OGDEN — A woman accused of helping her husband steal from a woman he had brutally murdered has been sentenced to jail.

Shuree Laness London, 35, pleaded guilty in August to a reduced charge of obstructing justice, a third-degree felony. The reduced charges were negotiated in a June plea deal by London's husband, Lyle Robert London, who pleaded guilty to murdering a woman and then killed himself in his jail cell five days later.

London initially told police she didn't know that her husband had killed 32-year-old Lindsay Holbrook, but later admitted she knew about the murder and had helped to hide evidence of financial records that her husband had taken from the woman's house, according to an affidavit. She then helped her husband as he tried to get additional money from Holbrook's bank accounts, police said.

Shuree London pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to "attempting to alter, destroy, conceal or remove evidence of a crime." She was sentenced Monday to a year in jail and three years of probation.

A possibility for work release will be reviewed in six months, according to court documents.

Holbrook's body was found Feb. 27 when police went to her Washington Terrace apartment, 374 E. Ridgeland Drive, to inform her that her car had been involved in a hit-and-run accident with Lyle London at the wheel. Holbrook, a mother of two, had been the victim of a financial crime that was being investigated by the Weber County Sheriff's Office before her death, and the description of a suspect in that case, London, matched that of the hit-and-run driver, charges state.

Original Story

Woman found dead in Washington Terrace apartment; husband-wife duo arrested

Investigators with the Weber County Sheriff's Office say a 32-year-old woman was killed in her Washington Terrace apartment late Friday.

Lyle London initially told investigators he had been having sex with Holbrook at her home and fell on top of her, possibly breaking her neck, charging documents state. Holbrook was still making noises, he said, so he put his belt around her throat, used duct tape to put pillows on her head, and then hit her several times in the head with a baseball bat, according to the charges.

In a letter written on Shuree London's behalf, a sister-in-law explained that London's commitment to her marriage had confined the mother of four to a world of fear, violence and addiction she had never expected.

"If you knew the woman I know, it would not be so easy to condemn," the woman wrote. "In the last few months of his life, drugs had destroyed my brother and turned him into the typical paranoid, violent addict with grandiose aspirations you would see on any TV show. … When the shell of a man she once loved showed up at her front door confessing his terrible crime as casually as if he had just told he had run an errand, how was she to know he would not just as casually harm her and her children?"

Additional letters from an employer and co-worker applauded London's hard work and reliability working at a convenience store since April, while a case worker from Utah's Department of Child and Family Services reported she has tested free of drugs and alcohol since April and so far has completed all required classes as she seeks to regain custody of her children.

Related topics