A Portland teen took matters into his own hands after allegedly receiving disturbing videos from a man he met on a dating app — and now he’s facing five years in prison while the other man walks free.
According to court documents and police reports, Elijah Cruz Valenzuela, then 19, stabbed 46-year-old Joshua Field in the chest at Field’s downtown Portland apartment on the evening of August 11, 2025.
Valenzuela reportedly told officers when he called 911 to turn himself in, “I stabbed a pedophile,” as shown in body-worn camera footage obtained by The Oregonian.
The teen claimed he met Field on the dating app Sniffles, where Field allegedly sent him videos of child sexual 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮. Valenzuela said the videos were quickly removed by app moderators, according to police reports.
He also told authorities that Field invited him over to watch videos together and asked if Valenzuela was “pervy” or interested in younger guys, per the police report.
Valenzuela had no prior criminal record and said in court that he was a victim of sexual assault as a child. He claimed he only intended to beat Field up but ended up grabbing a knife.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and first-degree burglary charges last month and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Field survived the stabbing. Records show he had been investigated before for allegedly possessing child 𝒔𝒆𝒙 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 material. Two men who met Field on Grindr in 2021 reportedly told police he showed them similar videos, but that investigation was closed due to lack of evidence.
Field has not been charged in Oregon, but prosecutors in California later charged him with crimes related to possessing child 𝒔𝒆𝒙 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 videos. His attorney, Stuart Kirchick, denied the allegations made by Valenzuela and California prosecutors in a statement to The Oregonian.
With one man behind bars and the other facing separate charges, what does justice really look like in a case like this?
