Woman pleads guilty to manslaughter in shooting death of husband

BRIGHAM CITY — A Brigham City woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree felony manslaughter in the fatal shooting of her husband whom she caught with another woman.

Vickie Marie Ruiz, 43, will be sentenced Nov. 21 in 1st District Court. She entered her plea this earlier this week as part of an agreement that dropped a first-degree felony murder charge.

John Matthew Ruiz, 44, was shot once in the chest on May 7.

The couple had hosted a party that night. As the party ended, Vickie Ruiz found her husband with a woman in a motor home parked next to their house, court documents said. She got a .22-caliber handgun from their house and confronted the partially clothed pair, court papers said.

After the shooting, Vickie Ruiz called 911. She indicated to a dispatcher that she'd shot her husband and that "she had not shot the other woman, though she should have done so," according to an affidavit.

"There is not a question in our minds as to her intent to shoot him," Box Elder County Attorney Amy Hugie said.

The defense contends that Vickie Ruiz only intended to frighten her husband and will present that view at sentencing, Hugie said. But John Ruiz' family disputes that, she said.

Judge Ben Hadfield ordered Ruiz be taken to the Utah State Prison for a 60-day evaluation prior to sentencing.