MIDVALE, Utah, Dec. 20, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — The man arrested after an Amber alert turned into a kidnapping and a stabbing was charged with a stack of felonies Monday in 3rd District Court.
Events began when officers with the Unified Police Department rolled up on what had been called in as a traffic accident with injuries Dec. 9 at 7568 S. Bingham Junction Blvd. here.
They found a 20-year-old woman lying on the shoulder of the road bleeding and unconscious, according to charging documents.
When she was revived, she told officers her 4-year-old niece was in the vehicle he fled in after her ex-boyfriend stabbed her multiple times. An Amber alert was issued immediately. The niece was later dropped off by the suspect in an area in close proximity. She was located unharmed.
The suspect, Jonathan Waunloxten-Hidalgo, 20, had talked the victim into giving him a ride even though they had broken up a month ago. The woman told police she had suspected him of stalking her at one point.
En route to her mother’s house to drop off the niece she’d been baby-sitting, Waunloxten-Hidalgo suddenly began stabbing her when they stopped in front of her mother’s house, according to charging documents. She tried to flee the vehicle but he pulled her back in by the hair and continued the attack, according to a probable cause affidavit.
“All this occurred with (the niece) in the back seat belted into her car seat.”
She was able to exit the car, Waunloxten-Hidalgo hitting her with the driver’s side door as he drove off. The car was recovered on I-15 at 3600 South.
Waunloxten-Hidalgo was arrested the next day after a short standoff in Ogden, found in possession of another car apparently stolen.
He faces charges of child kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping, both first-degree felonies with potential life sentences; two counts a vehicle theft, a second-degree felony; possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, also a second-degree felony, and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence in the presence of a child.
As of Monday morning the woman was in stable condition in a hospital recovering from surgery for “approximately five stab wounds,” the court papers said.
