PROVO, Utah (Scripps News Salt Lake City) — A 56-year-old woman was arrested Saturday for shooting and killing her husband.
She told police she shot him in self-defense. However, investigators say the evidence indicated otherwise.
Provo home where police said Melissa Johnson-Fausett shot and killed her husband for allegedly attacking her.
(Photo by: Scripps News Salt Lake City)
The Provo Police Department said they received a call from Melissa Johnson-Fausett around 7:45 p.m., saying she had shot her husband after he attacked her.
Officers responded and found her husband, Corry Fausett, dead on the floor of the hallway.
According to the arrest report, Johnson-Fausett told police she was lying on her bed when her husband came into the room, grabbed her by the neck and hit her on the top of her head. She said that’s when she grabbed her gun that was sitting beside her on the bed, and she shot at her husband. She said he left the room, and she continued shooting until he fell to the floor just outside the bedroom doorway.
Johnson-Fausett said her husband had threatened to kill her and she believed he was going into another room to get a gun.
Police obtained a warrant and searched the couple’s house. They said they found a second gun in Johnson-Fausett’s purse, and the gun had blood spatter on the front of it. Investigators said they asked her about the blood, and she claimed it was from shooting rabbits at close range in the desert. However, they tested the blood and it came back positive for human blood.
Court documents state that Fausett’s body had four bullet wounds: one on his right side, one in the back of his head, and two on the left side of his face. Police said one of the gunshot wounds on his face had burn marks, “indicating it was a close-range shot.” They also said they found damage to the floor underneath his body that appeared to be from a bullet.
“After falling to the ground, there was no evidence of him moving to indicate that he was a threat to Melissa’s safety. The evidence obtained at the scene conflicted with the statements made by Melissa,” the report stated.
Johnson-Fausett was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, and the doctor reportedly found no evidence of an injury to her head. Police determined that she “intentionally or knowingly caused the death of her husband and was no longer acting in self-defense.”
She is being held in the Utah County Jail without bail, facing one first-degree felony charge of murder.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Salt Lake City, an E.W. Scripps company.
