A Texas man will spend many years behind bars for kidnapping and repeatedly raping a 13-year-old woman who was solely saved when good Samaritans noticed her holding a “Help Me” signal at the back of a automotive.
Steven Robert Sablan, 63, confessed to abducting the woman at gunpoint in July 2023 in San Antonio earlier than driving her practically 1,400 miles to California, mentioned the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Central District of California.
He was sentenced Friday to 35 years in jail.
Sablan, who’s initially from Cleburne, Texas, kidnapped the woman July 6, 2023, after which drove her greater than 1,000 miles to Lengthy Seashore, Calif.
Throughout the kidnapping, he sexually assaulted the kid and used a firearm to “threaten and control” her, authorities mentioned.
On the time, he had “no legal custody or familial relationship to the victim,” the US lawyer’s workplace mentioned.
The teenager was rescued three days later — when good Samaritans referred to as 911 after seeing the teenager holding an indication that learn “Help Me.”
“Good Samaritans were in a parking lot when they saw the victim in a parked vehicle holding up a piece of paper with ‘help me’ written on it,” in line with a July 2023 press launch from the Lengthy Seashore Police Division. “They acknowledged the note and immediately called 9-1-1.”
Based on authorities, the woman additionally mouthed “help me” to passers-by whereas Sablan was inside a laundromat.
At one level through the kidnapping, Sablan requested the sufferer how previous she was, and she or he replied 13, officers mentioned.
He later promised her she may take a cruise to go to a buddy in Australia however mentioned that she “had to do something for him first,” in line with a July 2023 assertion from the US Lawyer’s Workplace.
“[Sablan] violently abducted a child and repeatedly sexually assaulted her while driving her thousands of miles from her home,” prosecutors mentioned in a sentencing memorandum. “And while [Sablan] spent days abusing her for his own pleasure, her parents agonized over their missing child, fearing the worst. The worst was not far from reality.”
