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WEST JORDAN — A Sandy man who admitted to a violent episode of domestic violence, including holding his girlfriend against her will and trying to force her into an oven, was sentenced to prison Tuesday.
Joseph Anthony Castellanos, 32, was ordered to serve 15 years to life in prison, the maximum sentence available in the case. Prosecutors had recommended as part of a plea agreement that Castellanos receive a sentence of at least six years and up to life in prison.
Castellanos pleaded guilty in November to a first-degree felony charge of aggravated kidnapping. In exchange for that plea, a dozen other charges were dismissed.
Sandy police were called June 26 to a home near 8900 S. State where a woman using a cellphone she had hidden in her bathroom for "emergencies" called 911 and whispered, "He tried to kill me," according to charging documents.
When officers arrived, they discovered that Castellanos had beaten the woman, stabbed her with a fork, urinated on her, hit her with a belt and then attempted to put her inside an oven, according the charges. Castellanos also began heating water and filling a bin in the bathtub, threatening to boil the woman alive, and later attempted to pour toilet bowl cleaner down her throat, the charges state.
Castellanos had apparently become enraged with the woman because she was taking too long responding to the Facebook messages he was sending her from work, police said. The woman was reportedly having computer trouble, and when it was resolved, the flurry of messages that came through included violent threats to beat and kill her.
The woman told police she had also been violently beaten in a similar episode a month earlier.
Castellanos was originally charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies; aggravated assault, a second-degree felony; six counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; propelling bodily substances, a class A misdemeanor; and criminal mischief, a class A misdemeanor.
Help for people in abusive relationships can be found by contacting the YWCA's Women in Jeopardy program at 801-537-8600, or the Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-897-LINK (5465).
