More than two years after someone violently attacked two people — killing one of them — outside a Marmalade neighborhood dollar store, prosecutors filed charges against the man who allegedly did it.
Salt Lake City police arrested 34-year-old Kidus Yohannes on Monday on suspicion of stabbing and killing 20-year-old Candace Samples. He faces charges for first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder and is being held without bail.
On Nov. 17, 2018, Yohannes is accused of attacking Samples and a man in a dumpster enclosure in a parking lot at 477 North and 300 West.
Witnesses told police at the time that Yohannes was angry that Samples had taken his phone at the nearby Marmalade library, according to a probable cause statement. They said that Yohannes chased Samples from the library to the Dollar Tree and held her at knifepoint in the dumpster area, demanding that he get his phone back.
One of the witnesses went to a convenience store and told a man inside what was happening, according to a probable cause statement. That man entered the dumpster enclosure to help Samples and was stabbed several times on his face, hands, ribs and shoulders, documents say. Police allege that after that Yohannes turned back to Samples and stabbed her several more times before running away.
Samples was stabbed more than 26 times and died. The man, who was in critical condition when police found him, survived.
Police identified Yohannes using surveillance video from nearby businesses. On May 24, forensic testing found human blood on Yohannes’ clothing, and DNA tests later confirmed the blood was Samples’.
The Salt Lake City Police Department tweeted that the case was filed so long after the attack because the state crime lab hadn’t returned their forensic findings until two months ago.
“Homicide investigations are sometimes long and complicated,” the SLCPD tweeted, “but we never rest, and cases are never cold.”
SLCPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
