A jilted ex-lover in Stillwater is accused of going to his former flame’s home, where he killed her pet snake and wrote “I loved you” with its blood.

When police arrived at the ex-girlfriend’s home, Jonathan Paul Utecht, 21, was standing outside with blood on his hands and told the woman, who was with the officers, “that she did not want to go inside the apartment and see what he had done,” according to a criminal complaint.

Utecht was charged today with felony counts of burglary and terroristic threats.

His initial court appearance will be July 28.

Police were alerted to the incident when the ex-girlfriend approached two officers at Lily Lake Park and asked for their help about 1:45 a.m. Wednesday. She said she believed her ex-boyfriend had broken into her apartment on Myrtle Street and may have “destroyed it,” the criminal complaint said.

Police confirmed that her apartment had been ransacked. Many items were broken, including lamps, mirrors and a glass aquarium. Coffee grounds had been scattered in the kitchen. And someone wrote “I will kill you” and “(expletive) cheater” in black marker.

Police also found the woman’s snake on the kitchen floor, a knife “sticking in the midsection,” the complaint said. They suspected the words “I loved you,” which were on the floor next to the snake, had been written in the animal’s blood.

Utecht admitted to police that he had damaged items in the apartment and said “he killed the snake because (the woman) loved the snake,” according to the complaint. He said he did it because he thought she had cheated on him.

The woman said she and Utecht dated on and off for a year, and that he moved out of the apartment six months ago.

Utecht said he no longer had a key to the apartment, but had stolen one recently, which is how he gained entry that evening, the complaint said.

Utecht does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota.

Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at 651-228-5162.