Gerald Anthony Ortega was arrested Thursday evening at the Premier Inn, located at 1581 Concord Ave., in connection with an incident that occurred Tuesday at his 31-year-old girlfriend's home, Concord police Lt. Steve Dyer said.
On Tuesday, the girlfriend reported that her home in Concord had been burglarized. Officers arrived to find that numerous items had been stolen and that her puppy had been hanged with an electrical cord wrapped around a light fixture in the ceiling of the home, Dyer said.
The victim said she did not know who was responsible for the crimes, but on Thursday she came forward to police and described a three-year history of emotional and physical abuse by Ortega, including death threats against her and her two children, according to Dyer.
Ortega is not the father of the two children, Dyer said.
The victim originally did not tell police that she believed Ortega was responsible for the burglary and killing her puppy because "she had feared for her life," Dyer said.
Investigators learned that Ortega was staying at the Premier Inn and arrested him Thursday evening.
He was booked into county jail in Martinez on suspicion of residential burglary, inflicting corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant, cruelty to animals, and making terrorist threats to his girlfriend, according to Dyer.
