Inset left: Kidus Yohannes (Salt Lake City Police Department). Inset right: Candace Samples (Obituary). Background: The since-shuttered Dollar Tree behind which Yohannes fatally stabbed Samples in Salt Lake City, Utah (Google Maps).
A man in Utah will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing a woman over a dispute about a stolen cellphone.
In August, a Salt Lake County jury found Kidus Yohannes, 39, guilty of aggravated murder for the November 2018 death of 20-year-old Candace Samples. He was also convicted of one count of attempted manslaughter for stabbing another man.
Last week, the defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the woman's death, according to a press release issued by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.
The judge overseeing the matter also tacked on an additional sentence of up to five years for the nonfatal stabbing.
The incident occurred on Nov. 7, 2018, behind a since-shuttered Dollar Tree in Salt Lake City, according to law enforcement.
On the day in question, Samples stole the defendant's cellphone while he was at the Marmalade Branch Library across the street.
The victim, one of her friends and the defendant all came to be inside the same dumpster behind the discount store after the theft, police said. There, Yohannes confronted Samples about the cellphone and pulled out a knife "and said he would use it if he did not get his phone back," prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, a witness saw the incident unfold and ran to an adjacent 7-Eleven to get a friend. That man rushed over to intervene and help, jumped into the dumpster and was immediately stabbed by the defendant, but survived, authorities said.
Yet another person in the "dumpster enclosure" saw the man being stabbed, climbed over the wall to escape the violence, and then "grabbed a large board, reentered the enclosure, and saw the defendant stabbing Ms. Sample[s]," according to the prosecutor's office.
After the woman was stabbed, the witness who ran to the convenience store for help opened the gates and Yohannes fled.
Samples and the man who tried to help her were both rushed to a nearby hospital after the 911 call came in. The woman suffered 20 different stab wounds to her head, arms and torso, according to law enforcement. She succumbed to her wounds soon after arriving.
"Surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven across the street from the dumpster showed the defendant with Ms. Samples entering and leaving the store together before the stabbing," the press release reads. "Police located the defendant and took him into custody. The defendant denied that he had any involvement in the stabbings or that he had any knowledge of or interaction with either victim."
Investigators, however, took custody of the defendant's shoes and found blood on them that was a match for Samples'.
During the sentencing hearing, the survivor of the stabbing addressed the court and spoke about turning his life around, according to the district attorney's office.
The couple who raised Samples also spoke up about the joys of having her in the home as a child and watching her grow.
"They talked about the struggles that she faced, but they also talked about the loss they have been left with now that she is gone," the press release goes on. "Ms. Samples' loved ones prepared a video of her life that the judge allowed to be played in the packed courtroom at her sentencing."
The defendant's trial lasted three days. Jurors reached their verdict on the third day.
"We hope that Ms. Samples' family feels they have received some measure of justice," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said. "We know it is not perfect justice, if it were perfect justice, Ms. Samples would still be in our community today."