A 44-year-old man was shot and killed early Sunday over allegations he had been unfaithful in his marriage, according to the Brigham City Police Department.
The victim was identified as John Matthew Ruiz.
Brigham City Police Lt. Michael C. Nelsen said a woman called 911 at 3:16 a.m. Sunday and admitted to a dispatcher she had shot her husband.
Officers from the police department and the Box Elder County Sheriff's Department responded to a house in the 1000 West block of 725 South in Brigham City. They found a woman standing outside the home and talking on a cordless phone, Nelsen said.
Two witnesses, a man and a woman, then directed officers to a 1976 motor home parked on the west side of the home. The victim was found inside with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
John Ruiz was taken by ambulance to Brigham City Community Hospital, where the medical staff pronounced him dead as a result of the gunshot wound, Nelsen said.
The couple had hosted a small party at their home Saturday night, Nelsen said. A man and woman — who had been invited to the party and had yet to leave — were in the motor home with Ruiz at the time his wife allegedly entered the vehicle and the shooting took place, Nelsen said.
Nelsen said it appeared Ruiz's wife may have learned of her husband's alleged behavior shortly before the shooting occurred. He described the incident as a "crime of passion."
"He was just in the motor home with someone else. There was a woman and another man," Nelsen said. "She (the wife) was very distraught when she found out everything that was going on."
The murder weapon is believed to be a small-caliber handgun owned by the couple. It was unclear Sunday whether the woman believed responsible for the shooting had the gun in her possession when she entered the motor home.
Nelsen said alcohol was consumed during the party, but police said the wife was not believed to be intoxicated at the time of the shooting.
Vicki Ruiz, 43, was taken to the sheriff's office, interviewed and then arrested and booked for investigation of homicide, Nelsen said.
Officers were continuing their investigation Sunday, including interviews with the man and woman who had been in the motor home.
Nelsen said police had been called to the home for an apparent domestic disturbance one other time, in 2004.
Nelsen said John Ruiz was retired. The couple's three daughters are all grown and living outside the home, he said.
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