A California doctor who claimed more than seven years ago that his wife died after accidentally falling down stairs has been convicted of murdering her.
Eric Scott Sills, 58, was convicted by a jury Tuesday on one count of second-degree murder for strangling his 45-year-old wife, Susann Sills, and then placing her body at the bottom of the stairs of their home in San Clement in November. 2016, prosecutors said.
He faces 15 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced in March.
“Think about how diabolical you have to be, not only to kill your wife but to make it look like she fell down the stairs,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
“It took calculated planning to commit this crime and, worst of all, he ruthlessly and selfishly murdered the mother of his children, who are now left without their parents,” he said of his then 12-year-old twins.
“Dr. Sills swore an oath to care for the sick and injured and his chosen profession as a fertility doctor helped bring much joy to his patients,” the district attorney said.
Dr. Eric Scott Sills, 58, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2016 strangulation death of his wife. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
“But the woman he swore to love in sickness and in health was strangled by his own hands.”
Sills had called 911 on Nov. 13, 2016, claiming he woke up to find the lifeless body of his wife of 10 years after she “apparently fell down the stairs,” prosecutors said.
Susann Sills, 45, was found dead at the bottom of the stairs inside her San Clemente home in November 2016.
He was arrested for her murder more than two years later, after it was confirmed that she had died from strangulation, not a fall.
Blood stains were also found on a wall and curtains in her daughter’s bedroom, where the woman was sleeping due to a migraine.
“A lock of her hair was also found in the room, indicating that there was a violent fight between the couple,” the district attorney’s office said.
The Sills had been married for more than 10 years and worked together at the Center for Advanced Genetics, a fertility clinic in Carlsbad.
Eric Scott Sills, a fertility doctor, was arrested in April 2019 in connection with the murder of his wife.
The couple had twins, a boy and a girl.
The motive is still unclear, but prosecutors said during the trial that the couple was having marital problems and Susann had texted her husband that she “wants to go out,” the Orange County Register said.
Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told jurors that Susann felt trapped in her marriage and wanted out. MediaNews Group via Getty Images Sills’ lawyer, Jack Earley (left), argued that Susann had taken painkillers for a migraine, which could have made her disoriented. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
“She’s frustrated, she’s upset, she feels trapped, and she feels like he’s killing her,” Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told jurors. “She tells him in these messages: ‘You’re killing me, don’t you see?’”
Sills’ defense attorney, Jack Earley, argued that Susann Sills had taken painkillers and had not been eating, which could have disoriented her and caused her to fall.
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