GOLDEN, Colo. – A teenager who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a woman in a Target parking lot in Jefferson County and then sexually assaulting her was sentenced to 45 years in prison earlier this month, officials announced Wednesday.
Dominic Gabriel Barrios, 18, pleaded guilty in March to charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit sexual assault, according to a news release from the District Attorney Peter Weir's office.
Barrios was 16 when the kidnapping happened in January 2017 outside of a Target store at 50th and Kipling streets in Arvada.
Authorities said the victim was getting into her car when Barrios got in the back seat, put his arm around her neck and held a knife to her throat and told her to drive. Barrios threatened the woman in the car for more than two hours, sexually assaulting her and forcing her to withdraw money from an ATM, the news release said.
An arrest warrant affidavit said that Barrios ordered the victim to activate the speaker on her cell phone, so he could monitor her conversation with concerned family members.
Barrios later removed the battery from her phone and left the woman in an industrial area. She went to her family's home, where she called 911. Investigators identified Barrios as the suspect within a day, and officials decided to charge him as an adult.