Relatives of Niki Sampson told the court the case was about more than a conviction; it was about years of fear and a future permanently altered.
ST. GEORGE, Utah — By the time a Utah judge sentenced Eric Larsen Sampson to 15 years to life for murdering his wife, the facts of the case had largely been settled. What remained in the courtroom was the family’s account of what Niki Ahlquist Sampson’s death left behind.
That emotional record became one of the defining features of the March 23 sentencing in 5th District Court. The judge imposed the maximum prison term after a jury had convicted Sampson on Feb. 6, 2026 in the death of his 47-year-old wife, who was found dead in the couple’s St. George home on Sept. 1, 2024. But the hearing also served as a public accounting of the damage relatives said had built for years before ending in violence.
Shaley Encinias, one of the couple’s adult children, described trying to protect her mother while also shielding her own children from the home’s turmoil. She said she had moved her family into her parents’ house because she was worried about her mother’s safety and could still hear the frequent yelling. Later, she said, leaving to protect her children felt like an impossible choice, and she now carries nightmares about what her mother endured. Encinias told the court she did not need a medical examiner’s report to know what happened. She said her father knew what he was doing on Sept. 1 and that her mother’s grandchildren had lost not just a relative but years of love, guidance and ordinary family moments. Her remarks turned the hearing from a sentencing formality into a statement about generational loss.
Other relatives added layers to that picture. Brady Sampson said he was 22 when he lost both parents “in the most unimaginable way,” describing the pain of not being able to share future good news with either one. He said his mother would not be there for milestones such as his wedding and that her absence would fall across every major event ahead. Alexander Sampson told his father that the killing was not an accident out of nowhere but the result of years of choices and violence. Niki Sampson’s sister, Mindy Pratt, said her sister had lived in a prison built from fear, control, humiliation and abuse. Pratt said the most heartbreaking truth was that the person who still loved Eric Sampson was the person he killed. Together, the statements gave the court a narrative not just of a homicide, but of a family trying to name the long shape of harm.
The judge’s ruling echoed that view. Judge Eric Gentry said Sampson showed a “complete and total and shocking lack of remorse” and lived in a world of “delusion, denial, self-absorption and victimhood.” He faulted the defendant for trying to speak as though he understood what the victim would have wanted for the family while refusing responsibility for her death. Gentry sentenced Sampson to 15 years to life for first-degree murder, plus one year for drug possession and 90 days for intoxication, all to run consecutively. He also ordered that Sampson have no contact with his adult children. Before sentence was imposed, Sampson called his wife’s death a tragedy, said he cared for her and argued that health problems with her liver, not violence, explained what happened. The court did not accept that account.
The underlying case began with a police response on the night of Sept. 1, 2024. Officers were called to the couple’s home near 2800 South and 2300 East in St. George after a report of domestic violence and a woman with bruises “all over.” They found Niki Sampson dead on a bed. Police later reported suspicious bruising from her arms to her face, with marks in different stages of healing and many appearing fresh. Eric Sampson was the only other person in the home at the time, according to police. Investigators also said they found a journal with entries describing his anger and aggression when drinking and stating that Niki Sampson was afraid for her life. Those details gave jurors and the public a picture of the home that relatives later reinforced from the witness stand.
The case record also showed earlier warnings. Months before the killing, Niki Sampson told police her husband was “coming after her.” Court documents said she reported he had pinned her to a bed, pulled her hair, and then thrown her to the ground in the backyard after she escaped outside. Officers said they smelled alcohol on him and saw bloodshot, watery eyes. He later told police he had only been trying to calm her down. That earlier case remained pending while the murder case moved ahead, and he was out of custody when she died. Trial was later delayed after prosecutors disclosed a large amount of evidence late, leading to his release to home confinement in July 2025. A jury eventually heard five days of testimony and returned a guilty verdict after roughly eight hours of deliberations.
In that sense, the sentencing ended one process while revealing another one still underway inside the family. Relatives described birthdays, graduations, weddings and grandchildren as future markers of absence. Their language stayed close to ordinary life, which made the loss sound less abstract than the legal terms around them. Even as the court spoke in counts, classes of felonies and consecutive terms, the family spoke in empty chairs, missed calls and the silence left where a mother and grandmother should have been.
Currently, the sentence stands and Sampson remains under a no-contact order involving his adult children. The next public development would likely come through appellate filings or any later court review of the conviction and sentence.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.