Registered sex offender is arrested in Cedar assault

Cedar City police have arrested a man they said registered as a sex offender in their area last week — and then sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman.

"He recently registered with (Adult Probation and Parole)," Cedar City police detective Jerry Womack said Thursday.

The woman was jogging down a trail in Cedar Canyon on Wednesday afternoon, when police said the 21-year-old man grabbed her and smashed her cell phone.

"He choked her, ripped her shirt off and threatened her with a knife," Womack said. "She fought valiantly. She fought like a maniac to get away."

Police said a 25-year-old man riding his skateboard down the trail came upon the alleged assault and scared the man off. He gave the woman his cell phone to call 911 while he chased after the man.

"This good Samaritan, he followed the guy, stayed behind him and directed the officers to where he was," Womack said.

James Dallas Hill, 21, was booked into the Iron County Jail on investigation of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated sex assault, damage to a communications device and a parole violation.

The Utah Department of Corrections' sex offender registry lists Hill as having four prior convictions in 2002 of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. In November, he was charged in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court with failure to register as a sex offender, a class A misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in jail, with credit for time served.

Corrections spokeswoman Angie Welling said Thursday that Hill registered with AP&P on Feb. 20 in Cedar City.