A Southern California fertility doctor was sentenced on Friday to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of his wife in an incident authorities said was made to look like an accident.
Eric Scott Sills, 58, sat stone-faced in an orange jump suit as he was sentenced for one count of second-degree murder in the death of his wife Susann at Orange County Superior Court, in Santa Ana, California.
Authorities say Sills called 911 in November 2016 and said he found his wife’s body after she apparently fell down the stairs in their home in San Clemente, which is about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego.
But evidence showed she died from being strangled. Prosecutors told jurors at the outset that the 45-year-old’s injuries were not consistent with a ‘fall down the stairs’ narrative. Blood stains were found in the room where she had been sleeping.
Tensions in the couples marriage arose after Susann posted a nude photo of herself online after she lost a bet over Donald Trump’s 2016 election win.
Sills was arrested in 2019 over the November 2016 killing and found guilty by a jury in December last year.
Dr. Eric Scott Sills appears before Judge Patrick H. Donahue as he is sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife in Orange County Superior Court on Friday, in Santa Ana, California
Dr. Eric Scott Sills, 58, was arrested in April 2019 over the 2016 killing, allegedly amid tension with his late wife Susann Sills
Susann, 45, was found at the foot of the stairs in what prosecutors labeled ‘a staged accident’ at their San Clemente home in November 2016
Sills sat stone-faced as he was sentenced to life for killing his wife seven years
During the trial, prosecutors recalled how Sills hade made a frantic phone call on the day of the killing.
‘On November 13, 2016, Sills called 911 and said he awoke to find the lifeless body of his wife, 45-year-old Susann Sills, after she apparently fell down the stairs.
‘Evidence presented at trial showed that she died due to strangulation and blood stains were found on a wall and curtains in their daughter’s bedroom where Susann was sleeping due to a migraine.
‘A clump of her hair also was found in the room, indicating that there had been a violent struggle between the couple.’
Those inconsistencies, the attorneys said, proved crucial in jurors agreeing to dole out a guilty verdict for one count of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors, moreover, labeled the murder ‘a staged accident’ – pointing to the dad-of-two’s apparent attempt to cover up the killing after ‘squeez[ing] the life out of’ his spouse after a series of lover’s quarrels.
Dr. Eric Scott Sills listens as his daughter speaks on his behalf – although he refused to look at her while appearing before Judge Patrick H. Donahue at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California
Sills stuck to his story about his wife’s death being an accidents, but evidence showed she died from being strangled. He is pictured with his attorney Jack M. Earley
Sills previously claimed to have discovered his wife’s body at the bottom of the stairs in the family of four’s home on the 10 block of Via Cancion in San Clement
Evidence presented at Sills November trial, pictured, showed his wife died due to strangulation, prosecutors said. They further cited blood stains found on a wall and curtains in one of their kids’ bedrooms, where Susann had been sleeping due to a migraine
Those inconsistencies, the attorneys said, proved crucial in jurors agreeing to dole out a guilty verdict for one count of second-degree murder. Sills is seen in court last month, during which he stuck to the testimony he gave cops way back in 2016. Pictured on Friday
![Prosecutors, moreover, labeled the murder 'a staged accident' - pointing to the dad-of-two's apparent attempt to cover up the killing after 'squeez[ing] the life out of' his spouse after a series of lover's quarrels](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/16/04/79159251-12884283-Prosecutors_moreover_labeled_the_murder_a_staged_accident_pointi-a-53_1710562445822.jpg)
Prosecutors, moreover, labeled the murder ‘a staged accident’ – pointing to the dad-of-two’s apparent attempt to cover up the killing after ‘squeez[ing] the life out of’ his spouse after a series of lover’s quarrels
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker provided jurors with an example of one of those tiffs via printouts of text messages, one of which suggested Susann posted a topless photo of herself online after losing a bet about whether Trump would win the 2016 election.
A printout of an exchange with a chat group member about whether the posted photo would upset her husband was found near a printer in the doctor’s office after her death, and in another chilling message, she told her husband that she ‘wants out.’
Citing ‘substantial injuries’ on the victim’s face and neck, Walker attempted to sway jurors with those exchanges, as well as another between the couple where Sill told her husband: ‘You are killing me, don’t you see?’
‘She is frustrated, upset, feels trapped and feels like he is killing her,’ Walker told the 12-person jury.
‘She tells him in these texts, ‘You are killing me, don’t you see?’
Susann, meanwhile, had been wed to the well-off medical director for more than 10 years, and also doubled as the co-founder of the Carlsbad IVF & infertility practice where her husband worked as the head of medical operations.
Prosecutors suggested the couple argued after Susann, 45, posted a topless photo of herself online
She posted the nude online after supposedly losing a bet about whether Trump would win the 2016 election
A printout of an exchange with a chat group member about whether the posted photo would upset her husband was found near a printer in the doctor’s office after her death, and in another chilling message, she told Sills she ‘wants out’
The couple also has two daughters, twins Mary-Katherine and Eric Scott II, who were around 14 at the time of the murder.
Sills is also father to two adult offspring from a previous marriage, and was described as a doting father in a 2004 alumni newsletter from his alma mater, Roane State Community College.
A section of the brief reads: ‘As a father of four, [Sills] is reminded of the value of his work every day.
‘What’s the biggest thrill that he gets out of his work? His answer is immediate,’ it continues, before offering a quote from the now-convicted killer.
Sills told the college at the time: ‘That’s an easy one! Just today, I telephoned two couples to tell them their pregnancy test was positive.
‘Lately I’ve been calling the husband first with the good news, so he can surprise his wife with the result.’
The newsletter goes on to remark note how at the time, more than 20 years after Sills entered his first college classroom, the doctor was ‘an internationally recognized expert in reproductive medicine in Atlanta, where he makes his home with wife Susann.’
The pair eventually moved to their posh pad in Southern California, before falling on hard times.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the doctor ‘diabolical,’ citing how he committed the murder as not only a medical professional, but as a husband.
Sills was a father to two adult offspring from a previous marriage, and was described as a doting dad in a 2004 alumni newsletter from his alma mater, Roane State Community College
Sills is seen being taken back into custody following his sentencing on Friday
‘Dr. Sills was sworn to care for the sick and injured and his chosen profession as a fertility doctor helped bring so much joy to his patients but the woman he vowed to love in sickness and health was strangled to death by his own hands,’ he wrote.
‘Think of how diabolical you have to be – not only to kill your wife but to make it look like she had fallen down the stairs.
‘It took calculated planning to commit this crime and worst of all he ruthlessly and selfishly murdered the mother of their children who now are left without their parents.
‘I am grateful to the jury for the verdict and the diligent work by investigators and Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker for holding him accountable for his reprehensible act.’