A Bosnian immigrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole late Tuesday after being convicted of capital murder for killing his wife and her lover in 2018, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
“This man killed two people, including the mother of his children, and tried to flee the country to escape responsibility,” Ogg said. “We know that domestic violence can escalate to murder, and that is why it is so important to seek justice for the victims in cases like this.”
Jordy Husein Suljanovic, 46, fatally shot Adriana Perez, his wife and the mother of his four children, and her boyfriend, Omar Santamaria-Ruiz, in the closet of the master bedroom of their home in southwest Houston on Oct. 2, 2018.
Suljanovic, a Bosnian refugee who became a long-haul truck driver, had installed a secret camera at his home and was monitoring it while driving. When he saw his 41-year-old wife and her 33-year-old lover at the house, he returned home and killed both of them, waking their children in the middle of the night with the gunshots.
After the slaying, Suljanovic and his adult son took both bodies to Louisiana and dumped them. Santamaria-Ruiz’s body was dumped in the woods outside of Natchitoches, La.
Suljanovic’s son, who also is named Jordy Suljanovic, dumped his mother’s body near the Atchafalaya River outside of Baton Rouge. The 21-year-old pleaded guilty last year to tampering with evidence, namely a corpse, in exchange for a five-year prison sentence.
In the weeks following the slayings, the older Suljanovic sold his Houston home and fled to Mexico City with his two young daughters, his son, and his son’s 16-year-old girlfriend. When he learned that he would be charged with the double murder, he tried to fly with all of them back to his homeland of Bosnia.
Suljanovic was detained when the plane landed in London after the first leg of the trip. He was returned to Houston where he was arrested by the Houston Police Department and the FBI.
Late Tuesday, he was convicted of capital murder late after an 8-day-trial. He was sentenced automatically to life in prison without parole. His wife’s brother and Santamaria-Ruiz’s sister gave victim impact statements about losing their loved ones.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Bard, who prosecuted the case with ADA Kim Nwabeke, said Suljanovic had a history of abusive behavior toward his wife.
“She had been verbally and physically abused by him. And since she was born and raised in Mexico, she didn’t have citizenship of her own and probably didn’t feel like she could leave, she couldn’t go anywhere,” Bard said. “I’m sure she felt trapped, and she also had two younger daughters and probably stayed in part because of the kids.”
