By Erik Ortiz—
NBC News
A Texas man pleaded guilty Friday to kidnapping a 13-year-old girl whom he took at gunpoint from a San Antonio street to Southern California, according to federal prosecutors.
The rescue was possible thanks to a “good Samaritan” who dialed the emergency number 911 after seeing the note written by the minor with the word “Help me” when they left her inside a car.
Steven Sablan, 62, agreed to plead guilty to a kidnapping charge and
admitted to sexually assaulting the girl several times
before police arrested him in July in Long Beach, where he had taken the victim, according to the District Attorney's Office. of the United States for the Central District of California.
A criminal complaint filed against Sablan exposed the girl's terrible experience and how she risked her life by writing the note with which she sought to attract the attention of passersby and alert the police.
The handwritten note from a 13-year-old girl kidnapped in San Antonio, Texas, who was later rescued at a gas station in Long Beach, California. United States District Court via KXAS
Sablan, a resident of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, did not have legal custody of the teenager nor had a family relationship with her, authorities detailed.
The man saw her walking down the street near a bus stop, pulled out a gun and ordered her to sit in the front passenger seat of his silver Nissan Sentra, an FBI agent who investigated the case said in an affidavit.
“If you don't get in the car with me, I'm going to hurt you,” Sablan told the girl, according to investigators.
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The girl told Sablan her age and that she had a friend in Australia.
Sablan then told her that she would take her on a cruise.
After an hour of driving, Sablan stopped, put the minor in the back seat of the car and sexually assaulted her several times while she implored him to stop, according to the complaint.
For two days, he continued the more than 1,300-mile (2,092km) trip from Texas to California, stopping again to sexually assault her, according to the complaint.
On July 9, Sablan parked at a laundromat in Long Beach to wash clothes.
The girl stayed in the car and scribbled the note with the words “Help me!”
her holding up the sign against the window, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said a “good Samaritan” dialed 911 and alerted Long Beach police.
The girl's mother had also reported her missing.
She confirmed to investigators that her daughter had a friend named Mickey who had moved to Australia and that he had left home without telling her about her plans.
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Following Sablan's arrest in California, police said they recovered a plastic gun, handcuffs and a knife.
Authorities determined that Sablan had an outstanding warrant related to a robbery charge in Fort Worth, and had been convicted twice of robbery with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance.
Sablan, who is being held at a federal facility in Los Angeles, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and up to life in prison when he is sentenced at a date not yet set, prosecutors said.