Nicholas Padilla
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — When Santa Barbara 911 Emergency Dispatch received a December 6th report that a 15-year-old female had been abducted, the response of law enforcement was vigorous.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, the immediately ensuing investigation “revealed the suspect was 18-year-old Nicholas Padilla,” a resident of Santa Maria who was “known to the victim.”
Additional witness information indicated that Santa Maria resident Nicholas Padilla had become “angry with the victim, stopped his car and begin striking the victim,” at which point the witness made an ineffective effort to stop the assault “while notifying law enforcement.”
When Padilla realized that the cops were being summoned to the scene, he “fled the area with the victim’s feet hanging outside the passenger side window.”
The reporting witness followed the fleeing vehicle as far north as Casmalia, where Padilla was observed holding a knife to the victim’s throat as he “attempted to rape her.”
At that point, things went from bad to worse, with Padilla allegedly removing the victim from his car and attempting to “place her in the trunk” before she managed to break away from him and run toward the witness who was engaged in “reporting the incident to law enforcement.”
Responding deputies soon located Padilla, and following his attempt to resist, took him into custody. He was transported to Lompoc City Jail, where he was booked on charges of kidnapping, sexual assault with the intent to commit rape, domestic violence, and criminal threats. He remains in custody with bail set at $1,000,000.
Photo: Courtesy Lompoc City Jail Booking
