Husband Fatally Smothers Wife While Maintaining Eye Contact, Following Threatening Remarks

A 51-year-old man from Utah faces a potential life sentence after being found guilty of killing his wife by suffocation, following a brutal assault, while attempting to pass off her death as a result of liver disease.

Eric Larson Sampson received a sentence on Monday ranging from 15 years to life in prison for the murder of his 47-year-old wife, Niki Sampson, at their St. George residence. His conviction for murder and related charges was handed down in February.

Police discovered Niki Sampson’s body on September 1, 2024, showing clear signs of physical abuse. Her husband had a documented history of domestic violence, and in the months leading up to her death, he had made threats against her.

Despite the evidence, Eric Sampson continued to assert that her death was due to health complications, maintaining this claim even during his sentencing.

“My intention was never to blame anyone. I cared deeply for her. I genuinely wanted to understand what led to her death,” he stated, as reported by local NBC affiliate KSL.

District Judge Eric Gentry was flabbergasted at the defendant’s lack of remorse.

“Mr. Sampson lives in a world of delusion, denial, self-absorption and victimhood,” he reportedly said.

The adult Sampson kids also spoke at sentencing, lamenting that they lost their mother and their children will grow up without a grandmother.

They have no doubt their father is the one who killed their mom.

“He wanted my mother dead, and he wanted to gain her life insurance,” said Shaley Encinias, per KSL. “He watched my mother struggle and fight, and he looked directly into her eyes as he killed her.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, police were called to a home on a report of a woman possibly having a cardiac arrest in St. George, a medium-sized city in the southwestern part of the state near Nevada.

Police found the victim dead in the home. Officers deemed the circumstances around her death suspicious, and Sampson was quickly arrested.

Citing an arrest report, local Fox affiliate KSTU reported police noted “suspicious bruising” on her body and face “in different stages of healing, although many of the bruises appeared to be fresh.”

KSL reported that police found the victim’s journal.

In it were notes about “how Eric became angry and aggressive when under the influence of alcohol,” according to the affidavit cited by the outlet. “Other notes stated Eric was an alcoholic, and [Niki Sampson] wrote that she wanted to escape from Eric. One of the entries specifically mentioned that [Niki Sampson] was afraid for her life.”

Eric Sampson was out of custody on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty to charges that he attacked her in the backyard in July 2024, KSL reported. Court documents said he grabbed her and threw her on their bed, placed his knees on her arms to pin them down and pulled her hair, the report said.

Niki Sampson called the police and ran to the backyard. There, Eric Sampson grabbed her with both hands and threw her on the ground, according to the documents.

He allegedly told police he was grabbing her “to calm her down” and that she had hit and kicked him, the documents said.

“While speaking to Eric, I smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person,” the report said. “I also saw he had bloodshot watery eyes and continued to make repetitive statements.”