A man will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after he was convicted of killing his wife and her lover in their southwest Houston home in 2018.
Jordy Husein Suljanovic, 46, who’s a Bosnian immigrant, shot and killed his wife, Adriana Perez, and her boyfriend, Omar Santamaria-Ruiz, on Oct. 2, 2018.
According to a release from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Suljanovic was a long-haul truck driver and had installed a secret camera at his home, which he reportedly monitored while he drove. It was in the camera that he saw Perez and Santamaria-Ruiz at the house. That’s when he returned and killed both of them in the closet of the main bedroom.
Upon hearing the gunshots, Suljanovic and Perez’s children woke up. After the shooting, Suljanovic and his adult son took the bodies to Louisiana. Santamaria-Ruiz’s body was dumped in the woods outside of Natchitoches, Louisiana, while Perez’s body was dumped near the Atchafalaya River outside of Baton Rouge, the release read.
Suljanovic’s 21-year-old son pleaded guilty in 2022 for tampering with evidence, namely a corpse, in exchange for a five-year prison sentence.
Following the shooting, authorities said Suljanovic sold his Houston home and fled to Mexico City with his two young daughters, his son, and his son’s 16-year-old daughter. Upon learning of the double murder charge, Suljanovic tried flying with the kids back to Bosnia.
Suljanovic was detained in London, where he was then returned to Houston and arrested by HPD and the FBI.
“This man killed two people, including the mother of his children, and tried to flee the country to escape responsibility,” Harris County District Attorney Kim 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.”
After an eight-day trial, Suljanovic was convicted of capital murder and automatically sentenced.
