Kidnap Suspect Faces 27 Counts

Charles William Mix, the Riverside man accused of abducting a 5-year-old girl and driving her to Utah this week, was charged with 27 felonies Thursday, including sexual assault for allegedly molesting the girl several times since January.

Mix, 48, appeared in Riverside County Superior Court on Thursday, handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit. His arraignment was postponed until June 18 at the request of public defender Mark Johnson, who said he needed more time to review the evidence.

“This is such a serious case with many issues to explore,” Johnson said after the court hearing. “We might want to explore [Mix’s] mental issues.”

Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Allison Nelson reiterated that she had a strong case against Mix, who had been living with the girl and her father in Riverside for two months.

“[Mix] was molesting the child by use of menace, force, duress or coercion,” Nelson said. “There’s an abundance of evidence that these acts occurred.”

If convicted, Mix could face life in prison, Nelson said.

Superior Court Judge Russell Schooling ordered Mix to avoid all attempts to contact the girl or her family, and kept bail at $500,000. Mix remained in police custody Thursday.

This week, Riverside police said they had evidence that the 6-foot-4, 350-pound suspect had been planning the abduction for a while. The girl was allegedly snatched early Monday.

Mix and the girl were found by two Richfield, Utah, police officers Monday afternoon when a resident who saw the two reported she had a “hunch” there was something amiss. Investigators have said Mix, driving a stolen truck, was headed east toward Colorado on Interstate 70 in Utah, but they have not revealed where they believe he planned to take the girl.

A Riverside police officer wrote in an arrest declaration Tuesday that Mix was found with photographs of the girl in various stages of undress, in sexually explicit poses.

The prosecutor said the sexual abuses happened in a residence “geographically close to Riverside.”

A Riverside police investigator said officers conducted a search of a Fontana residence where Mix lived before he moved into the home of the girl’s father, Chris Clark. Nelson added that “there was reason to believe” Mix had known the girl before the alleged assaults possibly began in January. Clark and the girl’s mother, Sabrina Stansbury of Stanton, attended Thursday’s hearing.

In addition to felony charges of kidnapping and burglary, Mix faces a special allegation of kidnapping for the purpose of committing sexual assault.