OREM – Orem officers have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after he reportedly beat a woman in her own basement.
Police say the victim heard a noise coming from the basement of her home and went to check it out. Orem Police Lieutenant Craig Martinez says she tried to fight off a man who broke in through her window, but, he attacked her with a PVC pipe until she was knocked out.
Martinez says, “When you hit somebody with a PVC pipe and causing some trauma and the [victim] is rendered unconscious, that’s attempted murder.”
When the victim came to, Martinez says she ran to a neighbor’s home and asked for help. The suspect, Rodolfo Villalobos, Jr. was caught shortly after a few blocks away.
“A passer-by saw this guy taking off from the area, and, when she saw a marked police car, she put two and two together and pointed in the direction she saw the man run,” Martinez says, adding, “We took him into custody. He resisted and made some comments of, ‘Call me an attorney or kill me.’”
However, officers weren’t sure who they arrested, at first. Martinez says Villalobos refused to identify himself and wouldn’t initially agree to fingerprints.