A man suspected of molesting a girl at a La Jolla thrift store and another girl at a Target store in Clairemont has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial and is receiving treatment at a state mental state hospital.

The attorney for David Miguel Corona, 20, requested a mental competency hearing for his client before a San Diego Superior Court judge who read a psychiatric evaluation.

The judge found that Corona was not mentally competent and committed him to a mental hospital for treatment where he has been for many months. If he regains his ability to understand court proceedings, he will be returned to San Diego to face the felony charges.

The mother of a 13-year-old girl called the police to say a man had molested her daughter at the Goodwill store on Girard Avenue in La Jolla in 2021. Another mother called police to report a man grabbed her daughter’s buttocks at a Target store on Balboa Avenue in Clairemont two days earlier.

Corona has not yet had a preliminary hearing, so if he does regain his mental competency, he will have the hearing to see if he will stand trial. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of molesting both girls.