Utah man threatened to shoot, burn, cut, electrocute girlfriend, charges say

PLEASANT GROVE — Criminal charges were filed Friday against a Pleasant Grove man accused of torturing a woman and threatening to kill her and her fiancé.

Hector Ortega, 43 — who was originally arrested for investigation of attempted murder — was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; and three counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony.

On April 25, Ortega "threatened multiple individuals with a gun, raped the victim, threatened to kill the victim, strangled the victim, and held the victim against her will," according to charging documents.

The situation began when a man went to Ortega's door and was met by Ortega who pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill the man before shutting the door, according to a police booking affidavit. That man told police he is the woman's fiancé, although others told police that the woman is Ortega's girlfriend. Also inside the house at the time were Ortega's ex-wife and his three children.

Police arrived at the house and surrounded it. As they were talking to the man who had knocked on the door, the ex-wife and children came out of the house, got into a vehicle and began to drive away, the charges state. Police pulled the vehicle over a short distance later and questioned the group.

"Officers spoke with the children and learned that (Ortega) was inside with his girlfriend, the victim, when a man came to the door. (Ortega) became angry and got a gun and threatened to kill the man at the door," the charges state.

Police attempted to call Ortega, but he did not answer the phone. A short time later, the woman came running out of the house.

"Officers noticed that the victim was clearly in distress and had multiple injuries," according to the charges.

Ortega walked out a short time later and surrendered to police.

As detectives tried to unravel what had happened, they learned that the woman had moved to Utah from Ecuador, leaving her fiancé in Ecaudor, and began a romantic relationship with Ortega. "She had recently told him that she wanted to break up so that she could be with her fiancé again," the charges state.

On April 25, Ortega asked the woman to come to his residence to talk about their relationship, and ended up raping her, the charges allege. As of Friday, however, Ortega had not been charged with any sexually related crimes.

The woman's fiancé showed up at the residence shortly after the alleged assault, "and (Ortega) became enraged and retrieved a handgun from a bedroom," the court documents say.

After threatening the fiancé and telling his ex-wife and children to leave the house, Ortega began to torture the woman, beating her, handcuffing her, holding her head near the flame of the gas stove and holding a gun and knife to her head and face, the charges state. Investigators say he also choked her and told her she would be dead before police arrived.

Ortega also took the woman to the bathroom where he filled the tub with water, made the woman get in, and "then unplugged the electrical cord for a speaker and plugged it into an outlet and hung the exposed end over the edge of the bathtub while it filled with water," according to the charges.

It was at that time that police called Ortega. Ortega then took the handcuffs off the woman "and told her that they were going to tell the police that they argued, that he got mad and broke some things, but that nothing physical occurred," the charges state.

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