Mastermind Pleads No Contest to Kidnaping : Crime: Santa Barbara man faces a minimum jail sentence of 13 years for the abduction and sexual assault of a 20-year-old who was held captive 13 days.

The young mastermind of a sensational kidnaping and sexual assault that rocked this seaside town a year ago pleaded no contest Friday to charges that could put him in prison for life.

Eric Alden Panizzon, 24, pleaded no contest to charges of kidnaping for ransom, sexual assault and soliciting the beating of a jailhouse informant, charges that stemmed from the ordeal of Ryan Curtis, 20, who was held captive for 13 days.

Curtis was kidnaped at gunpoint in September, 1992, after dropping his girlfriend off at her home in Goleta. He was then taken to Panizzon’s home in the pricey Hope Ranch neighborhood and held for a day in a coffin-like toolbox.

For most of the rest of the time, he was held in a 10-foot-by-10-foot toolshed on the sprawling grounds of the Hope Ranch property.

Using equipment to scramble his voice and elude tracing, Panizzon called the Curtis family, who lived a mile away, and demanded $800,000 in ransom, an amount that was later dropped to $600,000.

For weeks before the kidnaping, Panizzon and two alleged accomplices stalked Curtis with long-range eavesdropping equipment, scribbled a detailed plan for the scheme in a diary and held a videotaped practice session for the assault, according to prosecutors.

Panizzon’s alleged accomplices are scheduled to go on trial Monday. Jeffrey Real Locas, 22, and Stephen Gregory Gillen, 30, face charges of kidnaping, residential burglary and conspiracy.

While Curtis was shackled in the toolshed, Panizzon repeatedly sexually assaulted him, said Santa Barbara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Darryl G. Perlin. He said Locas and Gillen were not involved in these attacks and most likely did not know of them.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Eric Panizzon is a threat to the community,” Perlin said Friday after the plea hearing.

Perlin said that the plea “saved Ryan Curtis and his family the difficult ordeal this trial required.”

Michael Carty, Panizzon’s attorney, said Friday that his client entered the plea because “it was very important not to put the Curtis family and his own family through the trial.”

In addition, it significantly pares the number of years Panizzon could spend in prison. The kidnaping charge carries a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Combined with the other charges, Panizzon will spend a minimum of 13 years behind bars.

“I feel like I am the one who has come up on top of this,” said Curtis, a student at UC Santa Barbara. “Eric is going to be punished. I feel good about it.”