SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City father admitted Thursday to beating his estranged wife to death with a crowbar and pummeling his 13-year-old daughter with the tool, pleading guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors that spares him the possibility of the death penalty.
Walter Eugene Brantzeg, 55, was in a bitter custody dispute with his estranged wife, Valerie Sue Brantzeg, 50, court documents show.
Early on Aug. 22, he kicked in the front door of Valerie Brantzeg's apartment near 850 W. 3900 South, then attacked her and his daughter with a crowbar and pepper spray while they were still in bed, telling the girl, "If you want to be with your mom so bad, be with her," investigators reported. The Brantzegs had been separated and living apart for years but had never divorced.
Valerie Brantzeg filed for temporary separation from her husband about three weeks ahead of the attack, court records show. Roughly two weeks later, she texted her husband to tell him she intended to seek sole legal custody of their daughter.
An autopsy revealed 28 blunt force injuries to Valerie Brantzeg's head, court documents show. Her daughter suffered skull and facial fractures but survived, and an older sister, now 21, was not present at the time.
Members of Valerie Brantzeg's family wore purple in support of her on Thursday, recalling how she loved painting ceramic wolves and eagles and spending time with her kids.
"Nobody knows what's going on inside another family's life if they don't live in the home with them, if they're not there with them 24/7," Valerie Brantzeg's sister Jeanne Long said outside the courtroom. "We can only imagine, and imaginations run wild. After the fact, you wonder, is there anything else I could have done? Is there anything else I should have done? But it's too late."
She and her family members approved the deal so her nieces could begin to heal, she said.
Inside the courtroom, Walter Brantzeg entered guilty pleas to each charge he faced, including aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty, a class A misdemeanor.
Brantzeg appeared in a beard and yellow Salt Lake County Jail uniform, speaking only to answer a short list of questions from the judge and reply "guilty." His plea bargain stipulates that prosecutors won't seek the death penalty and Brantzeg will remain in prison for life, without the possibility of parole, his attorney John West said. Prosecutors have also agreed not to charge him with additional crimes as part of the deal.
When police arrived at his wife's home, Brantzeg was gone. But he called a friend, his stepdaughter, and some Utah newsrooms on his cellphone while driving away to tell them he used a crowbar to beat and kill his wife and daughter, claiming his ex had turned the girl against him, court documents say.
Police caught up with him a short time later, finding he also had killed his own cat "because no one would be around to feed it," according to court filings.
Sentencing is June 20.
Help for victims of domestic violence is available from a confidential Utah hotline, 800-897-LINK (5465), and at udvc.org.