This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Taylorsville man could spend the rest of his life in prison after police said he went on a rampage of Salt Lake County hit-and-runs and then broke into his former boss's house and attacked him while he slept last year.
Third District Judge Katie Bernards-Goodman earlier this month sentenced Philip Deluca, 34, to a term of at least five years and up to life in prison for aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony, after he had pleaded guilty in June. Prosecutors dismissed multiple felony charges of assault and criminal mischief related to the May 22, 2016, events, as well as a charge of assaulting a prisoner the following month.
Early on May 22, police got reports of three consecutive hit-and-run crashes in White City, an unincorporated area under Sandy jurisdiction. The truck Deluca was reportedly driving struck other cars, a home and a tree. A homeowner was struck by debris in one incident. Deluca also was accused of driving to Cottonwood Heights and ramming a building that housed radar speed trailers at a Unified Police substation.
The truck was later found abandoned.
But about an hour after the hit-and-runs ended, Deluca showed up at his former boss's home in the Millcreek area and sneaked in the back door. A woman heard screams and saw her husband being attacked in bed, court records state. She told police her husband had recently fired Deluca.
The man reported waking to "crushing pain on the right side of his face" — the result of Deluca striking him with a crutch.
The wife said she tried to pin Deluca down, then grabbed her daughter's hoverboard and struck Deluca in the head with it — but he would not stop attacking her husband. The couple's teenage daughter also joined in the struggle, court records state, and sprayed Deluca in the face with pepper spray.
The family of the man "ended up beating the tar out of" Deluca, a Unified Police lieutenant said at the time.
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