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SUNSET — Police have arrested a man in connection with a stabbing death in Sunset overnight.
Officers responding to calls of an injury about 2 a.m. found the body of a 31-year-old man with a single stab wound outside the fourplex at 2300 N. 250 West. Police say the man, whose name has not been released, was stabbed during an argument with a man he knew.
Police found Michael Scott Ennis, 34, a short distance away from the fourplex and arrested him for a parole violation. He has been booked into Davis County Jail.
Sunset Police Chief Ken Eborn said Ennis surrendered to police without incident and is cooperating with investigators.
Ennis and the 31-year-old man both have children with a woman who lives in the apartment, police said. Neighbors who spoke to officers indicated the two men did not get along.
The children were not home when the altercation occurred, police confirmed.
Leslie Liptrap, who has one child with Ennis and another with the victim, said Tuesday that tension had surfaced when Ennis resisted leaving the house, but she wasn't sure what caused the argument to turn violent.
"I don't know what made it progress to where it ended up at," Liptrap said.
Eventually Ennis left, with the other man following him to the door, Liptrap said. She's not sure what was said between them, but the man apparently followed Ennis outside.
Liptrap said she separated with Ennis about a year ago, and that the 31-year-old man had come back into her life recently because of the daughter they share.
"He started staying here to get to be a dad to his daughter," Liptrap said of the victim. "My daughter came home and she was told that her dad that's been her dad for 10 years killed her biological dad, and my little boy doesn't even know yet. It's a family torn apart."
It's been a long time (since we've had a homicide). Off the top of my head, it's probably been since the '90s. It's not something that occurs very often around here.
–Sunset Police Chief Ken Eborn
The Davis County Sheriff's Office is assisting the Sunset Police Department's eight officers as they investigate the case. Eborn said it's been years since the small community has had a homicide.
"It's been a long time. Off the top of my head, it's probably been since the '90s," Eborn said. "It's not something that occurs very often around here."
A search of Utah court records indicates Ennis has been convicted of unlawful acquisition of a financial card, multiple counts of assault, possession of drug paraphernalia, retail theft, unlawful use of a financial card, and burglary of a vehicle.
Contributing: Geoff Liesik, Paul Nelson
