SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 9, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — A man who choked a Unified Police officer responding to a domestic violence call last August has been sentenced to prison time.
Ruben Serna, 43, had admitted to choking a female officer who was responding to a domestic violence kidnapping at Serna’s home. He also tried to disarm her, his court documents say.
“On Aug. 3, 2024, Unified Police Department was contacted by the victim-survivor in this case and told that the defendant had consumed approximately 30 beers and began acting violent and erratic,” the statement from the SLCo DA’s Office says.
“The defendant would not allow the victim-survivor to leave a corner of their kitchen and grabbed her by the neck.
“When the police arrived at his residence, the defendant would not leave his home and tried to shut the door on them. An officer was able to get inside the home and attempted to take the defendant to the ground. However, the officer felt the defendant reach for her firearm and place his hand on her holster.
“The defendant then grabbed the officer by the throat and began to squeeze, making it so the officer was unable to speak and had difficulty breathing. The officer had to Tase the defendant three times before he complied and was taken to the ground and into custody. The defendant also caused a laceration and swelling of the upper lip of a different officer.”
On Feb. 25, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree felony kidnapping, one count of second-degree felony attempted disarming a police officer, one count of third-degree felony assault on a peace officer producing injury, and one count of third-degree felony violation of pretrial protective order.
On Monday, a Third District Court judge sentenced the defendant to 1-15 years for second-degree felony kidnapping. All other sentences for the other three charges will run concurrently to the kidnapping.
“We applaud this victim-survivor for recognizing the danger of her situation and calling the police to help intervene before the situation escalated,” SLCo DA Sim Gill said in the released statement.
“We appreciate the danger these police officers were willing to put themselves in to protect not only the victim-survivor but her children as well. We thank the judge for understanding the risk this defendant is to the community and sentencing him to prison for the violence that he exacted not only on his own family but on the officers responding to protect her.
“We commend the work of our prosecutor Jonathan Fenn, our social worker Cynthia Cruz, who worked with the family, and our support staff for their work on this successful prosecution.”
