92 year old man from Idaho travels to Utah with intent to kill family members

ABC4 TV news (Utah) ^ | Sep 30, 2025 | Sorina Trauntvein

[Peter ODonnell]

LAYTON, Utah (ABC4) — A 92-year-old Idaho man was arrested in Utah after traveling across state lines with a plan to kill his nephew and his nephew’s wife.

Billy J Nevills, 92, has been arrested on two counts of attempted murder. He has not been formally charged yet.

According to the arrest statement, on Sept. 28, 2025, Nevills traveled from his residence in Twin Falls, ID, to Utah. He would allegedly later tell investigators that he was driving around and looking for his nephew’s house with the intention of killing him.

The Layton City Police Department located Nevills in Layton on the morning of Sept. 29, and he was taken into custody. ABC4 has reached out to police for more information regarding how he was located, but has yet to hear back.

During an interview with the police, the 92-year-old explained that he wanted to murder the two over a family trust and will issue.

Nevills stated that when his wife’s sister passed away, his wife was supposed to inherit her sister’s estate. However, Nevills’ nephew was able to get the will changed and “ultimately placed the entirety of the sister’s inheritance” in the nephew’s name. Due to this change, Nevills said that he and his wife lost all of their claim to the inheritance.

Arizona man accused of assaulting McDonald’s employee in Summit County According to Nevills, his wife is currently living in a care facility and has been diagnosed with dementia. He believes that his nephew “took advantage” of her due to “her diminished mental health capacity.”

Due to his belief that his nephew “stole money which was rightfully meant for” his wife, Nevills allegedly became angry and decided to kill his nephew. Layton City Police officers located a sticky note with his nephew’s address in his pocket, and Nevills explained that he’d purchased a Glock handgun several weeks ago to commit the crime.

During the interview with Nevills, he stated that he was driving around looking for his nephew’s house, and would have “already killed” him if he had access to GPS on his phone. Twin Falls, ID, is roughly 200 miles away from where Nevills was found in Utah.

Nevills also allegedly told investigators that he planned to go to his nephew’s residence, kill him and his wife when they opened the door, place the gun on the ground, call 911, and wait for police to arrive.

According to court documents, after being taken into custody, Nevills said that he would kill his nephew and his nephew’s wife “in front of officers if he was able to do so.” He said that he has “nothing else to live for and is willing to do whatever it takes” to kill his nephew.

Nevills was arrested and booked into the Davis County Jail, where he is currently being held without bail.

[cgbg]

They say that as you get senile all of our bad qualities will get multiplied.

I saw that with my late parents.

Minor caution about people can turn into full blown paranoia.

Anger that used to be controllable and cause no harm can turn into real attempts to injure or even kill others.

All that can lead to a lot of strange drama—like that in this thread.

[dfwgator]

[Organic Panic]

I guess he finally had enough.

[Albion Wilde]

Where there’s a will, there’s a relative.

[Bob Wills is still the king]

“Sounds like at 92 he lost his filter. Expect his lawyer to argue some kind of diminished mental capacity, if not insanity.”
____________________________________________________________

He’s already been diagnosed with dementia. One of the large symptoms is “loss of executive function,” which means he can’t make rational decisions any longer.

[Blueway]

We are dealing with that with my husband’s sister who is only a couple of years older than him.
Although her husband and children are present, she will not cooperate with them in her own care.
My husband (her brother) is the only one who has any influence over her.
She wants to live alone and drive her car at will even though she totaled her last one.
She claims she is perfectly healthy in spite of a long list of serious ailments and injuries.
Apparently she doesn’t have any pain from these ailments and doesn’t even remember that she has them.
It is exhausting dealing with her.

[Dr. Franklin]

This sounds too much like a local case I was involved with. An old neighbor, (a judge) and his wife were childless, but the judge had an illegitimated daughter from an old liaison forty years prior. As the judge was getting on, and then his wife died, he wrote out a new will, and asked my Dad and another neighbor to witness it, then he filed it at the courthouse. A year later, he died, (with an estate of several millions) and a nephew, whom the old judge despised produced a will five years older than the one Dad had witnessed, and got EVERYTHING.... the will the judge signed was never found, strangely... When enough money is involved, you don’t know what can happen.

If he filed his will with the register of wills in the courthouse and it disappeared, that is very strange. That sounds like petty local corruption. Wills disappear at home all of the time, which is why they can be registered in the courthouse. Sounds like the nephew was connected to people in the courthouse and paid someone off. Another method I've heard to is to have a P.O. box and mail the will to it, and just leave it in the box. It's far better to leave the will with the intended beneficiary.

[Dr. Franklin]

He’s already been diagnosed with dementia. One of the large symptoms is “loss of executive function,” which means he can’t make rational decisions any longer.

So the local police took an attempted murder confession from an elderly demented man. They could interview others in the old age home to meet their monthly quota. Many people have a family member they would like dead, but never act on it.

[sauropod]

Good observation. I’ve seen it.

But the knowledge that we all will stand before the Judgment seat one day will hopefully ameliorate this, at least somewhat. We all are accountable to God.

[Dr. Franklin]

People who are legally insane can get away with murder.

[iontheball]

But will the cops show as much enthusiasm and diligence to investigate the larceny by trick or false pretense that the old man claims was perpetrated by his nephew on the old man’s wife and him? I’ll bet it’s not on their radar.

[boycott]

In other words, we don’t know. As is posted, the nephew and his wife may have been sorry sacks of crap and his mother may not have wanted to will them anything.

Why did the woman not have her will going to her son? Could it be that he was sorry ass person? Did he and his wife manipulate the elderly woman? We don’t know but it should be thoroughly investigated.

[Vaduz]

And it gives them somebody to talk to.

[Segovia]

Of course, they have lots of money now.