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SALT LAKE CITY -- Jose Adrian Rodriguez-Ramirez was a man in love with a woman caught in an abusive marriage.
At least that's what the now-26-year-old man told police when questioned in connection with the shooting death of the woman's husband.
"Adrian indicated he was in love with Marta, that he has contact with her three times a week and he wanted to marry her," Salt Lake police detective Cody Lougy said.
Now, the man has been ordered by 3rd District Judge Robin Reese to stand trial in the shooting death of Marta Campusano's husband, Juan Jose Rubio-Navaro, 32, who was gunned down in his driveway on June 24, 2010.
Rodriguez-Ramirez will stand trial for murder, a first-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony.
Rubio-Navaro was sitting at the edge of his driveway at 545 N. New Star Drive (1785 West) waiting for a ride to work when a car with two people inside drove by and fired multiple shots. Rubio-Navaro died from two gunshot wounds to his chest. According to prosecutors, Rodriguez-Ramirez, sitting in the passenger seat, fired the fatal shots while Jose Allan Gallegos-Mendoza, 25, drove.
Both Gallegos-Mendoza and Rodriguez-Ramirez have said the other man fired the revolver they apparently later dumped in a canal, but witnesses testified that it was a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt who fired the weapon, and Rodriguez-Ramirez told police he was wearing such a sweatshirt the morning of the shooting.
A neighbor who awoke to gunshots and saw the suspect vehicle near the scene said it was Campusano's lover who shot her husband.
"He was the one who shot (Rubio-Navaro)," she testified.
Rodriguez-Ramirez told Salt Lake police officer Thomas Flores that Rubio-Navaro "wasn't very good" to his wife.
"He stated that the victim, Marta's husband, was very abusive toward Marta and would often hit her," Flores testified. "Marta would call the defendant crying and tell him about the abuse she went through."
Lougy testified that police detectives asked neighbors and others who knew Campusano and Rubio-Navaro, and none of them reported any indication of abuse in the home. The couple has two sons.
Campusano, 24, was also charged in connection her husband's death, as police say she not only lied about having an affair, but also kept them from getting information on her lover by saying she didn't have his phone number and hadn't talked to him in six months.
She was been bound over for trial on one count of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony. A two-day trial has been scheduled for March.
Gallegos-Mendoza waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. Both he and Rodriguez-Ramirez will have an arraignment hearing Feb. 14.
E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com
