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OGDEN — A 70-year-old man who was convicted of shooting and killing his wife has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Dave Richard Meyer told police when he was arrested last year that he had been "watching his wife suffer for many years" from nerve damage in her back caused by a car accident, and his wife, Sue Roth, had been "asking him to kill her for a while now due to the amount of pain she has been in," according to documents from Utah's 2nd District Court.
In January 2023, police say Meyer was rubbing his wife's back when he took a pistol from his dresser and shot her in the head. Court documents show Meyer lived with the body for four days, and could be seen on neighbors' security cameras taking the trash in and out, before Roy police were called.
Meyer's house had been foreclosed, he "didn't know where he was going to live after his eviction" and he "thought several times about injuring or killing himself after killing his wife," court documents state.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Roth's sister told the judge she had gone to Roth's house looking for her, but no one answered the door. No one knew that Roth had been dead for days. Four days later, Roth's sister said their mother passed away. "Our family had two funerals within days. That should not have happened," the statement says.
"My sister's right to life was taken in a violent, cowardly, heinous way," Sandy Roth said. "The fact that the best story Dave Meyer could come up with is 'she wanted it' is absurd. That is not true. That's the best story he could think of."
Meyer was initially charged with murder, a first-degree felony; obstructing justice, a second-degree felony; and two counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. He pleaded guilty in March to the murder charge and in exchange, the other charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Judge Joseph Bean sentenced Meyer last week to a term of 15 years to life in the Utah State Prison, with credit for 475 days already served.
