Man holds Millcreek family hostage for months, claiming ‘cartel’ wanted to kill them, police say

MILLCREEK, Utah (ABC4) — A 23-year-old man is facing numerous charges of assault and kidnapping after holding his girlfriend’s family hostage for six months, telling them that he had family in the cartel and their lives were in danger, according to Unified Police.

Dominic Christopher Garcia, 23 faces a slew of charges in Salt Lake County, including seven counts of aggravated assault (third-degree felony), seven counts of threat of violence (class B misdemeanor), seven counts of aggravated kidnapping (first-degree felony), and seven counts of hazing involving use of a dangerous weapon (second-degree felony).

On Saturday, May 17, police responded to a home in Millcreek after an individual called 911, stating that he and his family had been held against their will by their daughter’s boyfriend — later identified as Dominic Garcia. The caller told police that “they weren’t able to take it any longer” and were holding Garcia at gunpoint until police could arrive.

Officers arrived at the scene shortly after and took Garcia into custody without incident.

According to the caller, he and his wife allowed Garcia to move into their home in Dec. 2024 to live with their daughter. The man said that Garcia “almost immediately” began telling the family that his family was a part of a business that had ties to the cartel, according to court documents. He told them that in order to stay on the cartel’s good side, they all had to do certain things and be diligent about their safety.

The man told police that Garcia repeatedly told the family that the cartel would kill them if they did not do what they were told. In an effort to protect himself, the father bought a 10mm handgun, which Garcia then began carrying around to “protect” the family.

“[The father] said Dominic would continue to tell them that the cartel was going to kill them and would rack the gun and take the magazine out in the living room, which made him and his family feel threatened,” court documents state.

Garcia allegedly told the family that his grandfather’s business had been a part of a bad deal, and that they need to leave for a while. The family then left their home for about a month, according to court documents, before returning home. Once they returned home, a family member texted a friend explaining where they had gone, and Garcia saw the text and became angry.

Garcia allegedly started issuing threats to family members and become increasingly threatening with the handgun. Garcia “would carry it around all the time and would make sure he and the rest of the family knew he was carrying the handgun,” court documents state.

The father told police that, on certain occasions, Garcia would come home covered in blood and tell them that it was “due to the business.”

According to interviews with multiple family members, Garcia claimed on numerous occasions that there were people outside of their home that were going to kill all of them. Garcia would allegedly also routinely go through their phones and check to see who they were communicating with, and confront them about anything that he disagreed with.

The family told police Garcia “always carried the 10mm handgun around the house and would drop the magazine and replace the magazine and rack the slide again, to ensure it was loaded,” court documents state. He would allegedly also point the gun around the house, including emptying the gun and pointing it at family members “as a game.”

Additionally, after the family had returned home from their month away, Garcia would allow certain family members to only leave the home for two hours at a time, and that only two family members were allowed to leave at all during one week. According to police, the family believed they were trying to keep Garcia in line with the cartel, and that they had to abide by these rules as a condition of his continued membership with the organization.

At one point, Garcia had one family member endure a bootcamp for around four weeks, consisting of five workouts a day and ice baths. He allegedly even told the individual that she needed to ice her face because men were going to beat her, and needed to not feel the pain.

Garcia allegedly also made family members sleep in the living room and stand guard until 5:30 a.m. every night, to “watch for people trying to kill them,” court documents state. He allegedly also choked out their pet dogs on occasions when he became upset and violent towards family members.

In an interview with police, Garcia admitted that he made everything up and that it was “all a lie,” court documents state. He first told the family that his grandfather did business with an organization known as “unknown society,” and that he had made a bad business deal that caused the cartel to come after their family.

He told police that he continued this lie for several months, leading the family to believe they were in danger because he “did not know how to stop it” and was afraid “they would not like him.”

Garcia admitted to police to keeping the gun as well as enforcing the bootcamp on a family member. He reportedly did not admit to anything else.

Garcia has been booked into Salt Lake County Jail on the aforementioned charges. He is deemed a flight risk with a positive lethality assessment. Additional charges are to be expected, according to Unified Police. No further information is available at this time.