Golden Avenue, entered a restroom and groped a third grade girl, Riverside police said. A campus supervisor saw a man leave the restroom and chased him as he climbed over fences to escape. The supervisor reported the man’s description and his car’s license plate to police, who went to Nighswonger’s workplace in Placentia and arrested him.
In 2015, Nighswonger exposed himself to six girls ages 9 to 11 near Mark Twain Elementary in Riverside, Superior Court records show. He pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor annoying or molesting a child. He was given a suspended sentence of 365 days in jail and three years of probation. Nighswonger was required to register as a sex offender, which meant he was prohibited from living or going near schools and parks.
In the wake of the 2022 attack, Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Allan Mucerino vowed to improve security at the school, which opened in 1987.