OREM, Utah — A 22-year-old man who berated his girlfriend moments before she used his gun to end her life will serve up to 20 years in prison.
The sentence was handed down in Utah’s Fourth District Court in July 2026, after Caleb Aidan Rees pleaded guilty in April 2026 to a slew of charges.
This inludes manslaughter with a domestic violence enhancement, two counts of illegally possessing or buying firearms as a restricted person, and one count of possession of an illicit substance with intent to distribute.
Rena Nguyen, a 19-year-old Brigham Young University biology student, had been in a relationship with Rees for about 10 months, but according to police that relationship was tumultuous and marked by abuse.
The events that ended her life unfolded on October 1, 2024. Around 12:30 a.m., the couple had an argument about breaking up and Nguyen started recording the argument where Rees yelled at her and called her a rat, while insisting he would never hurt her again.
Rees later used his own phone to record a video of Nguyen crying, and he could be heard threatening to send the footage to her parents while he ridicules her.
At 1:03 a.m., Nguyen sent a text to a friend saying that she had placed a loaded gun to her head with the safety off. “I can’t keep doing this. I want to live but not like this,” the message read.
The friend who received the 1:03 a.m. text contacted the Orem Police Department, and officers then called Nguyen to perform a welfare check.
Nguyen, with her phone still recording, answered the call, and Rees could be heard saying that if officers showed up, he would “spray them” and then kill himself, adding that she had wasted his time and ruined his life.
As Rees continued his tirade and left the room, Nguyen used a loaded weapon which was in the room to take her life, and the recording captured the gunshot before everywere went silent.
During an investigation of the incident, police later determined that Rees was fully aware of Nguyen’s mental state that morning, as per ABC4News
She had already expressed a desire to end her life, and he acknowledged on tape the danger of having a loaded firearm nearby. Rather than seek help, he continued to demean her.
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| Rena Nguyen |
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| Rena Nguyen’s parents holding her picture |
The hearing on July 17 brought together family, friends, the defendant, and his mother. Prosecutor Charlotte Howard-Saguibo told the court that Nguyen was not a victim of mental illness alone — she was a victim of domestic violence.
Howard-Saguibo highlighted that Rees illegally possessed six firearms in his home and noted that a risk assessment had scored him as high-risk.
She also pointed out that Rees had acknowledged in recorded calls that he had hurt Nguyen before, and had sexually assaulted her while or after holding a gun to her head.
“This case is much more than just a mere unfortunate event,” Howard-Saguibo said. “It was a series of deliberate acts against a person that was in a state of weakness… and that continued to suffer at the hands of the defendant.”
Rena Nguyen’s mother, Rose Nguyen, approached the stand and first refuted any suggestion that her daughter had struggled with addiction, stating that the autopsy drug tests were negative.
Then she spoke about the pattern of abuse that consumed her daughter’s final months — psychological torment, emotional abuse, physical harm, and sexual violence under the threat of a firearm.
She described preparing Rena’s body for a funeral and seeing bruises and marks on her skin.
“Even in Rena’s final moments, the abuse did not stop,” Rose Nguyen told the court. “In those final moments of her life, our daughter was not heard, she was not protected, she was not safe.”
She stressed that her daughter had tried to get help, contacting family, the police, and Brigham Young University. “Rena was not silent; she actively sought help. Yet despite these efforts, the abuse continued and escalated, and it cost her life.”
She asked the judge to impose a prison sentence that would serve as an example. “Rena should still be here. Rena deserved her life.”
Keith Nguyen, Rena’s father, told the court that speaking about his daughter had been one of the hardest things he had done since her death. “No parent should ever have to bury their child, especially under such cruelty,” he said, asking that Rees’s sentence reflect “the gravity of what was taken from her and from our family.”
The defense asked the judge to consider probation. Defense attorney Evan Muir called the case a tragedy and said his client understood the seriousness of his conduct. Muir noted that Rees had already spent 699 days in jail and felt deep regret.
Rees’s mother, Maribel Rees, began by offering condolences to the Nguyen family but maintained that her son did not want Rena to die.
“The relationship between Caleb and Rena was complicated, unhealthy, and at times emotionally difficult for both of them,” she said. “They were two young people dealing with significant personal struggles.”
Before his sentencing, Caleb Rees then read a statement, saying he loved Rena and that the recording represented only one day of the 10 months they spent together.
“If I could go back and do things differently, I absolutely would,” he said. He claimed he was “inadequately prepared” to handle a mental health crisis and did not believe she would take her own life. He argued that he had matured while incarcerated and hoped for a chance to prove he had changed.
Judge Petersen did not accept that argument, calling his actions “nothing short of horrific.”
“The repeated threats, demeaning statements, and the ridicule, Mr. Rees, that you heaped upon Rena is just unnerving,” the judge said. “To treat someone this way, whom you had a close relationship with, gives me a lot of pause about your future relationships and the safety of the public.”
Under the plea agreement, Judge Sean M. Petersen ordered all four counts he pleaded guilty to run one after the other.
Each count carries up to five years, for a combined maximum of 20 years in prison, meaning Rees could spend up to two decades in custody.
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