SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah woman accused of murdering her missing husband was denied permission to contact her young children for a second time in court Friday.
Jennifer Gledhill’s attorney argued that the pretrial protective order that was issued, which prohibits her from having communication with the children, was “incorrectly placed and allowed.”
Jennifer Gledhill makes her first court appearance Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Salt Lake County)
The attorney said because the children are not victims in the case or in any other domestic violence event, they should be allowed to have contact with Gledhill.
Gledhill’s children, ages 11, 7, and 5, have been in the custody of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services since their mother was arrested for the death of Matthew Johnson.
“My client’s already lost her liberty at this point in time,” added Gledhill’s attorney. “It feels like the state, and the city, the police agency that investigated this, are trying to set everything that my client loves on fire.”
At the end Friday’s hearing, Judge Adam Mow actually lifted the pretrial protective order but issued a separate no-contact order to be put in place, which means Gledhill is still not allowed to communicate with the children.
Mow said that as the case proceeds, he would be willing to carve out exceptions to the no-contact order seeing as how it not only affects Gledhill, but the children as well.
Matthew Johnson (Cottonwood Heights Police)
On Thursday, Gledhill’s parents were both taken into custody and face multiple obstruction of justice charges for allegedly helping their daughter clean up the bedroom where she is accused of shooting Johnson while he slept.
Rosalie and Thomas Gledhill both face multiple first-degree felony charges of obstruction of justice.
Johnson, a member of the Utah National Guard, was reported missing on Sept. 23 after he failed to show up to work at his base. An informant told police that Gledhill said she had shot her husband in the head as he was sleeping. She then claimed to have taken the body and buried it in a shallow grave. The informant was later identified as Gledhill’s lover.
According to the arrest documents, neither of Gledhill’s parents has cooperated with the police investigation or in locating the body.
