VERNAL — Police say a Vernal man threatened to shoot his girlfriend and her daughter and then burned her apartment down.
Cesar Antonio Guevara, 34, was charged Tuesday in 8th District Court with aggravated arson, a first-degree felony; two counts of aggravated assault, domestic violence in the presence of a child, and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, all third-degree felonies; and intoxication, a class C misdemeanor.
The events began on Thursday when Guevara got into an argument with his live-in girlfriend at her Vernal apartment, according to charging documents. He allegedly threatened the woman and her 7-year-old daughter with a gun on several occasions.
At one point during the day, the woman’s sister stopped by the apartment. But Guevara’s behavior was so erratic that when she left, she called police to do a welfare check on her sister, according to a police affidavit.
“When Cesar and his girlfriend saw the police at the doorway she said Cesar pointed the handgun at her and told her that she better say the right things to the police to get rid of them or there would be problems,” the affidavit states.
The woman later told police she was afraid Guevara would harm her daughter if she did not get rid of the officers who came to her door, according to the affidavit.
After the officers left, Guevara’s behavior became more erratic to the point his girlfriend and her daughter locked themselves in a bedroom while Guevara “threatened to shoot both his girlfriend and her daughter with a handgun from the other side of the door,” the charges state.
The girlfriend and daughter climbed out a window in the bedroom, got in her car and drove away to seek shelter at her sister’s, according to police.
Several hours later, about 1 a.m. Friday, Guevara set fire to the apartment, the charges state.
“The damage to the apartment was a total loss. This was a fourplex apartment building with two top and two bottom apartments and the fire displaced four other individuals living in the fourplex in addition to the victims in this case,” according to the charges.
When fire crews arrived at the scene, however, the status of the girlfriend and her child was unknown. Police noted in the affidavit that if they were still inside the apartment, they would not have been able to survive.
“After the fire was put out and fire crews made it into the apartment they were able to verify that nobody was in the apartment,” the affidavit states.
Investigators say it appeared Guevara attempted to light a fire in the apartment several times, and was finally successful lighting one in his girlfriend’s bedroom, according to the affidavit.
After locating the woman, she “disclosed a long history of serious domestic violence toward her” by Guevara, the affidavit states.
Guevara was spotted by other tenants leaving the apartment shortly after the fire started, carrying a suitcase and a bottle of Jack Daniels, according to the affidavit. When police found him, he was extremely intoxicated, the charges state.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233 or the Utah LINKLine at 1-800-897-5465 for confidential assistance.