FARMINGTON — Joseph Allen Nance’s friend, Karla Jean Puffpaff, knew Nance was in trouble the night she picked him up and hid him in a bunker, a prosecutor said.
Puffpaff, 48, was sentenced in 2nd District Court on Monday to serve 90 days in Davis County Jail, plus three years’ probation with Adult Probation and Parole, for her role in the March 19, 2011, incident in which Gregory A. Nance was shot by his son in Kaysville.
Puffpaff pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony attempted obstructing justice charge on July 30. She was originally charged with second-degree felony obstructing justice for helping Nance hide from police that night.
Nance is charged with first-degree felony murder for shooting his father. He claims it was self-defense.
He was arrested March 20, 2011. He is being held in Davis County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Nance also appeared in court Monday. A three-day jury trial, which was scheduled for December, has been changed to run Feb. 20-22, with jury selection set for Feb. 15. Another hearing is set for Oct. 22.
Deputy Davis County Attorney Brandon Poll said Puffpaff did not have anything to do with the murder of Gregory Nance, but “she was an accessory after the fact. The defendant did know the trouble Mr. Nance was in.”
Poll said Puffpaff took Nance to a vacant field near Highway 193 in Layton that night and hid him in a “hole in the ground.” She brought him food, sleeping gear and a change of clothes.
“Her actions speak for themselves,” Poll said.
Charity Green, daughter of Gregory Nance, said when Puffpaff hid Joseph Nance, her brother, from police, “she put my family in danger, my friends in danger, my in-laws in danger.”
Green said she believes Puffpaff “knew exactly what was going on.”
Judge John Morris said no one would hide a friend in a hole in a ground for something like a traffic ticket.
“She had to know something was up and whatever it was, it was serious,” Morris said before sentencing Puffpaff.
Puffpaff’s attorney, Ryan Bushell, said he has known Puffpaff for at least five years. She is the type of person who when a friend calls asking for help, she helps.
Bushell said when officers “barged into her home that night,” she became frightened and froze. He said Puffpaff did not know what Nance had done earlier.
Other people, who also helped Nance, “pointed the finger at her,” Bushell said. “If she had known there was a homicide, she would’ve ordered everyone out of her home that night.”
Puffpaff lost her job after a news story linked her to Nance.
Bushell said Puffpaff is not a co-defendant in the Nance case, and her charges were separate from the murder charges.
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