LOS ANGELES — A Texas man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 13-year-old girl who was rescued in Southern California when a passerby saw her holding up a “Help Me” sign in a parked car.
A statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said Steven Robert Sablan, 62, of Cleburne, Texas, admitted in a plea deal to sexually assaulting the victim while driving her from Texas to California.
The girl was rescued on July 9 in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, after a passerby called 911 to report seeing her holding up the piece of paper with the handwritten desperate plea for help.
Sablan, who has been in federal custody since July 2023, pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, prosecutors said.
In July, Sablan was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
An FBI agent wrote in an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint that the girl was walking down a San Antonio street on July 6 when Sablan drove up, raised a black handgun and told her, “If you don’t get in the car with me steps, ‘I’m going to hurt you.’
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for October 25. Sablan will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.