SALT LAKE CITY — The wife of a man suspected of killing a West Jordan couple said her husband had recently tried to work for them, new court documents say.
While that is true and partially explains how Albert Enoch Johnson, 31, knew Tony and Katherine Butterfield, there is more to the story that hasn’t yet been released about what led to the couple’s deaths, said West Jordan Police Sgt. J.C. Holt.
On Thursday, Johnson’s wife, Sina Anne Johnson, 29, of West Jordan, was charged in 3rd District Court with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
Sina Johnson, 29, was arrested Monday, April 20, 2020, for investigation of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence. According to the police, Johnson helped her husband, Albert Enoch Johnson, 31, escape after he killed a West Jordan couple and then she withheld information from detectives.
Salt Lake County Jail
Her husband was arrested Wednesday in Stockton, California, in connection with the shooting deaths of Tony Butterfield, 31, and Katherine Butterfield, 30, early Saturday.
West Jordan police originally responded to 3277 W. 6920 South on a report of shots fired and a woman screaming about 1:15 a.m. They spotted lights on at the Butterfield residence but no one answered the front door, according to charging documents. Officers went into the backyard where they discovered the body of Tony Butterfield. His wife’s body was found inside the back doorway. Both died of gunshot wounds, the charges state.
On Sunday, police interviewed Sina Johnson after determining that her husband was a suspect in the killings.
“As the interview continued, Johnson’s story kept changing about her knowledge of the homicide and her contact with Albert,” the charges state.
Johnson eventually admitted that her husband “was familiar” with the Butterfields because he “had attempted to obtain a job with their company at one point,” according to charging documents.
The Butterfields owned a landscaping business. They lived approximately four minutes away from the Johnsons.
Between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on the morning of the killings, Johnson said her husband came home and “was rushing.”
“Albert told her that someone stabbed him and that his life was over. He showered, changed his clothes and left the apartment,” according to charging documents.
When she found out her husband was involved in the killings, she took his bloody clothing to the garbage and “cleaned her apartment because there was blood downstairs, on the hallway walls and in the bathroom,” the charges state
West Jordan police earlier said they believed Albert Johnson was cut or stabbed during his confrontation with the Butterfields. When he was arrested Wednesday by U.S. marshals, Holt said Johnson resisted arrest. His mugshot shows obvious injuries to his face, including his right eye that was swollen shut.
Holt said officers were able to confirm Thursday that Johnson “has a significant injury to one of his arms consistent with a knife wound as well as some puncture/cut wounds on his legs.”
When she was arrested, police noted that Johnson “has already made statements that she plans to buy a plane ticket to Arizona and would not specify where in Arizona she would go,” according to a police affidavit.
Prosecutors have requested Sina Johnson be held on $100,000 bail.
Albert Johnson remained in custody in California on Thursday. West Jordan officers traveled to Stockton on Wednesday to interview Johnson and extradite him back to Utah.