Jeffrey Charles Salt -- who is currently on leave from his position as director of Great Salt Lakekeeper -- refused to allow his ex-girlfriend to leave his home the night of June 2, then grabbed a football-shaped piece of pottery and beat the woman so severely she needed 65 staples in her head, she testified during a preliminary hearing.
Judge Vernice Trease on Thursday ordered Salt, 49, to stand trial for the attack. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 3 before Judge Deno Himonas.
The woman testified Thursday she went to Salt's house after he asked her to meet to discuss reconciling. The two had dated for about 2- years and had then lived together for two years, the victim said.
She decided to break off the relationship at the end of April, but agreed to meet Salt in June to talk, she said. Salt attacked her when she tried to leave his house, she said.
"He jumped up and said 'I can't let you leave,'" the victim said. Salt then grabbed her head and gave it a "sharp twist," she said, "like he was trying to break my neck."
She started screaming and bit Salt's finger to get away from him, but he wrestled her to the floor and pinned her. He then grabbed a sculpture from a nearby shelf and hit the woman in the head with it between five and 10 times, the victim said.
He also struck her in the side of the head with a metal bar, she said.
The woman tried to defuse the situation, she said, but as she begged Salt to stop he told her he couldn't because he would "lose everything he'd worked for."
"He said 'You've driven me completely insane,'" she testified. She added later, "He said 'I hate you so much I even bought a gun today.'"
The woman eventually persuaded Salt to let her out of the house. She lay on the front walk and a neighbor spotted her and called 911, she said.
Salt did not testify Thursday. His attorney, John Johnson, attempted to argue that the woman was engaged in a new relationship, which prompted an altercation between the two, but the judge sustained an objection from a prosecutor who said that information was not relevant to the case.
