Bradenton murder suspect had violent history of domestic abuse, records show
A 33-year-old Bradenton man accused of beating his girlfriend to death has a history of domestic violence stretching back more than a decade, court records show.
Roger Villasana’s Sept. 3 arrest in the killing of 34-year-old Yassmin Montoya came less than two years after prosecutors dropped charges stemming from another girlfriend’s report that he assaulted her repeatedly and threatened to kill her, according to court records. And court records show that case was not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern.
Over the past 15 years, Villasana has been tied to around a dozen domestic-related cases, some of which prosecutors later declined to pursue. Others ended in felony convictions, prison sentences, protective injunctions and repeated arrests.
His court-documented history of abuse dates back to 2010, when deputies say they arrested him for allegedly battering a girlfriend. According to an arrest report, an argument between Villasana and his then-girlfriend turned physical when Villasana started punching and kicking her in the ribs.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case, according to court records, but it marked the beginning of a troubling cycle that played out repeatedly in Manatee County.
The following year, deputies said Villasana violently resisted arrest during a domestic dispute in Palmetto. When deputies arrived at the home in the 1000 block of 61st Avenue Drive East, Villasana’s mother described him as “out of control.”
Murder suspect has violent history, records show
As deputies approached the front door, Villasana allegedly told them to “come and get me, motherf*****,” according to an arrest report.
Deputies said Villasana ran behind the victim and grabbed her by the neck, using her as a human shield when they pointed a stun gun at him. When one deputy tried to pull him away, Villasana punched him in the shoulder, according to an arrest report. Deputies said he kept fighting even after being shocked twice with the stun gun before they were able to take him into custody.
Court records show Villasana was initially charged with kidnapping, but prosecutors dropped that count. He later pleaded no contest to battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting with violence and was sentenced to 364 days in county jail.
It wouldn’t be the last time deputies found themselves in a tense standoff with Villasana.
In 2012, deputies arrested Villasana after a late-night confrontation at a Bradenton apartment, the Bradenton Herald previously reported. Deputies said they responded to reports of domestic violence in the 6900 block of Manatee Avenue West and heard loud screaming and a woman crying inside.
When Villasana refused to answer the door, deputies wrote in an arrest report that they determined it was a “potential hostage situation” and set up a perimeter outside the home. After 30 minutes of repeatedly knocking and using a loudspeaker to talk to Villasana, they say he eventually came to the door and they arrested him.
Court records say that when deputies confronted him in 2012, Villasana was already out on supervised release and under a no-contact order with the same girlfriend he had allegedly attacked just weeks before.
In those cases, he later pleaded no contest to multiple battery charges and served time in jail, according to court records.
That woman wouldn’t be the only one who sought protection through the courts. In June 2013, a judge granted a temporary injunction after a different girlfriend accused Villasana of dating violence, but court records show the case was dismissed less than two weeks later.
In another case, deputies reported that Villasana beat a girlfriend, leaving her with a bloodied face, a swollen lip and a black eye. He pleaded no contest to felony battery in that case and was sentenced to two years of probation with an order to complete a batterer’s intervention program, according to court records.
Within months, records show, Villasana violated that probation when he got into a fight with the woman’s new boyfriend, hitting him in the face and ribs with a revolver before firing a shot into the ground during the struggle.
A judge sentenced him to eight years in state prison in that case, including a three-year mandatory minimum.
But Villasana didn’t end up serving the full eight years. By 2023, court records show Villasana had already returned to Manatee County’s courts on new felony domestic violence charges. A girlfriend accused him of months of physical and sexual abuse, as well as repeated threats to kill her, according to an arrest report.
She told deputies that “nearly every day for the past several months,” Villasana slapped, punched or kicked her. Deputies said she reported that he monitored where she went and who she spoke to, and that he beat her whenever she interacted with anyone else.
In one incident, the woman told investigators an argument in a car ended when Villasana grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed it several times against the center gear shifter.
In another, deputies wrote, she said he tied her hands with rope, duct-taped her mouth and threatened to stab her with a kitchen knife if she did not obey him. She said Villasana made several threats involving her “being hunted down,” according to an arrest report.
She also described being punched in the face and thrown to the ground until she blacked out, and said he refused to let her seek medical treatment, according to the report.
According to the report, she told deputies that when she tried to photograph her injuries on her phone, Villasana smashed the screen, but kept his own record of her abuse via photos and videos on his laptop.
Court records show Villasana was released from jail a month later after charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and battery after prior conviction were dropped.
Bradenton man killed girlfriend in attack, deputies say
Deputies said Villasana’s long cycle of violence escalated with Montoya’s killing this spring.
On April 8, deputies responded to a 911 call about an unconscious woman inside a black Dodge Charger parked at a home in the 2100 block of 30th Avenue East, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said they found Montoya unresponsive with significant injuries, including severe facial swelling. Paramedics took her to HCA Florida Blake Hospital, where she died three days later, according to the agency.
The Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide, citing blunt force trauma to the head and face “consistent with a prolonged, forceful physical assault,” the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators said Villasana initially claimed Montoya was attacked by unknown suspects in Sarasota. But surveillance video from the Golden Host Resort showed the couple together without injuries before a “violent altercation” between them, according to the sheriff’s office.
Detectives said the footage captured Villasana dragging Montoya back into their hotel room after she tried to flee, and later showed her visibly injured and unable to walk.
‘Evil never wins,’ family says
Detectives said they also found cell phone records, license plate data and other video evidence that contradicted his story. No witnesses supported his account, and investigators ultimately determined his version was false. Deputies obtained a warrant and arrested Villasana on Sept. 3.
In the months since Montoya’s death, her family and friends pleaded for answers. After Villasana’s recent arrest, relatives posted on social media that they could “finally sleep in peace knowing that Yassmin’s murderer has been arrested.”
“This is a bittersweet moment,” one post read. “While we are grateful that justice is being served, it will never bring Yass back to us. Justice will not erase the pain, but it proves that evil never wins in the end.”
Villasana remains held without bond at the Manatee County Jail on a charge of second-degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office website. He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 17 in front of Circuit Judge Teri K. Dees at the Manatee County Judicial Center, court records show.
