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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake police have arrested a woman in connection with the suspicious death of a man whose body was discovered earlier this week.
Alta Tresa Mardell, 24, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Thursday night for investigation of murder.
About 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, police received information about a possible deceased person near 900 South and 400 West. Emergency crews responded to the area and found the body of 41-year-old Jonathan Devereaux "deceased at the entrance to the building with critical wounds to his body," according to a police booking affidavit.
Devereaux was homeless and had been camping inside the building at 401 W. 900 South, according to police.
Detectives interviewed several witnesses and collected evidence that pointed to Mardell as the person responsible for Devereaux's death, the affidavit states. Witnesses say Mardell was seen entering the building, then exiting a short time later and claiming that she had been assaulted by a man inside.
"Multiple witnesses stated that Mardell had a knife on her person and made statements that she was going back into the building to 'handle business' and 'gonna go merk this fool,'" the affidavit states. "Merk" is a slang term meaning hurt or kill. "Witnesses observed Mardell enter the business a second time. Mardell then exited the building again a short time later and told witnesses that she needed to leave."
Police believe Mardell stabbed the man inside the building, the affidavit states. Detectives located her and took her into custody.
"Witnesses in this case reported (that) Mardell would harm them if they reported her to authorities," according to the affidavit.
Detectives are requesting that Mardell be held in jail without the possibility of posting bail pending the filing of formal charges, noting that she "has a lengthy history of violent behavior to include carjacking, and numerous aggravated assaults with deadly weapons. It was reported that Mardell recently cut a woman's face with a knife because the women 'snitched,'" the arrest report states.
In that case, Mardell was charged in 3rd District Court with retaliation against a witness and aggravated assault. The charges were dismissed in December, however, when a preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin because prosecutors were unable to serve a subpoena on a witness.
Last June, she was charged with aggravated assault and accused of punching a woman and breaking her nose and eye socket. Her next court hearing in that case is scheduled for June. In January 2022, Mardell was convicted of hitting a woman in the head with brass knuckles, according to court documents. In 2020, she was convicted of stabbing a man in the head and sentenced to 45 days in jail.
