Sex Offender Sentenced To 1 Year In County Jail Following Temecula Mall Incident

TEMECULA, CA — A convicted sex offender who sexually harassed girls shopping at a Temecula mall was sentenced Monday to a year in jail and one year of probation.

Joshua Michael Wafer, 32, of Hemet, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of annoying minors, as well as a single count of resisting arrest, all misdemeanors. The plea was directly to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Kay Kiel, without negotiation involving the District Attorney's Office.

During a hearing at the Banning Justice Center Monday, the judge revoked Wafer's $50,000 bond and imposed the jail term and probation, as well as ordered the defendant to register as a sex offender in California under Penal Code section 290, which generally bars registrants from any contact with minors who aren't relatives.

Wafer has a documented prior conviction for sexual battery out of Washington, D.C., and his offense in that case required him to register as a sex offender in the nation's capital.

Court records indicated the defendant also has an outstanding warrant in Texas for alleged acts of indecent exposure in the last two years. It was not immediately known whether authorities in the Lone Star State intended to seek his extradition.

According to a bail-setting affidavit filed by sheriff's investigators, on the afternoon of May 31, 2025, two 14-year-old girls shopping together at the Promenade Mall in the 40000 block of Winchester Road were accosted by Wafer when they stepped off an escalator.

"He displayed a pornographic video on his cell phone and made sexual gestures with his tongue, directed at the victims," the affidavit stated. "The porn was male and female. They were fully naked and were engaging in sexual intercourse. Wafer was smiling when he showed them the porn."

One of the girls told detectives it was obvious "Wafer was simulating oral sex to her" by flicking his tongue, according to court papers.

A boy who happened to witness the behavior pulled out his mobile phone and captured the latter part of the encounter via video, then snapped pictures of Wafer as the girls hastily walked away from him, according to investigators.

The images were provided to mall security. Detectives then processed the photos and quickly located Wafer in a crime database stemming from his prior conviction, according to the sheriff's department.

The victims and witness all positively identified him.

An arrest warrant was served on Wafer three days later at his residence on Auld Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident. The resisting arrest conviction related to his lack of cooperation with authorities in November, when he was arrested for indecent exposure in Hemet.

That case was disposed and folded into the plea agreement approved by the court last month.