Sandy man faces charges of trafficking, sex charges against child

SALT LAKE CITY — A 19-year-old Sandy, Utah man has been charged with trafficking and sex crimes against a child for reportedly forcing a 13-year-old to engage in sex acts while enticing her with vape cartridges.

Braiden Riley faces multiple counts each of sexual abuse of a child, sodomy on a child and human trafficking of a child as well as one count of enticing a minor. Court documents state that Riley “is believed to have recently been involved in an attempted kidnapping of two minor children in Sandy” while requesting he be held without bail.

Earlier in the week Sandy police asked for the public’s help locating a man accused of trying to lure two children into a car in the area of 11000 South to 11400 South and 700 East.

This male attempted to lure two children to his vehicle. The vehicle is a silver Volkswagen Tiguan driven by a white male. The two events happened on 06-06-2022 and 06-09-2022. They were both in the area of 11000 to 11400 east of 700 East. Any info call Sandy PD 801-799-3000 pic.twitter.com/xBKwiBuG63

— Sandy Police (@Sandy_Police) June 13, 2022

Police first investigated a report that a 15-year-old sexually abused a 13-year-old girl in the presence of her 12-year old friend.

“The individual was later identified as Braiden Riley (DOB 07/14/2002)” the documents state. Riley, who turns 20 in July allegedly met and assaulted the teen for the first time in December 2021. The second time the girl was assaulted her friend was present. As they walked home the victim was crying and told her friend she didn’t want to do it but was addicted to vaping.

Police interviewed both girls who said they were contacted by Riley on social media and were picked up in their area in a silver Volkswagen Tigua. Both girls said Riley exposed himself and forced sexual contact in exchange for vaping products.

The victim said Riley messaged her on Instagram and urged her to sneak out in the middle of the night multiple times and asked for nude photos, but she declined. He reportedly sent her photos of his genitals on an Instagram account with a username that matched his own, though the messages between them had been deleted. The mother of one of the victims released the girl’s phone to police who obtained a search warrant on what they believe was Riley’s account.

“The record included 1,173 pages of messages, although no messages were located between the target account and the accounts to know belong to the victims,” court documents state. Most if not all of the message threads targeted accounts of people he did not know stated the documents. Throughout the threads police said Riley invited the other party to smoke weed or meet for sexual activities and requested sexually explicit pictures.

“Many of the other accountholders stated they were 11 to 15 years old, to which the target account (alleged to be Riley’s) stated he was 14 to 19 years old.”

Investigators searched for the name of the Instagram account and located an address and a vehicle registered to a silver 2020 Volkswagen Tiguan with a red interior, matching descriptions from the child victims. Police located the vehicle at Alpine Meadows apartment complex in Sandy. Police also searched the phone number associated with the Instagram account that returned to Riley.

In documents for a warrant, the Utah Attorney General’s office requested Riley be held without bail.