Utah County filed notice that it will seek the death penalty against Matthew Jacob Leonard.

A death-penalty notice tells the defense the state will ask for the maximum if there is a conviction. It is not a conviction, and it is not a finding that the missing people are dead. KSL reported Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray signed the notice Friday and that it seeks death on each aggravated-murder count after consultation with the families. The counts themselves were filed in April. Friday's paper is the choice of punishment the office says it will pursue.

KSL reported that on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray filed notice that prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against Matthew Jacob Leonard, 28, of Springville. ABC4, citing the court filing, identified him as Jeffrey S. Gray. KUTV reported the Utah County Attorney's Office filed the notice Friday morning and that it covers both aggravated-murder counts. The notice says, "The decision to seek the death penalty is supported by substantial evidence, is made in the interest of justice, and has come after consultation with the victims' families," KSL and KUTV reported. KSL reported the notice says death is being sought on each aggravated-murder count. A notice is the prosecution's election. A jury has not been asked to make it.

The counts under that notice are the April case, not a new arrest. KSL reported Leonard is charged with two counts of aggravated murder, which the notice treats as capital offenses; two counts of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; two counts of abuse or desecration of a dead body; and five counts of felony discharge of a firearm, third-degree felonies. ABC4 reported he was formally charged on April 20 after the county attorney's office asked for more time to file, and that the April list matches those counts. KUTV reported he was arrested in April facing two counts of aggravated murder after two people went missing, one of them his mother. Friday's filing does not add a new homicide count. It tells the court which sentence the state will seek on the two it already charged.

Who those counts name, and whether the bodies have been found, is where the outlets do not match. KSL reported Leonard is accused of killing Sarah Johnson, of Springville, and John Waldron Handricks, 50, of Salt Lake City, and that their bodies have not been found. ABC4 reported the remains still have not been located. KUTV reported Johnson was identified as Leonard's mother and that, at the time of the arrest, police said the bodies had not been found. KUTV reported, "It is unclear at this time if any further evidence, including the bodies, have been located." KSL's October account and ABC4's account say the bodies are still missing. KUTV's account says the newsroom could not tell whether that was still true when it published Friday. A missing-person case charged as murder is still a case without a body in the public record those outlets agree on, except where KUTV says the public record has gone quiet.

The probable-cause account is older than Friday's notice, and the outlets do not tell it the same way. KSL, citing the charges, reported that on the night before March 20, Johnson and Leonard picked Handricks up and brought him to the Springville home. Two witnesses told investigators they called Leonard for a ride, got no answer, and walked to the front door. One said he heard five gunshots. The other heard "loud bangs." Leonard came out and spoke with them briefly, and they left because they were afraid, KSL reported. KUTV, citing the probable-cause statement, reported a witness said they were spending time with Johnson, Handricks, and Leonard when they heard five gunshots, became afraid, and left on foot. KUTV reported the victims were reported missing on March 26, and that investigators said the victims' phones were turned off within a few minutes of each other on March 20. KSL reported a family member told Springville police on April 6 that another family member claimed Johnson had been shot. Those are witness statements inside charging papers. They are not testimony a jury has heard.

The search account is what prosecutors are treating as the scene. KSL reported that when officers served a warrant at the Springville home on April 11, they found blood spatter, a bullet lodged in drywall, five empty .22-caliber shell casings, blood residue, and what the charging documents called two separate pools of blood. ABC4 reported a significant dried pool of blood had seeped under a baseboard and under laminate flooring, that empty shell casings were in a bag police tied to Leonard, and that boots had possible blood spatter. KUTV reported forensic teams found a significant dried pool of blood under the baseboards and shell casings in a bag. KSL reported Leonard's phone was off for about 12 hours on March 20 and that the data showed he spent 16 hours in a remote part of Duchesne County a few days later. KUTV reported the phone showed 16 hours in a remote area near Fruitland shortly after the other phones were turned off, and that witnesses said Leonard burned a cut-up mattress, furniture, and a bag of miscellaneous items in a bonfire on March 28 and told them he "could not look at the items." KSL reported he had subleased his mother's room and told the new tenant the clothes left behind were hers and that she had "probably overdosed and was probably dead somewhere." A death notice filed on that record is the county attorney's choice of sentence. It does not locate the two people, and it does not decide who fired. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.