Man Kidnaps 13-Year-Old At Gunpoint, Sexually Assaults Her 8-10 Times

A man in his 20s was arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl multiple times for several hours in Houston, Texas.

Lyndell Tony Horton, 24, allegedly drove to the teen runaway Thursday and asked her to get inside the vehicle. When the teen refused, Horton pulled up his shirt and showed a gun to the girl to force her into the vehicle, as per court records accessed by ABC13 on Sunday.

The young man then took the unidentified girl to another apartment and coerced her to go inside at gunpoint. While being taken inside the house, the girl continuously cried, telling Horton that she was only 13.

Once inside, Horton forced the teen to have sex with him and when she denied, he punched her in the face. The man used "physical force and violence" to pressure the minor girl to have sex with him eight to 10 times for several hours, according to court records, KHOU reported.

The girl eventually managed to escape his confinement. Officers responded to Horton's apartment Friday after the teen's mother filed a missing report for the girl. Investigators probed Horton's text messages, further determining him as a suspect in the matter.

During interrogation by police, Horton admitted to picking up the teen girl and having "sex with her 8-10 times."

While Horton denied using a gun, officers found a firearm inside his apartment during the investigation, court documents confirmed.

Horton was charged with aggravated kidnapping. An additional charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child will be imposed once a sexual assault exam will be completed, authorities said. Other details, including his connection with the teen girl, remain unknown as the matter is being investigated.

A judge, meanwhile, set Horton's bond at $500,000 during a court hearing Saturday. He was denied any contact with the teen girl or any other child aged 17 or under.

Police also revealed Horton was previously arrested as a juvenile for public lewdness in 2014. In another matter that took place in 2017, he was accused of stealing a vehicle and resisting arrest.

In another incident that occurred in December 2022, a Michigan man was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting a pregnant woman for three weeks. Thirty-six-year-old Michael Barajas held the woman captive after threatening to bite her with his filed teeth and rip out her throat. Barajas promised the woman, who was without a home at the time, shelter and locked her inside a room.