CEDAR CITY — A second co-defendant accused in connection with the death of a St. George woman more than two years ago has been sentenced to prison.
Maida Janet Martinez-Westfall, 37, was sentenced via videoconference on Dec. 7 by Judge Don M. Torgerson, a 7th District Court judge who had been assigned the 5th District case.
As part of a plea agreement, Martinez-Westfall had pleaded guilty on Oct. 27 to one count of kidnapping and four counts of obstructing justice, with each of the five charges being classified as a second-degree felony punishable by one to 15 years in Utah State Prison.
In accordance with the agreement, the court ordered that the five terms be served consecutively, meaning that Martinez-Westfall will serve at least five years and as long as 75 years in prison, with the exact length of time to be determined by the Utah Board of Pardons.
As previously reported, Martinez-Westfall was one of three people accused of involvement in the death of 26-year-old Stevie Shay Wilkerson of St. George, whose body was found in western Iron County about two weeks after she went missing in August 2020. The state medical examiner’s office ruled that the cause of Wilkerson’s death was homicide by gunshot.
The other two people who have been charged in connection with the incident are Joseph Edward Fought and Brittany Elizabeth Phillips. According to charging documents filed with the court, the trio had held Wilkerson inside a vehicle against her will, with the pickup truck being driven from St. George to a remote area in Iron County before Wilkerson was allegedly taken out and killed.
As previously reported, Phillips, 29, received a sentence of 15 years to life in prison in December 2021 after pleading guilty to a single count of murder, a first-degree felony. She’s currently serving time at the Utah State Prison.
Meanwhile, the case against the 32-year-old Fought is still pending. Fought is facing one count of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, plus felony counts of kidnapping, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and possessing or transferring a stolen vehicle. Since his incarceration in Iron County Jail, Fought has picked up at least four additional felony charges, including assault by a prisoner and damaging a jail.
Fought’s next scheduled court appearance is a pretrial conference on Jan. 18 before Judge Torgerson, with the proceedings to be conducted online via WebEx.
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