This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake County man accused of shooting and wounding his estranged wife and her friend made his first court appearance on Wednesday morning.
Valentin Dulla Santarromana, 37, is charged with 31 felonies in connection to the Aug. 22 shooting at his Millcreek area home. He appeared in court via a video feed on Wednesday, where 3rd District Judge Royal Hansen told the man that he could not go near his wife or children or have any weapons on him if he were to bail out of jail.
Also Wednesday, Santarromana was appointed a public defender. He is expected in court again on Oct. 2.
Santarromana remained Thursday in the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Meanwhile, a newly released search warrant states that on Aug. 22, Andrus' brother received a 3:09 a.m. text from Santarromana's phone, apparently intended for Santarromana's children, that reads, "It hurt me to see your mom with someone else."
"I can't bear to have this family apart," the text reads. "... My love for your mom is so strong and true that I can't bear to see your mom with anyone else!!!!!!!!!!!!"
According to charging information, Santarromana's estranged wife, 42-year-old Jennifer Andrus, went to her former residence later that day with a friend, Jai Hogue, also 42, to care for the couple's dogs.
Andrus entered the home, while Hogue waited outside.
Shortly after Andrus went into the home, she was allegedly confronted by Santarromana, who was armed with a gun and meat cleaver. The husband is accused of hitting Andrus with the gun and the meat cleaver before she ran to the front door to alert her friend to call police.
At that time, Santarromana allegedly shot at Hogue 15 times, striking her in the chest, ear, shoulder, midsection, pelvis, forearm, hand, groin, knee and calf.
During the ensuing standoff with Unified Police, Santarromana allegedly held his wife hostage in the basement laundry room, where he forced her to call her mother and let him speak to their children, according to the search warrant.
"Santarromana told [Hogue's] her mother that he loved them," the warrant reads. "Andrus also called her sister and left a voice message telling her to take care of the children if anything happened to her."
Before surrendering to police, Santarromana allegedly shot his wife several times before police entered the home and removed Andrus. She was hit by gunfire five times: in the right side of the head — which resulted in the loss of her eye — in the arm, twice in the leg and in the ankle.
Andrus, who had filed for a protective order against her husband on Aug. 17, was able to attend an Aug. 31 hearing in the case. She wore a purple scarf wrapped around her head, her right eye was bandaged and there was an apparent cast on her left arm. She walked slowly with the aide of a cane and there was a visible purple bruise on her left cheek.
Hogue, meanwhile, has been hospitalized and has been alternating between critical and extremely critical condition, according to Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell.
A YouCaring crowd-funding page for Hogue states that the woman — a longtime librarian at the Open Classroom in Salt Lake City — is in a medically induced coma, but may be moved from the intensive care unit to an acute care facility soon. A similar crowd-funding page has been set up for Andrus, a University of Utah English professor.
During the standoff, Santarromana also allegedly fired at officers who were attempting to bring him a phone to continue negotiations. No police were injured, though charging documents say bullets struck one medic's protective equipment.
Santarromana is charged with two counts of attempted aggravated murder, and one count each of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault — all first-degree felonies. He is also charged with 12 first-degree felony counts of felony discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury, three counts of second-degree felony assault against a police officer, four counts of third-degree felony aggravated assault and eight counts of third-degree felony discharge of a firearm.
Santarromana also is facing charges in connection to an earlier domestic violence episode, in which he allegedly threatened his wife with a machete. In that case, Santarromana was charged with aggravated assault and three counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, all third-degree felonies.
He will appear in court on Oct. 2 for that case as well.
Twitter: @jm_miller