Inset: Niki A. Sampson (Spilsbury Mortuary). Background: The home in Utah where Niki A. Sampson was killed on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024 (KSL/YouTube).
A Utah man, 51, has been sentenced to a potential life term in prison after being found guilty of smothering his wife to death. The man, Eric Larson Sampson, had previously tried to attribute her death to liver disease following a brutal assault.
On Monday, Sampson received a sentence ranging from 15 years to life for the murder of his 47-year-old wife, Niki Sampson. This sentencing follows his February conviction on charges of murder and additional offenses, which took place at their residence in St. George.
Authorities discovered Niki Sampson’s body, showing signs of severe bruising and trauma, at their home on September 1, 2024. The investigation revealed a troubling history of domestic violence, with Eric Sampson reportedly threatening his wife months before her tragic death.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, Sampson maintained that his wife’s death was due to health complications, even during his sentencing. “I was not looking to blame anybody. I cared enough for her. I truly wanted to know what happened to her,” Sampson stated, according to a local NBC affiliate, KSL.
District Judge Eric Gentry expressed disbelief over Sampson’s apparent lack of remorse throughout the proceedings.
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.”
