This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Provo • Chaelisa Nielsen filled Kevin Jensen's life "with so many 'nevers'," he told a Provo judge Tuesday.
He'll never have another birthday with his son, 28-year-old Jeffrey Jensen. He'll never have another fishing trip, another long drive or another chance to offer "awkward advice" to his son. Kevin Jensen daydreams about the grandchildren his son will never have.
"This woman took my world from me," Kevin Jensen said between sobs. "My precious son … There are so many 'nevers' I could go on forever."
Nielsen pleaded guilty in November to first-degree felony murder in Jeffrey Jensen's 2012 death. Her boyfriend, Stephan Sutton, pleaded guilty to the same charge, admitting they lured Jensen to a vacant parking lot and robbed and killed him to get cash for Christmas and an engagement ring.
On Tuesday, 4th District Court Judge Lynn Davis sentenced Nielsen to spend 15 years to life in prison for the crime.
Sutton, who admitted he pulled the trigger on Nov. 23, 2012, was not sentenced Tuesday as scheduled, after a mix-up with Adult Probation and Parole. He faces up to life in life in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 30.
Nielsen read two apologetic letters she penned to the Jensen family.
"I idolize all of you for the strength you have," she said. "I can't even imagine what it must be like to go through this. And I am deeply ashamed, as well as hurt, to have had any part in the events that night."
Sutton and Nielsen had planned for about a week to rob Jensen of drugs and money, according to charging documents.
They arranged to buy oxycodone pills that would have cost them about $1,000 and met Jensen at a vacant, unlit parking lot of the old Flying J in Payson.
Sutton drove up with a shotgun on his lap, pointed the gun at Jensen and demanded the victim's belongings, according to court documents. When Jensen objected, police say, Sutton shot him in the chest at point-blank range, then reloaded the gun and gave it to Nielsen.
"Your honor, this robbery and shooting did not occur because of a [wedding] ring," defense attorney Barbara Gonzales said Tuesday. "…This occurred because of selfish and greedy thoughts by two people addicted to opiate drugs."
Gonzales said Nielsen met Sutton when she was 17 years old, and just weeks into her marriage to another man. She left her husband six weeks later and moved with her son — who she gave birth to at age 15 — into Sutton's home.
"Everything changed," Gonzales said. "She was once a vibrant, happy person. But she became a shadow of what Stephan wanted her to be."
Gonzales told the judge that the couple had purchased prescription drugs from Jensen many times before the day of the shooting.
"She said she did not plan to shoot Jeff," Gonzales said of her client. "Stephan told her the shotgun was used to scare him."
But Deputy Utah County Attorney Doug Finch said Nielsen told investigators the shooting was planned.
"She expressed an awful lot of things that don't match with what she is saying now," Finch said. "That they planned this murder out beforehand. That they had talked about it for a couple of weeks before it occurred."
Before handing down the sentence, the judge said the defendants' actions were "incomprehensible" to him.
"This loss is an indictment of the drug culture," Davis said. "I wish every teenager facing temptation for drug use and abuse could sit here and witness the trauma and witness the pain and the loss of joy and the disintegration and the broken families and the consequences of those choices."