PROVO, Utah (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — A Utah woman was sentenced to 1-15 years in prison on Tuesday for the death of her husband, whom she lured to Utah under false pretenses in order to kill him with help from family.
Kathryn Restelli appears in court for her sentencing hearing Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (Scripps News Salt Lake City)
Kathryn Restelli pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges in July, both second-degree felonies. Her arrest came after her husband, Matthew Restelli, was shot and killed a year earlier.
Judge Roger Griffin sentenced Kathryn to the same 1-15 years in prison sentence for the charges, along with a sentence of 5 years to life in prison for the charge of felony discharge of a weapon. The sentences for murder and discharge will run consecutively, while the conspiracy sentence will run concurrently.
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The judge also ordered Kathryn to have no contact with her children.
“Your children are victims of your actions,” said Griffin. “They’ll be lifetime victims of your actions, and they deserve to grow up without you in your life, in their lives.”
Kathryn admitted to conspiring with her mother and brother to lure 42-year-old Matthew to Utah from California in July 2024, leading him to believe that she wished to repair their marriage. Kathryn told Matthew that when he arrived at her mother’s American Fork home, he should come right in, as the door was unlocked.
Once inside, Matthew was shot and killed by Kevin Ellis, his brother-in-law. Family originally told police that the shooting was in self-defense, but an investigation noted that a knife found in Matthew’s hand had been placed there in a strange way, stating, “… it did not appear that Matthew was holding this knife when he was shot. It appeared that the knife was deliberately placed into Matthew’s right hand after he had been shot dead.”
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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 and Kathryn lived in California but were having marriage problems, so Kathryn came to Utah with her children to stay with her mother, Tracey Grist. Upon learning that Matthew wanted to bring the children back to California, she lied to him, claiming she was willing to return with the family
During the investigation into Matthew’s death, detectives seized the phones of Kathryn, Grist, and Ellis and found that they were tracking Matthew as he made his way to Utah via an AirTag that Kathryn had placed in his truck.
While Ellis allegedly shot Matthew on July 12, 2024, Kathryn was in a bedroom in the house.
Kathryn pleaded guilty to reduced counts of murder and conspiracy as part of a plea deal that saw other counts dismissed.
Ellis and Grist are still awaiting trial.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Salt Lake City, an E.W. Scripps Company.
