Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
UTAH STATE PRISON — Creed Cole Lujan knows he will be incarcerated at the Utah State Prison for a long time, possibly the rest of his life. And he's willing to accept that.
"I deserve to be here. I deserve every single bit of my punishment," he said tearfully on Tuesday. "I'm terribly, terribly, terribly, terribly sorry for what I've done."
In 2020, Lujan was convicted of a horrific crime that the presiding judge called "a mother's worst nightmare."
On Jan. 27, 2020, Lujan kidnapped at random a 15-year-old girl walking home from Hunter High School at knifepoint, duct taped her mouth and bound her hands and feet, drove her to his home in West Valley City, made her take three pills to "relax" her, and then sexually assaulted her.
Lujan appeared before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday. But the board wasn't looking at setting a parole date for Lujan. Rather, the board is expected to vote on when Lujan's next parole hearing should be held. The state's sentencing guidelines call for him to be prison until 2043. The guidelines are not binding, and the parole board could vote for a date beyond 2043 or sometime before.
Lujan is serving time for aggravated kidnapping and forcible sodomy. He pleaded guilty to the first-degree felony charges in exchange for eight other felonies being dismissed.
As part of a hearing Tuesday to address both his parole violation from a previous conviction and his new convictions — which were mostly all from the same incident — Lujan, 45, admitted to committing all 10 of the original allegations against him.
Lujan previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder in 2009 and was ordered to serve a term of three years to life in prison. He was released on parole in January 2015. Parole board member Greg Johnson, who conducted Tuesday's hearing, asked Lujan what happened to him after he was released in 2015.
Lujan said initially, his parole was going well. But while working a construction job, he injured his back. He was prescribed pain medication, which he said opened the door for his return to drug addiction.
"I had all the support in the world, and I got back into my drug addiction," he said. "I was up to four or five different narcotic medications that I was taking on a daily basis. And it kind of went downhill from there."
Lujan said he manipulated his doctors to get more medications in addition to the ones originally prescribed. Even though he had a game plan in place after he left prison to try and prevent him from falling off the wagon, Lujan said he was too embarrassed to use it and seek help because he felt he had "failed again."
"I used those drugs not just to medicate for the pain, but everything else. Once you get fully back into those addictions ... it leads to terrible terrible actions," he said.
Lujan said he was "very ashamed" of what he did on Jan. 27, 2020, and that he is taking multiple classes in prison to better himself and help with his drug addiction and mental health issues.
"I understand I've committed horrible crimes, and I promise you that I'm not a horrible person or some complete monster," he said. "I'm clearing myself up in here."
But when it was time for family members of the girl who was kidnapped to address the board, they fired back at Lujan and took issue with the idea that prescription drug abuse led him to commit his crimes.
"You are using it as an excuse for what you did, and that's insulting. That's a 15-year-old girl who lost out on her teenage years. She should have been enjoying high school. ... You took that from her," said the girl's aunt, who stepped in to address the board after the girl's mother became too emotional and wasn't able to speak.
"It's wrong. That is not why you did what you did. You cannot blame prescription pills for committing this horrible crime that you did," she continued.
The family also took issue with the classes Lujan has been taking since being incarcerated.
"For two years you're in school, and my family is suffering," the aunt said. "My family is crying and you're getting this wonderful education."
The aunt then emotionally asked the board to make Lujan serve his entire life sentence.
"He should never be let out, ever," she said. "Think about the victim … not about all this education."
When Johnson asked Lujan if he had any response to the family's comments, he also became emotional.
"I know apologizing is not enough. There's nothing I can say or do that can make this any better or make this go away," he said. "I'm not trying to blame this on drugs or medication. I was explaining what got me off track. ... I'm not trying to use that as an excuse, because I know it's an excuse.
"I don't just feel bad about what I did, I'm horrified by what I did," Lujan continued, adding that he prayed every night for his victim's recovery. "I would give anything to take this whole situation and make it go away."
Lujan also responded by saying that he takes educational classes to try to become a better person rather than just being "warehoused" while in prison.
"I promise you, it's not a wonderful life in here," he said. "I should be held accountable for my actions. ... The only thing I can do in here is try to do the best I can and become a better person, change my way of thinking. All I can do in here is show the board of pardons that I'm willing to do my very best and work as hard as I can to change."
Lujan finished his comments by saying he has endless remorse for what he has done and that he knows he'll be serving a minimum of 20 years in prison.
"That's a very long time for someone to think about what they've done," he said.
The full five-member board will now vote on when to grant Lujan another hearing.
