Summit County prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges April 9 against the man’s wife, 41-year-old Reina Chavez Sandobal, and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Francisco Santos Morales.
Both are also charged with felony desecration of a body, obstruction of justice and criminal homicide - domestic violence in the presence of children.
Summit County deputies arrested Sandobal April 1 at the Midvale apartment she shared with her husband.
Morales was arrested at his Layton home April 3.
Court documents show over a dozen text messages investigators said detail how the pair allegedly murdered and dumped Sanchez’s body.
Investigators said Sandobal slipped her husband over-the-counter sleep medication in a cup of juice March 25.
Then she sent a taxi to bring Morales to the Midvale apartment.
Morales texted Sandobal he was risking everything for her and would kill her and Sanchez if she was lying to him.
Morales also asked Sandobal if she knew of any remote mountain areas. She told him she didn’t but that they could search for one online.
He asked, “you’re not going to blame this on me, are you?”
She told him, “You should know I already feel free without having to worry about that dog. I feel at peace.”
Morales responded, “I’m doing this all for you.”
Court papers show the texts end when Morales arrived at the apartment just before 11:30 p.m. March 25.
From there, authorities say apartment security camera footage shows what appeared to be Sandobal and Morales carrying Sanchez’s lifeless body to her maroon Honda Civic at 1 a.m. March 26.
Just before 2:30 a.m., security video showed the same car stopping on High View Road in Browns Canyon for 7 minutes.
That’s where Sanchez would be found dead 12 hours later.
As Morales drove back, Summit County deputies stopped the couple for a minor traffic violation in Kimball Junction just before 3 a.m.
A license plate reader recorded Sandobal’s maroon Civic about a mile from her Midvale apartment around 4 a.m.
At 2 p.m. that same day, authorities were called to the rural High View Road in Browns Canyon where a man, later confirmed to be Sanchez, was found dead.
The medical examiner determined Sanchez died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Investigators found the alleged murder weapon, a hammer, and a blood-soaked blanket in Sandobal’s apartment, when she was arrested.
Investigators say Sabdobal told them she and Morales had planned to kill her husband for about a week.
However, both blame the other for the blow to the head that killed Sanchez.
Sandobal and Morales are being held without bail in the Summit County Jail before their first court April 13 at 10 a.m.
