Inset: Deon Jennings (West Valley City Police Department). Background: Aspenwood Apartments in West Valley City, Utah (Google Maps).
A Utah man has been sentenced to prison for fatally stabbing his aunt’s boyfriend following an argument.
Deon Jennings, 35, was convicted by a jury in August in the death of 59-year-old Willie Houston. However, jurors told the court they believed Jennings acted in “imperfect self-defense.” According to coverage from local NBC affiliate KSL, that finding reduced the charge from murder to manslaughter.
West Valley City police responded to the Aspenwood Apartments on April 30, 2022, after receiving a report of a stabbing. Officers found Houston on the kitchen floor with wounds to his back and neck. Before being taken to a hospital, he identified Jennings as the attacker. Houston later died from his injuries.
Houston’s niece told the court that Jennings showed no remorse and would not have contacted police without her repeated urging. “I called him repeatedly, I reached out to him repeatedly and I connected the dots between that. It was never him,” she said.
Prosecutors argued that Jennings should receive a prison sentence consistent with the jury’s manslaughter verdict.
A judge sentenced Jennings to one to 15 years in prison, with credit for the 1,659 days he had already spent in the Salt Lake City Jail.
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