Police find car, search for weapons belonging to suspect of Millcreek shootings

Police find car, search for weapons belonging to suspect of Millcreek shootings

(Salt Lake County Jail)


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

MILLCREEK — Unified police have found the missing car of Valentin Dulla Santarromana, who is accused of kidnapping and viciously shooting his estranged wife and her friend multiple times.

Investigators planned to serve a search warrant on the vehicle either Monday or Tuesday. They hoped to find guns belonging to Santarromana that have been missing since his arrest.

Santarromana, 37, was charged Friday in 3rd District Court with 31 felonies, including two counts of attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and numerous counts of discharging a firearm.

He is accused of torturing his estranged wife Jenny Andrus and shooting her five times, including one shot to her head that resulted in the loss of an eye. He is also charged with shooting Jai Hogue 11 times resulting in a severed spinal cord. Andrus has made a miraculous recovery and has been released from the hospital. Hogue remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition.

The violent episode happened Aug. 22 at Santarromana's home, 3313 S. Scott Court.

More details about the days leading up to the shootings were revealed in newly unsealed search warrant affidavits filed in 3rd District Court.

On Aug. 15, Unified police were called to a domestic disturbance at the home of Santarromana and Andrus. Before officers arrived, Santarromana left the home carrying a gun. Several hours later when he returned to the house, police confronted Santarromana who "was uncooperative and shouted, 'Shoot me in the head,'" according to the affidavits.

Related Story

After he was taken into custody, he told an officer that he was going to take the officer's gun and force the other officers to shoot and kill him, the warrants state.

At that time, officers found "74 rounds of .22 ammunition, 25 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition" in Santarromana's car, the affidavits state.

Santarromana was committed to a local hospital for a mandatory 72-hour mental evaluation. On Aug. 18, Andrus requested police officers to be present when she went back to the house to collect some items because Santarromana had been released from the hospital. Officers did not find him or any weapons in the house.

Four days later, Andrus again returned to her house to feed her dogs, but this time Santarromana was there. He attacked Andrus and fired 15 rounds at Hogue, according to charging documents. As he was holding Andrus hostage, he sent a text message to a person identified in a search warrant only as "witness," saying that he was going to "end it," according to a search warrant.

Related Story

After Santarromana was taken into custody, detectives served a warrant on the house and reported finding 21 shell casings, a shotgun shell, a machete and sheath, a handgun and several magazines.

They also received information that he "may have had access to additional weapons, firearms and ammunition and may have had sufficient time to cache these items," the warrants state.

As of Monday, investigators had not found those weapons. However, Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell said police found Santarromana's abandoned car in the Millcreek area over the weekend. Police were hoping the missing weapons would be found inside.

Santarromana is scheduled to make his initial appearance in court Wednesday to face the 31 felony charges.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast