Wedding Ends With Caterer's Murder

Tyonne Johns stabbed to death in Virginia; teenage park worker is charged
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 9, 2016 11:36 AM CDT
Wedding Ends With Caterer's Murder
Kempton A. Bonds, 19.   (Fairfax County Police)

The wedding meal in a Virginia park Saturday went off without a hitch, but afterward it turned deadly: Police say 35-year-old caterer Tyonne Johns was loading folding chairs into a company vehicle when 19-year-old park employee Kempton Bonds began arguing that the chairs were the property of the Fairfax County Park Authority, reports the Washington Post. During the dispute, Bonds stabbed Johns in the upper body with a three-inch pocket knife, police tell NBC Washington. She was pronounced dead at a hospital, while Bonds, of Clifton, Md., was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Earlier, around 9:20pm, Bonds had called police to report disorderly conduct and a noise violation, officers say. A friend of Johns says Bonds had cut power to the wedding reception before the bride and groom shared their first dance, possibly because the event extended beyond the park's usual operating hours. It isn't clear how Johns was involved in the dispute, but police say it was resolved when they arrived. Johns was stabbed around 10:50pm. She "was a dedicated friend with a genuine zest for life," a friend writes on a GoFundMe page. A friend of Bonds says the alleged crime is "extremely out of character for him." (In North Carolina, a woman was killed just weeks before her wedding day.)

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