A Mesa man was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder moments after he brought his girlfriend's seemingly lifeless body to the emergency room Sunday for treatment.
Dartanion Stroud, 21, was arrested about 10 a.m. at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa after his girlfriend, Angelita Francisca Montano, 26, was pronounced dead from injuries consistent with strangulation, according to police.
The woman had been Stroud's girlfriend for about the last three years, and the couple had a 9-month-old child in common, police said.
About 7:40 a.m. Sunday, Gilbert police received a call from one of Stroud's relatives in Florida who told authorities that they had secondhand or thirdhand information that Stroud called another relative and said that he had killed his girlfriend, according to a police report.
While detained at the hospital, Stroud told police that he was with Montano when she turned purple but did not know his whereabouts when that happened.
Although Montano had an order of protection against Stroud, she apparently had been having consensual contact with him, according to police.
It was not immediately known where the incident took place, police said.
In October, Stroud had been named in complaints of domestic violence, and in August, also was named in a complaint on criminal damage stemming from a domestic violence incident, according to a police report.
In April 2008, Stroud also was convicted of criminal damage, a misdemeanor offense, according to the police report.
Stroud is being held in a Maricopa County jail.
