A Texas man has copped to abducting a 13-year-old girl at gunpoint and carting her across state lines, in a sickening ordeal that ended with his arrest in California, officials said. Sixty-two-year-old Steven Robert Sablan of Cleburne, Texas, entered a guilty plea to one count of kidnapping on Friday, admitting to the harrowing cross-country crime spree that began last summer in San Antonio and concluded in Long Beach.
According to information from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Sablan has been in federal custody since his capture in July 2023. He confessed to snatching the young girl on July 6, imprisoning her in his vehicle, and threatening her with a gun during the trek from Texas to California. Throughout this nightmare, Sablan sexually assaulted the victim on multiple occasions.
The victim's escape came when a Good Samaritan dialed 911 after spotting her holding a "Help Me" sign in the window of Sablan’s gray Nissan Sentra. The kidnapper and the rescued girl were in Long Beach on July 9 when law enforcement stepped in, putting an end to the girl's terrifying experience.
The chilling details of Sablan's plea reveal a grueling journey during which the girl was continuously under duress. "Sablan admitted in his plea agreement that during the Texas-to-California journey, he sexually assaulted the victim," officials detailed. The perpetrator had no prior relationship or custody rights over the child, illuminating the arbitrary cruelty inflicted on an innocent life by a man with no claim to her existence.
United States District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha set the sentencing hearing for October 25, where Sablan is facing a mandatory minimum of 20 years behind bars and could get a life sentence. The case is the result of an investigation led by the FBI and Long Beach Police Department, with the Cleburne (Texas) Police Department providing crucial assistance, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chelsea Norell of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.
