PROVO, Utah (Court TV) — A man will stand trial on charges he murdered his brother-in-law following a preliminary hearing that revealed mountains of digital evidence in the case, including incriminating text messages.

Kevin Ellis appears in court at a preliminary hearing on Jan. 14, 2025. (Court TV)
Kevin Ellis is facing several charges, including murder and possession of a controlled substance, for shooting Matthew Restelli seven times at a home in American Fork, Utah, on July 12, 2024. Ellis has claimed he acted in self-defense to protect himself, his sister and his mother, all of whom were in the house at the time of the shooting.
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At the time he was killed, Restelli was married to Ellis’ sister, Kathryn Restelli, and the couple lived in California. Evidence introduced at a Jan. 14 preliminary hearing revealed that Kathryn had fled to Utah to stay with her mother, Tracey Grist, intending to get a divorce. Grist and Kathryn have been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the case.
Kathryn Wants a Divorce
Prosecutors say that while Kathryn made clear to her family that she wanted to be rid of her marriage, her messages with her husband told a different story. Texts read into the court record included both saying “I love you” and making plans for Matthew to come to Utah to drive Kathryn back to California.
Investigators found an audio recording on Grist’s phone of Kathryn speaking to a divorce attorney, asking how she could legally refuse to take her children back to California and leave their father. She maintained she was suffering verbal abuse, but said Matthew had never physically hurt her or the children.
Unable to get the answers she wanted from an attorney, prosecutors say Kathryn lured Matthew to her mother’s home, saying she would return to California with him, but never had any intention of going. In the texts, Kathryn explicitly invites Matthew to her family’s home and not only gives him the gate code for the community but also notes that the family’s door will be left unlocked.
Digital Evidence
American Fork Detective Joseph Nordin laid out massive amounts of digital evidence that investigators had collected from Ellis, Grist, and Kathryn’s phones. Texts between the three revealed discussions about Kathryn’s desire to leave her marriage and mentions of her going on a date with someone else.
Kathryn’s digital search history showed that in the days before Matthew’s murder, she searched “smitten,” “How do you tell someone you’re talking to that you started dating and it’s becoming something,” “safe words,” and just 40 minutes before her husband was killed, “Lover as a pet name.” In the days after Matthew’s death, she searched “how to say I’m on my period to a guy,” and “five ways to get rid of hickeys.”
Grist’s search history focused on another family embroiled in a murder plot. Beginning on June 5, Grist searched for “Katherine Magbanua,” a key player in the murder of FSU professor Dan Markel. In that case, Markel’s former brother-in-law, Charlie Adelson, was convicted of plotting his murder-for-hire, and Adelson’s mother, Donna, is scheduled to stand trial on the same charges in June. Grist searched for an episode of Dateline focusing on the Adelson family, as well as “Where was Donna Adelson arrested?” Donna was arrested while boarding a flight with a one-way ticket to Vietnam in Nov. 2023.
Grist also searched queries about taking children over state lines, getting U.S. passports for children, and on July 12, the date of Matthew’s murder, for the “it’s happening meme.”
The Knife
When police arrived at the scene of the shooting, Ellis told them that he had acted in self-defense when he shot Matthew. Officers noted a knife was in Matthew’s hand.

The knife found in Matthew Restelli’s hand is seen on a computer screen at a hearing on Jan. 14, 2025. (Court TV)
However, investigators determined that the knife was actually in Matthew’s non-dominant hand and soon learned more about it. Nordin said that while investigating the small folding knife, he found it was only available from MyTacticalPromos. Matthew had no relationship with the company, but Grist had exchanged emails with them confirming an order for a mystery box that would have contained a knife matching the one found in Matthew’s hand.
Judge Roger Griffin noted the extensive evidence, as well as discrepancies between Grist and Kathryn’s accounts of what happened. “They were concerned that he was going to be violent when he came in, and he was going to be drinking and all and things of that nature,” Griffin said. “Yet the audio recordings that were presented to the court today clearly showed to the contrary, not somebody who was angry or upset or on a mission to cause problems, it was someone that was just looking forward to, what I heard today, to seeing his wife and his kids and giving her a hug and a kiss and heading back home.”
Ellis is due back in court for another hearing on Jan. 29.