Utah Man Kills Girlfriend Over Broken Vape Cartridge: Report

A Utah man is in jail after he called police and confessed he’d just strangled his girlfriend to death.

Daniel Padilla-Ang, 27, reportedly told police on Saturday he had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend over a broken vape cartridge. After she hit him, he said he strangled and punched her until she stopped breathing, KUTV reports.

“Daniel said that he checked to see if she was alive still, by placing his hand over her mouth and pinching her nose to see if she would gasp for air,” the arrest report says. “Daniel stated that when she did not respond he took a couple of shots of alcohol and sent 2 text messages to family members stating that he had just killed someone and that he wouldn’t be seeing them for a while.”

Padilla-Ang told the dispatch operator he’d been drinking and “needed to be taken in,” the report says.

Responding officers found the suspect kneeling inside the home with his hands behind his head. He appeared to have blood on his hands as well.

The officers found the victim, who was not identified, in another room with “significant facial injuries and her face was swollen and covered in blood,” according to the arrest report.

The arrest report says that Padilla-Ang had been arrested five times over the past eight years, twice for domestic violence. He told arresting officers he was on probation and had just finished counseling services.

Padilla-Ang has been charged with first-degree murder.

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