The man suspected of shooting a Riverton man and firing more shots at police officers this month reportedly hid out at a Springville hotel for at least part of an ensuing manhunt.
Police looked for Justin Gary Llewelyn, 33, for five days before causing a crash that led to his arrest in Spanish Fork last week.
His aunt Keria Jessica Hartley-Johnson was arrested for her helping him evade police. On Monday, she was charged in 3rd District Court with second-degree-felony obstruction of justice and third-degree-felony retaliation against a witness, victim or informant.
During last week’s search, police spoke to a man who knew Llewelyn’s family and stayed at Llewelyn’s mother’s house the night before the shootings. According to arrest documents, Hartley-Johnson had bragged to the man that she and other members of Llewelyn’s family “already had him (Mr. Llewelyn) moved before they (the police) showed up.”
The man, Hartley-Johnson and her nephew picked up Llewelyn that evening, he told police, and drove him to a hotel in Springville. He heard Hartley-Johnson making plans to take Llewelyn to Beaver Dam, according to arrest documents.
The witness went back to Salt Lake County on Jan. 21 and started cooperating with police. On Wednesday, he received a voicemail from Hartley-Johnson, who threatened the man with violence and “advised him to run and hide,” arrest documents state.
She was arrested in Ivins, according to Salt Lake City police, and is being held in lieu of $1 million cash-only bond.
Llewelyn — who had told people he would commit “suicide by cop” before going to jail — was allegedly prowling around cars in a Riverton apartment complex before the Jan. 20 shootings.
He ran when a Unified Police officer tried to talk to him. “The officer heard what he believed were gunshots coming from the direction of [Llewelyn] as he was chasing him,” jail documents state. A short time later, another UPD officer tried to stop Llewelyn, who ran away while firing shots at the officer.
Llewelyn then reportedly broke into a nearby home, shot and wounded the man who lives there, and stole an SUV from the garage. Police suspect that he crashed the stolen SUV near Blackridge Reservoir in Herriman.
The injured man was taken to a hospital and is recovering in good condition, according to police.
A Unified police deputy saw Llewelyn at a park in Provo on Wednesday afternoon. Llewelyn led law enforcement officers on a chase through Utah County in what police said was a stolen pickup truck.
The chase ended in Spanish Fork. A Utah County sheriff’s deputy stopped Llewelyn by ramming his patrol vehicle into the side of the pickup, which then crashed into a parked tow truck.
Llewelyn is being held in Salt Lake County jail on suspicion of attempted aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, use of a firearm by a restricted person, failure to stop at an officer’s command and theft by receiving stolen property.
Since 2003, Llewelyn has spent time in jail, has been in and out of prison, and has been on probation for various charges of violence, drugs and theft.
Two weeks before the Saturday shootings, Llewelyn skipped a hearing on charges of theft by receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony, and drug-related misdemeanors. He had posted $25,000 bail, and a 3rd District judge issued a new warrant for his arrest when he didn’t show up to the Jan. 8 hearing.
In the months before the shootings, Llewelyn had been living near the Riverton-Herriman border, police said. His previous stint in prison ended in 2011.
