ROCKWELL — A Nazareth Children’s Home employee lost his job this month after being cited for soliciting crimes against nature at an Interstate 85 rest area in Concord.

Larry Gene Gilbert, 36, had worked in the kitchen at the children’s home for the past seven months, Nazareth Director Vernon Walters said.

Gilbert told police his address was 308 Tobas Road in southern Rowan County. He could not be reached for comment. Police say they have tried to contact him since the incident, and he has apparently moved.

Walters wouldn’t say whether Gilbert’s firing came as a result of the criminal charge. But he did say that Gilbert was fired after the incident.

All new employees at Nazareth submit to a criminal history check, Walters said. And the employee policy handbook spells out consequences for criminal behavior.

“We want people with good morals and character working here, role models,”he said.

Concord police caught Gilbert and four other men in a sting operation at a rest stop on the northbound side of Interstate 85. The men approached an undercover police officer and solicited sex.

In addition to Gilbert, three other local men — two from Salisbury and one from Kannapolis — received citations, according to Concord Police Department records.

One of the men cited, John Lookabill, of 785 Scout Road in Salisbury, is a former captain in the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department who earlier this year announced his candidacy for sheriff in 2002.

Other local men charged: Harry Lee Isiminger, 30, of 125 Castle Drive, Salisbury, works at Huntersville Oaks Nursing Home in Huntersville; Randy Lynn Wedderburn, 37, of 1904 Florida Ave., Kannapolis, works at Rush Uniforms in Concord.

The other man charged, Doyle Bouvier Putman, 36, of 614 Staunton Bridge Road, Greenville, S.C., works for Wilson Trucking Co.

All the men except Gilbert have an Oct. 25 court appearance. Gilbert’s court date is Nov. 16.

Police targeted the rest area, a reputed haven for sexual and criminal activity, after the murder of 66-year-old Kannapolis resident Donzel Ralph Phillips on June 4.

Investigators believe Phillips’ killer shot him at the rest area. Phillips later collapsed at the intersection of South Cannon Boulevard and Centergrove Road in Kannapolis while trying to get help. He died hours later.

Concord police took up the investigation because the rest area is just inside their city limits. Investigators are still searching for the person who shot Phillips.

Sgt. Wendell Rummage of the Concord Police Department said police turned their attention from the rest area after the Oct. 6 shooting death of a woman riding her bike in Concord.

“Due to that, we’ve kind of slowed down that approach right now,” Rummage said of the undercover operation at the rest area. “But we hope to get back out there as quick as we can.”