WEST JORDAN, Utah, April 23, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — An indictment filed Thursday against Sina Johnson — the wife of West Jordan murder suspect Albert E. Johnson — reveal new details about her husband’s alleged admission of guilt and her own confession of actions she took to hide blood evidence, which was recovered by police with her assistance.
The shooting deaths of victims Katherine and Tony Butterfield, 30 and 31, were discovered in the early hours of April 18 after a neighbor reported gunshots and a woman screaming. The couple’s three children, ages 6 months to 4 years, were found uninjured in the West Jordan residence.
Albert Johnson, 31, also of West Jordan, was determined to be a suspect. Details of how he was identified as a suspect were not revealed in filed court documents.
On April 19, a West Jordan Police detective attempting to find the suspect interviewed Sina Johnson, 29, the statement says. Post Miranda, she told officers “her marriage was not doing well” and she had last seen Albert Johnson on April 17, the statement says. But as the interview continued, her story kept changing “about the knowledge of the homicide and her contact with Albert.”
“Eventually, Johnson told Detective Shepherd that she was familiar with the couple that was killed because Albert had attempted to obtain a job with their company at one point,” the indictment statement says. “She stated Albert came home around 3-4 a.m. on the morning of April 18, 2020, and was rushing. Albert told her that someone stabbed him and that his life was over. He showered, changed his clothes and left their apartment.”
Sina Johnson told officers she had no idea where he was going, the statement says.
“Johnson took Albert’s bloody clothes and shoes to the garbage when she found out that Albert had been involved in the homicide. She admitted that she cleaned her apartment because there was blood downstairs, on the hallway walls and in the bedroom.
“Detectives took Johnson to the area (where) she had discarded Albert’s clothes. She identified the dumpster she had thrown the bloody clothes in. West Jordan Crime Scene technicians located evidence that was processed and found to contain bloody clothes, shoes and a sheet.”
Albert Johnson was found early Wednesday morning in Stockton, California, after tips led U.S. Marshals to his location. He was taken into custody after resisting arrest, and officers have filed papers to extradite him to Utah. Two charges of aggravated murder, a second-degree felony, have been filed in his case.
Sina Johnson remains in the Salt Lake County Jail, where she is being held without bail due to being classified as a flight risk. She faces a single charge of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
