PROVO, Utah (Court TV) — A woman who pleaded guilty to plotting her husband’s murder took the stand to testify against her mother, who prosecutors say was the mastermind behind the killing.
Kathryn Restelli cries during her testimony in her mother’s trial on April 14, 2026. (Court TV)
Kathryn Restelli, 38, was called as the first witness in her mother’s trial. Her mother, Tracey Grist, 60, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including murder and criminal conspiracy, in the death of Kathryn’s husband, Matthew Restelli, 42.
Matthew Restelli was shot and killed moments after walking into Grist’s home by Grist’s son and Kathryn Restelli’s brother, Kevin Ellis. Kathryn Restelli previously testified at Ellis’ trial as part of her plea agreement.
Kathryn Restelli testified that her marriage had been sliding downhill and by early 2024 was texting her mother frequently to say that she was miserable. “I hate my life, Mom,” she wrote in one text. “I hate that I have kids with Matt.”
Grist allegedly encouraged her daughter to leave the victim, going so far as to fund the rental of a storage unit and a rental car in a plot to allow Kathryn Restelli to escape her marriage. After leaving Matthew Restelli at their family home in California, Kathryn Restelli took her kids to her mother’s home in Utah. She testified that’s where the plotting began. “We were trying to figure out how to get out of this marriage,” Kathryn Restelli said. “I was fearful that I was going to lose my children.”
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After about a week of being with her mother, Kathryn Restelli said, the idea of killing her husband came up. “[Grist] said it like a joke: ‘We can get him to come out here and we could just murder him and make it look like self-defense.’ So we originally started more as a joke than a solid plan,” she explained from the witness stand.
As the planning continued, Kathryn Restelli testified that she began to have second thoughts about the plan. “I had moments where I was thinking that I was going to regret taking somebody else’s life,” she said. “I looked [Grist] in the eyes and said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to do this anymore.’ She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I don’t care. I’m doing it anyway.'”
Kathryn Restelli said that her mother was the true mastermind behind the plot to kill and made the decision to recruit Ellis. “She said, ‘Kevin’s feeling suicidal,'” Kathryn Restelli testified. “She told him if he was going to do it, go off Matt first and then he can finish himself off.”
Kathryn Restelli described the steps she and her mother took to prepare for Matthew Restelli’s arrival at the home, even going so far as to cover the furniture with blankets to help with blood spatter. She was upstairs with the two young children she shared with her husband when the shots rang out. “I heard gunshots. I heard Matt say, ‘Ow, ow,” Kathryn Restelli said as she began to cry on the witness stand. “Then I heard my mom and brother talking about putting the knife in his hand, Kevin telling my mom to be careful, because he could still be alive.” Coming down the stairs, she saw the victim’s body on the ground. “That moment was very traumatizing. I remember when I saw it, I wanted to fall to the ground screaming.”
Grist’s defense has said their client is innocent and that Ellis was solely responsible for Matthew Restelli’s death. During cross-examination, Grist’s attorney emphasized Kathryn Ellis’ chronic marijuana use, suggesting it clouded her memory. He also detailed Kathryn Restelli’s arrangement with prosecutors, which allowed her to be sentenced to 1-15 years in exchange for her truthful testimony.
