Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- John Emanuel Banuelos faces new charges of kidnapping and sexual assault.
- Banuelos, pardoned for his involvement in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, was arrested in Chicago.
- His DNA matched evidence from a 2018 assault, charges say.
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who investigators say fired a gun inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots was in court Friday to face new charges of kidnapping and sexual assault.
John Emanuel Banuelos, 40, was charged last month in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault, both first-degree felonies. The charging documents and his arrest warrant were sealed, however, until Nov. 4 after he was taken into custody in Chicago. Banuelos is from Utah but has family ties in the Chicago area.
Prosecutors say Banuelos has been arrested multiple times in Utah and "has an extensive violent criminal history in Illinois dating back to 2001."
Banuelos previously made headlines when he stabbed and killed Christopher Thomas Senn, 19, at Liberty Park on July 4, 2021. Although Banuelos was initially detained, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office determined he acted in self-defense and declined to file charges against him.
But it was during that stabbing investigation that police learned Banuelos may have traveled to Washington D.C. six months earlier and participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
"Man, should I just tell the FBI to come get me or what?" Banuelos asked detectives, according to a transcript of the interview with Salt Lake police.
"Do you have a warrant?" one detective asked.
"Probably," he said. "I was in the D.C. riots."
"On Jan. 6?" the other detective asked. "Did you go inside the Capitol?"
"Yeah, I went inside and I'm the one with the video with the gun right here," Banuelos said.
Banuelos, who was determined to have fired two rounds into the air while inside the Capitol, was arrested in March 2024. But his charges were dismissed after President Donald Trump pardoned all the Capitol rioters in January.
Banuelos' latest criminal charges stem from an incident in Salt Lake County in 2018. He invited a woman to a party at his residence, but "when she got to his house, there was no furniture and no party," according to charging documents. Police say the woman was physically and sexually assaulted. After the attack she went to a local hospital.
In August, a national database matched Banuelos' DNA with the DNA collected seven years earlier after the assault, according to the charging documents.
"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," the charges allege.
Banuelos made his initial appearance on his kidnapping and sexual assault charges on Friday via video. His next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
