UPDATE: Daniel Padilla-Ang pleaded guilty to murder on July 19 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Aug. 30.
UPDATE: 3/28/22 6:40 p.m.
OREM, Utah (ABC4) – Police have released the identity of the victim who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend in a fight over a vape cartridge on Saturday.
She has been identified as 20-year-old Sandra Robles.
Her boyfriend, Daniel Padilla, admitted to strangling Robles, and was booked on a First Degree Murder charge.
No further information is available at this time.
Support for victims and survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence is available 24/7 at 1-800-897-LINK (5465). If you or someone else is in immediate danger, or in an emergency, please call 9-1-1 immediately.
ORIGINAL STORY: 3/27/22 11:48 a.m.
OREM, Utah (ABC4) – On Saturday, March 26, Orem police officers responded to a medical call at 808 S. 750 W. in Orem to find out that a murder had allegedly taken place over a vape cartridge.
The caller, 27-year-old Daniel Padilla, claimed that he had strangled his girlfriend and that she was dead.
Padilla also stated that he had been drinking and that “he needed to be taken in.”
Officers arrived on scene to find a Padilla kneeling, facing away from officers, with his hands behind his head.
The affidavit states that his hands appeared to have blood on them.
Officers cleared the house and found his deceased girlfriend in a nearby bedroom, noting that she had also appeared to have significant facial injuries and swelling.
Police as well as Orem EMS attempted life saving measures on the woman, who was declared deceased at the scene.
After Padilla was taken into custody and brought to the Orem Police Dept., he stated that he “had nothing to hide” and that he was there to “face the consequences.”
Padilla said that he was in a relationship with the victim for around 4 months, and that she had come over to his house earlier that day, where the two began drinking at night.
The 27-year-old says that his girlfriend had a vape cartridge that broke when he grabbed it from her, and that she hit him as a result.
Padilla states that he then pushed her and grabbed her neck with his right hand and began to choke her. The fight then reportedly went to the ground, where he punched her in the face and then started to choke her with both hands.
Padilla says that she became unresponsive, and that he continued drinking and sent text messages to family members that he had killed someone and “wouldn’t be seeing them for a while.”
His criminal history shows that he had been arrested five times in the past eight years, and that two of those incidents were domestic violence assault crimes. Padilla was on probation for those offenses during the time of the arrest.
Padilla is being charged with First Degree Murder.