Man freed by Trump accused of horrific kidnapping and sexual assault
A Utah man who was pardoned for firing a gun inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot has been jailed in a kidnapping and sexual assault case.
On Tuesday, a Utah court ordered John Banuelos held in jail until a January hearing. Banuelos was charged with kidnapping and sexual assault in November after DNA collected during the Jan. 6 prosecutions was matched with a cold case in Utah.
According to charging documents, Banuelos invited a woman to a party in 2018, but "when she got to his house, there was no furniture and no party."
The woman was physically and sexually assaulted before being taken to a hospital, the documents state.
"The victim recounted that the day she met the defendant was the first day she had experienced homelessness, and she was scared and vulnerable. She reported that she accepted the defendant's offer of a house party because she knew it would provide her with a place to be. What she didn't realize at the time was the defendant's deception. The defendant lured the victim to his home, drugged her, and then sexually assaulted her for over 12 hours," an affidavit noted.
Banuelos has also been in the news for stabbing a man to death in 2021. Prosecutors eventually concluded that the stabbing was self-defense.