Authorities formally charged Randy Robert Chattans for kidnapping a 13-year-old Las Vegas girl and forcing her into sex work in San Diego.
SAN DIEGO — A Las Vegas man accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old Las Vegas girl and bringing her to San Diego to force her into sex work now faces charges of sexual exploitation of a child.
As first reported by CBS 8, San Diego Police Officers arrested Randy Robert Chattans just before 11 a.m. on Oct. 6 outside the National City Motel, where he was holding a 13-year-old hostage.
After a week at the hotel, the girl called the police from an East Village gas station and said Chattans was holding her hostage and forcing her into commercial sex work.
According to criminal charges obtained by CBS 8, the 13-year-old girl, whose name and initials will be withheld, the girl told officers she was kidnapped a week prior from her hometown of Las Vegas and was brought here without her permission, and held against her will.
The girl said she met 47-year-old Chattans, who goes by a number of different aliases, while she was walking at a Las Vegas train station. T
he girl gave Chattans her phone number. Chattans and the teenager met, and he asked her if she wanted to do sex work for him, to which she refused.
The girl, according to the search warrant, later fell asleep in Chattans’ car. When she woke up, he was driving towards San Diego.
After the girl became frightened, Chattans took her phone from her to prevent her from calling her mom.
Chattans allegedly told the girl that he wanted her to make him at least $1,000 as a sex worker before he would allow her to return home. To make the money, Chattens bought her “hoe clothing,” according to the complaint, to attract customers. The girl told police that Chattans would drop her off at the East Village gas station and wait for clients to arrive.
According to a federal search warrant, filed last week, “[The girl] stated that she would walk up and down the street, but if she was approached by a ‘customer’ she would run and hide. [She] stated that Chattans would also bring customers to the motel room, but she would refuse to engage in commercial sex with them.”
In new federal charges, prosecutors say Chattans was already on probation when he kidnapped the girl.
A subsequent search of Chattans’ phone revealed videos he took of the girl performing sex acts on him in his car.
During an interview following his arrest, Chattans “expressed surprise” that the girl was 13 years old.
Reads the criminal charges, “Chattans also stated he would never ‘be’ with someone underage, and that the way he and she were having sex, it was impossible she was not 18. CHATTANS stated he asked over and over. During the interview with [the girl], [investigators] observed that [the girl] physically appeared to be approximately 13 years old. [Investigators] also observed that [the girl’s] speech patterns and mannerisms were consistent with those of a young teenager.”
According to one of the search warrants filed in the case, Chattans eventually became angry that the girl refused to perform sex work.
According to the warrant, he hit her and refused to allow the girl to use her phone to call her mother.
Police arrested Chattans. He is currently being held at the George Bailey Detention Facility in San Diego.