Man who slept in car outside 7-Eleven after putting girlfriend's body 'in a cardboard box in the trunk' is convicted

A 41-year-old man in Utah will spend the rest of his life behind bars after admitting to killing his girlfriend, whose badly beaten body was discovered in a cardboard box in the trunk of his car with an extension cord wrapped around her neck.

Jacob Holt Johnson pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of aggravated murder for the 2024 slaying of Summer Tatiana Roney, authorities announced.

Johnson will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as part of his plea agreement, according to a news release from the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said an officer with the Bluffdale Police Department found Johnson unconscious in the driver’s seat of a white Jeep parked across several spots in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven gas station at 12:10 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2024. The store is about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City.

An assisting officer then spotted what appeared to be a woman “in a cardboard box in the trunk of the defendant’s vehicle,” the district attorney’s office wrote.

The woman was later identified as Roney.

“When officers opened the trunk, they saw that there was an extension cord around [Roney’s] neck; she was unresponsive and cold to the touch, with multiple bruises and lacerations to her head, arms and legs,” the release states. “As police investigated, they discovered a hammer with blood on it in the defendant’s vehicle, a hatchet, a knife, a gas can and a bottle of bleach. Detectives determined the crime had happened in Herriman.”

Investigators executed a search warrant at Johnson’s home and found “blood throughout the house” as well as “apparent signs that someone had attempted to clean up a crime scene.” Officers also recovered a baseball bat from the kitchen floor. Prosecutors said the bat had “smudge marks that made it appear as if it had recently been washed.”

Detectives interviewed several of Roney’s friends and family members, who said she had told them Johnson verbally and physically abused her.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Johnson admitted to police that he put Roney’s body in the car earlier that evening.

“Johnson stated his relationship with the victim as intimate partners, currently living together in Herriman,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “Johnson stated he was in a previous argument with the victim, stating that it was over with their relationship. When asked by officers if the victim had any injuries, Johnson stated physical trauma, but did not elaborate any further. When asked how the victim got into the vehicle, Johnson said he put her into the vehicle.”

During a hearing in January 2025, prosecutors sought a “higher than normal” bond for Johnson, citing his criminal history as well as his “defiant attitude.”

Johnson is scheduled to be formally sentenced on Dec. 17.

The post Man who slept in car outside 7-Eleven after putting girlfriend’s body ‘in a cardboard box in the trunk’ is convicted first appeared on Law & Crime.