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70-year-old man sentenced for killing wife, living with body for days

By Collin Leonard

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    OGDEN, Utah (KSL) — A 70-year-old man who was convicted of shooting his wife, has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Dave Richard Meyer told police when he was arrested last year, he had been “watching his wife suffer for many years” from nerve damage in her back caused by a car accident, and his wife 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.

Court documents state 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.”

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.

Meyer changed his plea to guilty in March, because he did “not want to put the family through further hardship,” according to court documents. As part of the deal, he pleaded guilty to murder and the other three charges were dropped.

On May 10, Judge Joseph Bean sentenced Meyer to 15 years to life in prison, with credit for 475 days already served. He was taken to the Utah State Prison.

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