By EMS1 Staff
PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. — A man who allegedly shot and killed his wife outside her workplace has reportedly released a written confession from jail, Fox News reported.
Omar Pena-Romero, 23, is being held at the Pulaski County Jail for the murder of his wife, Cassandra Pena-Romero, 27, who was shot on Aug. 19 as she was leaving Metropolitan EMS dispatch center where she worked as a dispatcher.
Cassandra sent her co-workers an SOS text message shortly after leaving the building, and colleagues found her bleeding in the parking lot. She succumbed to her injuries four days later.
Pena-Romero had also worked at MEMS as a dispatcher but was suspended on Aug. 7. Employees were told not to let Pena-Romero on the property.
“I know that saying sorry doesn’t change anything but I am,” Pena-Romero wrote in his letter from jail. “I always protected and cared for her – we [had] never got[ten] into an argument before. I have never put my hands on her … I thought our life was perfect with great jobs, great love towards each other and having a beautiful son.”
But documents show Cassandra had filed for divorce and served Pena-Romero with the paperwork on Aug. 11, in which she asked the Pulaski Circuit Court to award her full custody of the couple’s 18-month-old son and requested to change her last name to Frederickson-Pena.
The suit claims that Pena-Romero was “not a fit or proper person to have custody of the child” and that he had “threatened to take the minor child, steal an ambulance and flee. The defendant is a DACA recipient from Mexico.”
Pena-Romero had previously been arrested on charges of rape and aggravated assault prior to Cassandra filing for divorce, Fox News reported.
The couple’s son is currently in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Cassandra’s uncle – one of her last living relatives – is petitioning for custody of the child.