KINGMAN – A former Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC) surgical technician told the Court that life circumstances left him a broken man while a teenager claimed he destroyed her life by repetitive sexual assaults over a two-year period.
The Friday sentencing hearing at the Mohave County Law and Justice Center ended with Judge Doug Camacho ordering a 32-year prison term for Steve Culajay, 38.
His attorney and the defendant indicated the overworked Culajay became a changed person as he struggled with having a stroke in 2018, depression, sickness and death at the hospital and the loss of his father to Covid-19. Camacho was told that Culajay moved to Kingman to slow down his work pace only to become overwhelmed battling COVID chaos at KRMC.
“Peace was destroyed by the pandemic,” Culajay said. “I had never been surrounded by such loss of life.”
Culajay said it was overwhelming to experience so much misery and death when his job is to save lives. “Every patient you lose in surgery, you take personally.”
Culajay pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a minor related charges for engaging in sexual relations with two young Kingman teenagers.
“Your Honor, I repent for all that I have done and the consequences,” Culajay said.
One victim had been placed in a foster home operated by Culajay’s mother. The other was the daughter of a co-worker whose family allowed him to rent a room in their home.
“I crossed the boundary,” Culajay said. “We started a relationship.”
His primary victim said it wasn’t at all a relationship. She said he systematically imposed himself upon her time and time again for two years, beginning when she was 14.
“He didn’t just rape a little girl that night. He killed her,” the victim said. “I was a kid. I was terrified of this grown man.”
The girl said Culajay told her to keep quiet because he would blame her and that the public would believe the word of a medical professional over a young girl.
“I listened and obeyed,” she said. “When Steve raped me he would take pictures and videos…He told me he would delete them, but he didn’t.”
She told the Court that she has engaged in self-harming behavior, can’t sleep in the dark, that it feels like the bed is on fire when she lays down and that she cuts her hair short because Culajay liked it long.
“The sound of his voice sends shivers down my spine,’’ she said. “I would rather die on the streets than ever to be touched by him again.”
Her parents expressed emotion and anger by his betrayal and asked for maximum punishment for Culajay.
“I feel so full of rage,” the mother said.
The father said he and his mother had their suspicions but their daughter never implicated Culajay until after she ran away, all the way to Georgia.
Deputy county attorney Amanda Claerhout said that Culajay would tell the parents they were going hiking, but that he’d first take their daughter to a motel where they had sex. She said they’d then go take pictures in the Hualapai mountains to bring back pictures to show the parents to deceive them about the hiking for sex ruse.
Claerhout said Culajay is a predator who groomed both Kingman teenagers, and possibly others. She said one USB stick alone that was seized by investigators contained 542 videos of Culajay abusing his victims, some of whom authorities were unable to identify.
