Man may be trying to take missing 13-year-old Utah girl to Mexico, charges say

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — An arrest warrant has been issued for a man who police say groomed a 13-year-old girl and convinced her to run away with him.

Carlos Armenta Cota, 27, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with four counts of child kidnapping, a first-degree felony; and three counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony.

As of Wednesday, the girl remained missing and police believe Cota may be trying to take her to Mexico.

Cota told the 13-year-old girl’s mother that he wanted to be the girl’s “boyfriend” and asked permission to date her, but the mother said no, according to charging documents.

Between June 1, 2022, and Jan. 31, however, the girl ran away from home several times. In one incident last summer, the mother told police she found Cota’s truck parked at a homeless camp with Cota and her daughter inside, the charges state. Cota started his truck but the mother stood in front of it to try and prevent them from leaving.

“Armenta Cota accelerated and hit (the mother) with his truck,” the charging documents state. The mother suffered bruising to her leg.

On another occasion, the mother said she found her daughter again after running away and Cota pointed a gun at her, according to the charges.

Detectives talked to the girl’s 15-year-old sister who said that Cota, who she said was from Mexico but did not know his name, “does a lot of bad things,” according to charging documents.

“The state believes that the defendant is trying to take the victim back to Mexico. The victim is listed on (the National Crime Information Center database) as a runaway and the defendant is aware that the victim is not supposed to be with him,” the charges say. “Based upon information learned during the investigation, it’s believed that the defendant and the victim are in a relationship. … The victim’s mother is saying that every time she confronted the defendant about being with the victim, he would pull a gun on her and another time he hit her with his car. The current whereabouts of the victim are unknown.

“(Cota) was clearly grooming the victim,” investigators wrote in the court documents.

When arrested, prosecutors have requested that Cota be held without bail pending trial.

KSL asked the Unified Police Department for more information on the runaway girl, but officers were unable to provide further details.