A former Seventh-day Adventist Church youth leader is facing criminal charges for allegedly raping a teen girl in the Utah group he led over the course of at least two years.
According to a news release from the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office, Luis Fernando Trillo, 34, first asked the teen to be his girlfriend sometime around September 2022.
Trillo, who lives in Taylorsville, told the girl he “liked her” several times, according to charging documents, and the girl told police that they became closer because “she was sad and needed some type of support.”
The documents allege the sexual abuse began shortly after, first in Trillo’s car and then at a Salt Lake City spa, where they would “check in under fake names, go to their room and have sex” before she would return to school and Trillo would go back to work.
The charging document says they did this once or twice a week for about a year.
But when the girl began to make friends, the document says Trillo got jealous. Once, after the teenager hung out with her friends, she told police Trillo took her phone and wouldn’t let her leave his car.
About a year ago, in June 2024, court documents say the girl’s dad took her phone and found messages with Trillo, who later told her to “deny everything,” the girl said. She told her family Trillo was just her “friend.”
Five months later, after discovering Trillo and his daughter talking again in November, the document says the girl’s dad contacted police, launching an investigation. However, the documents allege that Trillo coached the girl through her response — telling her what to say and who to speak to, and instructing her to write a letter saying she was suffering because of her parents.
It’s unclear how the investigation progressed from there. The charging documents allege the abuse continued in January.
A Unified Police Department spokesperson declined to provide details about the investigation and referred The Salt Lake Tribune to the district attorney’s office.
“There were different stages of the investigation, and the filing of charges was done when it was complete. Any other issues, if relevant, would come out in the prosecution at the appropriate time,” Gill said of the investigation’s timeline.
One day in January, prosecutors say, the girl and Trillo got into an argument. Trillo again took her phone before she ran from his car toward her own.
The documents say he then tailed her vehicle for the next 30 minutes to an hour as she tried to get away, and that he eventually rear-ended her car at a stop light.
From there, the girl drove to her school, left her car and ran, the documents say, but Trillo “caught her, grabbed her and took her keys and phone” before walking away.
The documents say the girl was able to get her keys back, but Trillo kept her phone and followed her to her car. Trillo ultimately left with her phone.
Sometime after this encounter, the girl “broke up” with Trillo, but said it was “hard.” The documents allege Trillo went to her school several times, on one occasion getting into the backseat of her car and later following her to a friend’s home and “begging” the girl to talk to him, the documents say.
The girl told authorities Trillo would also comment on her social media posts from fake accounts, according to the documents, and later called her with his work phone.
Trillo told the girl, according to the documents, that he wasn’t calling “to get back with (her) but that he was worried because he heard from people at church that she was being a bad person.”
When the girl told Trillo to stop talking to her, he allegedly told her they had a “deal” to “not tell anyone what happened between them.”
In a separate conversation, the documents state, Trillo told the girl “he would make her famous in the worst way” if she told anyone about their relationship, and she was scared he would share sexually explicit pictures or videos of her.
Prosecutors have charged Trillo with eight counts of rape, two counts of object rape and ten counts of forcible sodomy — all first-degree felony charges.
In addition, he is facing five counts of tampering with a witness and one count of road rage aggravated assault, both third degree felonies, and a misdemeanor stalking charge.
“We applaud this brave young survivor for cooperating with the investigation and prosecution,” District Attorney Sim Gill said in the news release.
Trillo was booked into Salt Lake County jail Thursday. His case is assigned to Utah 3rd District Judge John Nielsen.
