In Democrat-run Portland, a teenager who called 911 and told officers, “I stabbed a pedophile,” is headed to prison. The older man he accused of sending him videos of child sexual abuse is not.
Elijah Cruz Valenzuela, then 19, plunged a knife into the chest of 46-year-old Joshua Field at Field’s downtown Portland apartment on the night of Aug. 11, 2025.
Valenzuela told police he had met Field on the dating app Sniffies, that Field sent him child sexual abuse videos that were later deleted, and that Field invited him over to watch more while asking if he was “pervy” and interested in “younger guys,” Oregon Live reported.
Valenzuela said he originally planned only to beat Field. He then grabbed a knife inside the apartment, stabbed Field in the chest, ran to the lobby, and called 911.
Body-camera video obtained by the news outlet captured him telling officers after his arrest: “I stabbed a ped*phile.” Field survived.
On Aug. 21, 2026, Valenzuela, who had no prior criminal record, pleaded no contest to attempted first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall sentenced him to five years in prison.
With “good time,” that stretch could shrink to a little more than three. He is already at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.
Field, a California-licensed lawyer with past criminal-defense work listed in Washington, has not been charged with a single child-pornography offense in Oregon. He is not sitting in an Oregon jail.
He is facing a separate Santa Cruz County, California, case accusing him of possessing videos of child sexual abuse, plus a public-intoxication charge. He has pleaded not guilty, is not being held, and has another court date in October.
His attorney, Stuart Kirchick, told Oregon Live that Field denies sending or possessing the material, called Valenzuela “a convicted felon,” and even asked the paper not to print Field’s name because Field “is a victim of a very violent assault.”
More from the news outlet:
Portland Police Bureau records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive show that police twice previously investigated Field based on claims from two other men — one from Portland and one from San Francisco — that they met Field on the dating app Grindr, that he took them back to his apartment and that he showed them child pornography in 2021.
After the second man contacted police, Detective Jonathan Richardson wrote that he was closing the investigation because police had struggled to gather evidence.
“While documented accounts of Field’s behavior is extremely concerning, I have been unable to make contact with witnesses in prior police reports, am not aware of any victims, and Field refuses to be interviewed,” Richardson wrote.
[…]
At an August sentencing hearing, Valenzuela’s public defender, Josh McCain, said his client had been the victim of childhood sexual abuse.
“Mr. Valenzuela was diagnosed with Bipolar II (disorder), had not taken his medication at that time of the incident and — based upon some of the traumatic events of his life, being sexually abused — he was triggered in that moment to act as he had,” McCain told the judge.
