A 46-year-old Littleton soccer coach was sentenced today to 24 years in prison for kidnapping and sexual assault of a child. Following completion of his prison sentence, Stephen Martin Myers faces intensive supervision sex offender probation for a period of 20 years to life.

Myers was arrested following a massive search for a 13-year-old girl in Littleton on October 24, 2008, that ultimately ended when he turned himself into police. Myers was the goal-keepers skills coach for the girl’s team in the Littleton Soccer Club.

The girl’s parents contacted Littleton police at about 9:30 p.m. on October 23 reporting that their daughter was missing. The parents said that there had been an argument earlier that evening about the girl’s cell phone privileges. It was a cold night and the parents were very worried about her being outside. Police began an intensive search for the girl, including bringing in a K9 Unit. 

Following the fight with her parents the girl had called Myers to come and pick her up. He was driving south with her in his car when he called the girl’s mother and lied to her and police officers about where he was and that he was with the girl. Myers had sex with the girl at a hotel in Colorado Springs and then again at a hotel in Walsenburg. He lied to police several times through the night then stopped talking to them all together. He turned himself in the following day.

Myers pled guilty to Kidnapping, a class two felony, and Sexual Assault on a Child by a Person in a Position of Trust, a class three felony, on August 18.