PLEASANT GROVE, Utah, March 11, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A Pleasant Grove man has been sentenced to prison after a brutal assault in which he choked his girlfriend, tried to smother her with a pillow, threatened her with a gun, a steak knife, a screwdriver and ultimately electrocution in a water-filled bathtub.
Hector Ortega was originally charged with two first-degree felonies, in the April 25, 2022 assaults, including the attempted murder.
As part of a plea deal, Ortega, 44, has admitted guilt to:
- Aggravated kidnapping, amended to a second-degree felony
- Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony.
For aggravated kidnapping, Ortega was sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
For aggravated assault, he was sentenced to up to five years in prison.
The judge ruled Ortega’s terms will run consecutively, and he will not be given credit for time already served.
Charging documents say a woman who had been in a relationship with Ortega, and arrived at his residence to “talk things out” about her fiancé.
hWhen the fiancé arrived, Ortega said he was going to kill him, court documents say.
He then shut the door on her fiancé, a statement from the Pleasant Grove Police Department says, and began physically assaulting the woman.
The fiancé reportedly called police.
Officers said when they arrived the woman “showed us marks around her wrist that were from handcuffs, she showed us a red mark under her right eye from where Hector punched her.
“Also on the victim’s left temple she had a circle mark that appeared to be from a barrel of a gun,” the PGPD officer’s statement says.
The victim told police Hector then took her over the stove and told her he was going to burn her,” according to court documents.
The victim said Ortega also stuffed a cloth in her mouth so she could not scream.
The statement says Ortega next dragged her to the bathtub and began to fill it with water before plugging a radio cord into an outlet near the tub. He then told “her he was going to electrocute her and she would be dead before police arrived,” charging documents say.
When Ortega realized police were outside, he took the woman out of the tub, court documents say.
While executing a search warrant at the residence, police located a loaded rifle, court documents say.
The “plea deal” sentences seem too light. From his behavior, according to the article, he is extremely dangerous and can’t control his anger – or he is seriously mentally ill. Either one seems to be evidence of his potential danger to people he may come in contact with.