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West Jordan • She was shot by her boyfriend in a apparent homicide-suicide attempt that left a Draper police officer dead, a bullet lodged in her abdomen and police officers guarding her bedside, but, prosecutors said Tuesday, Traci Lee Vaillancourt still lied to protect the man who shot her.
She was, by all accounts, a victim. But on Tuesday, she was ordered to stand trial for allegedly lying to investigators about what happened on the morning of Sept. 1, 2013 — when Timothy Troy Walker killed Sgt. Derek Johnson.
At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, at which prosecutors laid out their evidence against the 35-year-old woman, the lead detective in the case said Vaillancourt changed her story four times in as many weeks after the shooting.
She originally told police that Walker was seated next to her in the car, when they were both shot by an unidentified man she guessed might be an old acquaintance of Walker's.
In an interview on Sept. 4, Sgt. Mike Ikemiyashiro said she told police that Walker had been standing outside the Volvo, trying to lift the hood of the vehicle, while she was leaning over, trying to unlatch it from the inside. The car had a flat tire after driving over a curb, a stop sign, a large rock and then through a fence at 13800 S. 933 East, according to court documents.
The next time the defendant spoke to police, Ikemiyashiro said, she admitted to seeing a police cruiser, but said nothing of the officer.
During their last interview, on Sept. 27, "there were some serious discrepancies" between her story and the evidence police had collected, Ikemiyashiro said. It was then that Vaillancourt admitted that Walker pulled the trigger — shooting her and then himself — Ikemiyashiro said, but she also told police that Walker didn't know what he was doing.
Walker was sentenced to life in prison in July for killing Johnson.
The Draper sergeant was in a marked police car as he came upon Walker standing outside his stopped Volvo sedan near 13200 S. Fort Street about 6 a.m. on Sept. 1.
When the officer pulled up near the Volvo to see if he could help, Walker shot Johnson through the open front passenger-side window of the police car.
Johnson, who was hit in the chest, tried to drive north to get away. But Walker, who was allegedly under methamphetamine at the time of the incident, shot at Johnson at least three more times.
Johnson, 32, died at the scene.
The fallen officer's family attended Tuesday's hearing.
According to defense attorneys, prosecutors offered Vaillancourt a plea deal in July, but it unravelled. She will next return to court on Oct. 20, at which point she will be able to enter either a guilty or not guilty plea to two counts of obstructing justice.
Vaillancourt, who is completing a drug treatment program at the Salt Lake County Jail, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the two second-degree felonies.
Twitter: @Marissa_Jae