SALT LAKE CITY — A West Valley man has admitted to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl after forcing her into his car at knifepoint while she was walking home from school earlier this year.
Creed Cole Lujan, 44, pleaded guilty in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court to charges of aggravated kidnapping and forcible sodomy, both first-degree felonies. In exchange for his guilty pleas, eight other felony charges he faced were dismissed.
Lujan, appearing over video from the Utah State Prison in an orange jumpsuit and gray face mask, said he wanted to resolve the case quickly.
“Honestly, your honor, I’m looking to get this over with not just for myself, but mainly for the victim, as well and for the victim’s family,” he said. Lujan asked Judge Paul Parker to sentence him immediately, but agreed to a later sentencing date at the advice of his attorney, Michael Colby.
Prosecutor Tony Graf said the girl Lujan victimized nearly five months ago agreed to the plea deal and joined him in the same room to watch Tuesday’s hearing, although she was out of view.
The teen was walking home from Hunter High School on Jan. 27 when Lujan, who had been driving near the school, forced her into his car, duct taped her and drugged her, authorities said at the time. After assaulting her in his home, police said he told her that he has cancer and hopes God will forgive him.
The girl’s mother called police that afternoon to report her daughter missing and tracked her daughter’s cellphone to the middle of a road in West Valley City. Officers found the girl about an hour later, crying and running frantically, court documents said.
Officers canvassed the area and found a doorbell camera that showed a vehicle pulling up and talking to the girl before she got in the car and it drove away. Other cameras showed her run away after being released, and resource officers at other nearby schools reported surveillance video showed the same car could be seen circling.
The girl told police that Lujan brandished a knife and threatened to kill her if she did not get in his car, then put the front seat down, bound her hands and feet, and covered her mouth with duct tape.
At his home, Lujan had the girl take three pills to “relax” her, promising to let her go by 3 p.m. if she took them, prosecutors alleged. Police said the man then drove the girl to a bus stop and let her out.
In 2009, Lujan pleaded guilty to attempted murder in 3rd District Court after police said he attempted to kill a hotel housekeeper at the Crystal Inn in West Valley City by grabbing her neck and choking her until she was unconscious.
He was ordered to serve three years to life in the Utah State Prison and was released on parole in January 2015.
Lujan faces at least six years and up to life in the prison when he is sentenced July 6.
The charges dismissed Tuesday include rape and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies; three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; and three counts of obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.