AMERICAN FORK, Utah (Court TV) — A Utah woman has pleaded guilty to killing her husband with the help of her mother and brother.
On Wednesday, Kathryn Restelli pleaded guilty to three charges in the July 2024 death of Matthew Restelli: murder, conspiracy to commit murder and a discharge of a firearm. Kathryn will be sentenced on September 9.
MORE | Wife sentenced for luring husband to Utah to kill him
Kathryn Restelli appears in court via video conference to plead guilty to charges in the death of her husband. (Utah County Jail/Court TV)
Matthew was shot and killed on July 12, 2024, when he went to pick up his wife, Kathryn, at her mother’s house in Utah. Kathryn’s brother, Kevin Ellis, told police that he pulled the trigger in self-defense after Matthew threatened him with a knife. But detectives immediately took notice of some details they deemed suspicious, and charged the siblings and their mother, Tracey Grist, with Matthew’s murder.
Digital evidence presented in court suggests a plot involving Kathryn and Grist, with text messages and search histories indicating discussions about Kathryn’s desire to leave her marriage and plans to lure Matthew from their home in California to Utah. 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.
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 August. 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 November 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 cases against Ellis and Grist are still pending.
