Man jailed after couple’s fight

The wee hours of Valentine’s Day turned out to be a heartbreaker for a couple that got into an argument, landing one in jail. 

Vincent A. Santolino, 21, faces preliminary charges of criminal mischief, residential entry and intimidation. The female, 20, called police Saturday afternoon to report an incident with her boyfriend, Santolino, that occurred in the early morning hours.

The woman told police Santolino received a text message from another female, and she told him to leave. She told police Santolino became angry and pushed her, and she then went into the bathroom and locked the door to keep him away, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada, reading from a police report.

The woman told police she thinks Santolino went out the back door, and she went out the front door to her neighbor’s house. After she was at her neighbor’s house for about 20 minutes, Santolino knocked on the door and told the woman her dog was outside. She said she and one of the neighbors went outside to get the dog and she saw her laptop computer thrown in the mud.

The woman said she locked her house when she initially left to go to her neighbor’s, but Santolino had broken in by taking the screen off and coming through an unlocked bedroom window, Canada said.

The woman went back to her neighbor’s house, where Santolino repeatedly knocked on the door. Three males who lived in the home went outside and told Santolino to leave. The male neighbors told police Santolino threatened them with a knife and said he would kill all of them. The neighbors then reported 20 minutes later they heard a window shattered in the back of their house and saw a piece of wood had been thrown through the window.

Bloomington police officers were dispatched at 2:42 p.m. Saturday to the 200 block of E. 10th Street, where they located Santolino in his residence. During an interview with the police, Santolino said his girlfriend went to the bathroom for an extended period of time, and when he went to go check on her, she was gone.

He said he went to the neighbor’s house and she was there. He told police three males told him to leave, so he went back to his girlfriend’s house to get his possessions. He said he went in through the window because he still had some of his belongings in her house and needed to get them. He said he then called his friends and left with them.

Santolino told police he never had a knife, but then later said he might have grabbed one for self defense against the neighbors. 

Officers located a butcher knife in the back of Santolino’s vehicle.