A jury convicted Kidus Yohannes of aggravated murder in Candace Samples’ death and attempted manslaughter for stabbing a bystander. Utah law allows limited force to protect property, but deadly force requires a separate legal justification.
Kidus Chane Yohannes, 39, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2018 aggravated murder of Candace Rose Samples, 20. Third District Judge Kristine Johnson imposed the sentence on Sept. 29, 2026. Yohannes also received a sentence of zero to five years for the attempted manslaughter of Jeffrey Plante, who survived the stabbing.
The attack happened on Nov. 7, 2018, behind a Dollar Tree at 477 North and 300 West in Salt Lake City. Police said officers were called at about 9:26 p.m. after a report that two people had been stabbed. The fatal confrontation took place in a fenced dumpster enclosure behind the store, which has since closed.
Investigators said the dispute began at the nearby Marmalade Library, where Samples took Yohannes’ cellphone. A 2021 KSL report citing the police arrest affidavit said Yohannes chased Samples across the street, held her at knifepoint and demanded the phone. The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s later account said he confronted Samples and others in the enclosure and threatened to use a knife if he did not get his phone back.
Public accounts differ about who was with Samples when the confrontation began. The district attorney’s 2026 release identifies Jacoby Allen, while the arrest affidavit, as summarized by KSL, refers to Samples and another man. The reports do not explain the difference, so the accounts cannot be reconciled from the public information cited here.
Prosecutors said witness Pamela Rees went to a nearby 7-Eleven to alert her friend Plante. He ran to the enclosure to help and was attacked when he entered, according to the district attorney’s account. Another witness, Gary Davies, climbed over the enclosure wall to escape. He returned with a board and saw Yohannes stabbing Samples. Rees opened the gate, and Yohannes fled.
The district attorney’s office said Samples suffered 20 stab wounds to her head, arms and torso and died shortly after arriving at a hospital. Plante was admitted to intensive care and survived. An earlier KSL report citing the arrest affidavit said an autopsy found more than 26 wounds. The reports do not explain the difference, so each figure should be attributed to its source.
Police named Yohannes as a person of interest in November 2018 and obtained a warrant to collect his DNA. He was released while the investigation continued and charged on July 22, 2021. Prosecutors later said DNA testing, competency evaluations and witness availability contributed to delays. The district attorney’s office said blood on Yohannes’ shoes matched Samples’ DNA and that surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven showed him with Samples before the stabbing.
Yohannes was tried by a jury from Aug. 4 to Aug. 7, 2026. Jurors found him guilty of aggravated murder and attempted manslaughter. The district attorney’s office initially described the second verdict as attempted murder with imperfect self-defense, then corrected its account to say the jury convicted Yohannes of attempted manslaughter based on imperfect self-defense.
The cellphone dispute raises a separate legal question: what force could Yohannes lawfully use to recover his phone? Under Utah Code § 76-2-406, as it stood in 2018, a person could use reasonable force—but not deadly force—to prevent or end criminal interference with certain property lawfully in the person’s possession or under the person’s protection. That provision did not authorize deadly force solely to recover a cellphone.
Utah’s self-defense law, in a separate statute, allowed deadly force in limited circumstances. Under the 2018 version of Utah Code § 76-2-402, deadly force could be justified when a person reasonably believed it necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury from unlawful force, or to prevent a forcible felony. A suspected theft, by itself, would not satisfy that standard. Public reports do not establish that Yohannes raised a defense-of-property claim at trial, and they do not include the jury instructions or verdict form.
The imperfect-self-defense finding applied to the attempted-manslaughter count involving Plante. Utah law allows imperfect self-defense to reduce murder to manslaughter, or attempted murder to attempted manslaughter, when a defendant acts under a belief that the circumstances legally justified or excused the use of force, although the law did not actually justify or excuse it. The verdict was not an acquittal, and it does not show that jurors found Samples’ killing justified.
The aggravated-murder verdict also required more than proof of an intentional or knowing killing. Under Utah’s 2018 law, prosecutors had to prove at least one aggravating circumstance listed in the statute. Those circumstances included knowingly creating a great risk of death to another person during the episode or attempting to kill another person in the same episode. Plante was stabbed during the incident, but the district attorney’s public announcement does not identify which aggravating circumstance the jury found.
At sentencing, Plante spoke about rebuilding his life and helping others. Samples’ family described the loss they continue to feel. Her sister, Celeste Swift, told FOX 13, “She was our whole family’s world.” District Attorney Sim Gill said no sentence could restore Samples to her community.
