On February 12, 2015, 34-year-old Charles L. Johnston, a male from Winnemucca, Nevada, was found dead at the Apollo Motor Inn in Twin Falls, Idaho. He had been fatally shot. The incident was not a random act of violence, but rather a planned robbery that ended in murder. Johnston had traveled to Twin Falls to help a woman named Crystal Turner, who was 30 years old at the time and from Twin Falls, find a place to live.
The investigation into Johnston's death revealed a plot orchestrated
by Turner to rob him at the motel. Turner, along with 23-year-old William Dean McGrath of Filer, was implicated in the crime. Detectives determined that during the course of the robbery, McGrath shot and killed Johnston. Following the investigation, both McGrath and Turner were arrested and charged with murder.
Both William Dean McGrath and Crystal Turner eventually pleaded guilty to the murder of Charles Johnston as part of a plea deal. Though Turner did not have a gun at the time of the murder, she was charged under Idaho's 'felony murder rule,' which holds individuals responsible for a death that occurs during the commission of a felony. In November 2015, both McGrath and Turner were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in Johnston's death.
