Church youth leader accused of grooming teen girl charged with 26 felonies

TAYLORSVILLE — A church leader from Taylorsville was charged Thursday with engaging in an illegal relationship with a teenage girl.

Luis Fernando Trillo, 34, is charged in 3rd District Court with eight counts of rape, 10 counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object rape, first-degree felonies; five counts of witness tampering and aggravated assault, third-degree felonies; and stalking, a class A misdemeanor.

Suspect and victim met at church, police said

A 17-year-old girl told Unified police that she met Trillo at the church when she was 14. The court documents do not identify the church.

“She explained that Trillo was the youth leader at the time and had approached her multiple times, telling her he ‘liked her,'” according to charging documents.

Starting in September 2022, Trillo asked the teen to be his “girlfriend,” and the two began to engage in frequent sexual activity in places such as a local spa, public parks and parking lots, the charges allege.

When the girl started making other friends, however, Trillo became jealous, according to the charges, and he would do things such as take her phone. An investigation was started by police in November when they were contacted by the teen’s father, but the girl refused to cooperate with officers.

“Trillo told her to ‘deny everything and say no.’ (She) said everything she said in the last interview was planned by him. (Trillo) told her what to say, what to do, who to call, to get screenshots, and write a fake letter to say she was suffering from her parents,” the charges say.

By January, Trillo allegedly began following the girl to school and to her mother’s work, but the teen “didn’t call the police because she didn’t want him to get in trouble.”

Trillo continued to follow the teen after she “broke up” with him and even created fake social media accounts to comment on her posts, according to the court documents.

The girl told police that she “recorded a conversation with Trillo in April where he told her that if she said or did anything, he would make her famous in the worst way,” the charges state.

Position of trust

Prosecutors say Trillo “used his position of trust as a religious church leader to groom the victim, prey upon her, and convince her to enter a sexual relationship with him. (He) promised the victim he would leave his family for her. However, the victim reported three months into their ‘relationship,’ he still had not done so. (He) came to the victim with promises and manipulation to make her stay, no matter how hard she tried to leave,” according to charging documents.

Investigators have requested that he be held in the Salt Lake County Jail without the possibility of posting bail pending trial.