Sentenced to Prison for DV Kidnapping & Choking Police Officer

Today, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced a Third District Court judge sentenced Ruben Serna, 43, to the Utah State Correctional facility for multiple felonies after he admitted to choking an officer who was responding to a domestic violence kidnapping at Serna’s home.
 
On August 3, 2024, Unified Police Department was contacted by the victim-survivor in this case and told that the defendant had consumed approximately 30 beers and began acting violent and erratic. The defendant would not allow the victim-survivor to leave a corner of their kitchen and grabbed her by the neck. When the police arrived at his residence, the defendant would not leave his home and tried to shut the door on them. An officer was able to get inside the home and attempted to take the defendant to the ground. However, the officer felt the defendant reach for her firearm and place his hand on her holster. The defendant then grabbed the officer by the throat and began to squeeze, making it so the officer was unable to speak and had difficulty breathing.  The officer had to tase the defendant three times before he complied and was taken to the ground and into custody. The defendant also caused a laceration and swelling of the upper lip of a different officer.
 
On February 25, 2025, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree felony kidnapping, one count of second-degree felony attempted disarming a police officer, one count of third-degree felony assault on a peace officer producing injury, and one count of third-degree felony violation of pretrial protective order.
 
On Monday, April 8, 2025, a Third District Court judge sentenced the defendant to 1-15 years for second-degree felony kidnapping. All other sentences for the other three charges will run concurrently to the kidnapping.
 
“We applaud this victim-survivor for recognizing the danger of her situation and calling the police to help intervene before the situation escalated. We appreciate the danger these police officers were willing to put themselves in to protect not only the victim-survivor but her children as well. We thank the judge for understanding the risk this defendant is to the community and sentencing him to prison for the violence that he exacted not only on his own family but on the officers responding to protect her,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “We commend the work of our prosecutor Jonathan Fenn, our social worker Cynthia Cruz, who worked with the family, and our support staff for their work on this successful prosecution.”