Jury finds man guilty of killing aunt's boyfriend, but determined he thought he was justified

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Deon Andre Jennings was convicted of manslaughter after stabbing his aunt's boyfriend in 2022.
• Jurors found Jennings could have thought he was justified in defending himself after hearing evidence, including Jennings' testimony.
• Multiple judges, including the Utah Supreme Court, found Jennings was not justified.

SALT LAKE CITY — Jurors found a West Valley City man guilty of killing his aunt's boyfriend by stabbing him in the back, but said he could have believed he was defending himself.

Deon Andre Jennings, 35, was convicted of manslaughter, a second-degree felony. The charge was reduced from murder, a first-degree felony, because jurors found that prosecutors didn't prove that he did not believe he was justified in defending himself.

The trial began on Aug. 25, and jurors heard witnesses that day and the next, including testimony from Jennings. On Aug. 28, the eight jurors listened to closing arguments in the afternoon and deliberated from about 4 p.m. until almost 1 a.m. before deciding to come back in the morning. They deliberated another four hours before reaching a verdict.

The incident occurred on April 30, 2022. Police were called to Aspenwood Apartments at 4178 S. 4080 West, where they found 59-year-old Willie Houston bleeding on the kitchen floor, stabbed in the back and neck. Charges said that after he was stabbed, Houston went to a neighbor's apartment and told them his nephew had stabbed him.

Houston later died in a hospital.

A few days after the stabbing, police announced that Jennings was a person of interest in the case. Jennings called police the next day but did not give his location. They later found him at his apartment.

Initially, Jennings reported that he was hanging out with Houston, they got into an argument, and they continued arguing about who would leave. Houston got on his cellphone and left, and then came back in, and Jennings stabbed him. Jennings reported that he did not think to call 911 because Houston ran out the front door. Instead, he said his goal was to buy more beer, charges claim.

In a 2023 justification hearing, 3rd District Court Judge Coral Sanchez ruled that there was not support for a self-defense claim in the case. Jennings maintained at that time that he did not intend to injure Houston and was defending himself. He appealed the ruling, arguing that his case should be dismissed.

The Utah Supreme Court agreed with Sanchez that for a case to be dismissed due to a justification claim, a defendant needs to produce evidence supporting their justification claim. Jennings' attorneys had argued that he would only be required to present an argument and that the judge should consider the details he claims to be true.

After the appeal, another justification hearing was held on March 4, 2026. This time, 3rd District Judge Teresa Welch Jennings had enough evidence of self-defense to require the prosecutors to specifically disprove it. But after hearing more evidence, she found the stabbing was not justified.

Jennings is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 10.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Police & CourtsUtahSalt Lake County

Emily Ashcraft

• 
• 

Emily Ashcraft is a reporter for KSL. She covers issues in state courts, health and religion. In her spare time, Emily enjoys crafting, cycling and raising chickens.