WESTMINSTER – A Huntington Beach man took a 7-year-old mentally-disabled girl away by the hand while she was playing with her friends and then sexually assaulted her in his apartment in August 2009, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday.

The attack was interrupted by the girl’s 8-year-old playmate, who went searching when the little girl did not return to the courtyard, Deputy District Attorney Eric Scarbrough said in his opening statement of a kidnap, molestation and sexual assault trial here.

The 7-year-old girl, who is primarily nonverbal, then managed to escape and ran crying from Daniel Vlas Flores’ apartment, Scarbrough said. Tests revealed that the girl had been sexually assaulted, Scarbrough said.

Flores, 30, is standing trial before Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen charged with kidnapping for the purpose of sexual assault, and three counts of sexual assault on a child 10-years-old or younger. His trial should conclude next week.

If convicted, Flores faces a sentence of 72 years to life in prison.

Scarbrough told the jury that the girl was playing with her 8-year-old friend and two little boys outside her apartment Aug. 19, 2009, when Flores walked up while the babysitter wasn’t looking. Flores told the children that he needed help moving some furniture as he took the girl by the hand and led her away, Scarbrough said.

The girl resisted, but Flores dragged her into his nearby apartment, which is in the same quad where the girl’s family lived, Scarbrough said.

The 8-year-old playmate – who called her friend “the little girl who doesn’t talk” and who considered herself the younger girl’s protector – became concerned when the younger girl didn’t return, Scarbrough said. The older girl somehow managed to unlatch the sliding door of Flores apartment and found Flores in the closet area with the semi-nude girl.

The young girl then ran out the door crying and into her family’s apartment a few doors away, prosecutors said. Flores was arrested later that day.

Detectives later recovered his DNA from the girl, and found her DNA on his hands, prosecutors said.

Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-3784