LOGAN, Utah — A 48-year-old Logan man has been sentenced to prison after admitting to assaulting a woman for several days two years ago. Christopher Mark Derring was originally arrested in September 2024.
According to court records, Derring appeared Aug. 19 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. As part of the resolution, five remaining charges were dismissed.
Derring was immediately sentenced to three terms of zero to five years in prison, receiving credit for time already served. The three sentences will run concurrently.
According to prosecutors, a Cache County sheriff’s deputy was driving through Logan Canyon along U.S. 89 on Sept. 11, 2024. Near the Stokes Nature Center, a Salt Lake City woman waved the deputy down and reported Derring had abducted her from a hotel in Ogden.
The victim described how she had been visiting friends when Derring offered to give her a ride. However, instead of taking her back to Salt Lake City, he drove her to his Logan apartment, where she was raped and assaulted repeatedly.
The woman told police how Derring had beaten her with several objects, including a flashlight, a pipe and a broken towel rack. She said the Logan man was taking her to Idaho, where he claimed he was going to “drop her off in a remote area to die,” according to charging documents.
Deputies searched the area and found Derring asleep behind the wheel of his car with the engine running. He tested positive for methamphetamine, fentanyl and prescription drugs.
The victim reported she was held captive for four days. In addition to being raped and beaten repeatedly, she described how Derring put glue in her hair, claiming it was “treatment,” after trying to cut it, court documents detailed.
Deputies noted that the woman had bruises on her feet, legs, shoulders, back, eyes and jaw. She also had a large abrasion on the top of her forehead.
Law enforcement obtained a warrant to search Derring’s apartment. Inside a bedroom, they found several small bloodstains on a pillow. In the bathroom, they found a broken towel rack and a white towel with blood on it.