A Palm Beach State College student sent threatening text messages to another student he impregnated, admitting he hired a hit man to kill her, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
When Johnathan Perez, 21, found out that a 19-year-old woman he had a brief relationship was pregnant in late October, he started threatening her and demanding she get an abortion, deputies say.
Perez, of West Palm Beach, sent hundreds of threatening text messages until the woman blocked his number, deputies say. He then started contacting her from other numbers.
Perez threatened to hire someone to punch the woman in the stomach until she had a miscarriage and used derogatory insults and racial slurs, the arrest report states.
The woman contacted the sheriff’s office Oct. 29 from the Palm Beach State College security offices because she was afraid for her life, she told deputies.
She was sexually assaulted in October, but the sheriff’s office reports the attack was unrelated to Perez. She has a miscarriage after the sexual assault.
She contacted Perez to tell him she wasn’t pregnant any more and he told her he didn’t believe her, according to deputies. Perez texted her a screenshot of a conversation via text between him and someone listed as “Hitman 2,” police say.
“I want the gun after its done though and you have to make sure she’s gone. 6 ft deep,” Perez wrote in a text message to “Hitman 2,” deputies report.
The sheriff’s office got a search warrant for Perez’s phone, but couldn’t find or contact him in late October. An anonymous tip led them to find Perez at Bethesda Hospital Friday.
Perez admitted to deputies that he threatened the woman several times. He also told deputies he never intended to actually have the woman killed, only scare her.
Perez was arrested on charges of aggravated stalking and written threats to kill or do bodily harm. Perez remains in Palm Beach County Jail with bail set at $5,000.
