Former OC doctor gets 15 years to life for killing wife, trying to stage death as accidental fall

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A former Orange County fertility doctor was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for the second-degree murder of his wife, whose body was found inside their San Clemente home in 2016.

Eric Scott Sills was found guilty in December in the murder of his wife Susann Sills and was sentenced in a Santa Ana courtroom Friday morning after several family members made statements to the judge.

"Scott is alive, and my daughter Susann is not," said the victim's mother, Theresa Neubauer. "Scott will see his children as they become adults; Susann will not."

The victim's body was found at the foot of a staircase on Nov. 13, 2016. Sills had told detectives that he found his wife after she apparently fell down the stairs.

A year later, the coroner determined the cause of death to be a homicide. Sills was then arrested while on his way to work.

"Based on the evidence that the court heard, it is clear that the murder occurred in another area of the house," said Judge Patrick Donahue. "Yet the defendant attempted to stage a scheme to make it look like she fell down the stairs."

The victim's brother, speaking in court before the sentencing, said the statutory sentence of 15 years to life is not enough.

"Given the life sentence that we all have to suffer in our own ways, I believe that when it's compared to the sentence Sills faces, it seems insufficient," said Frank Gaulden. "But it is what it is."

However, Sills' daughter said during court that she hopes her father, who is now 58, will someday walk free.

"I've experienced so much tragedy already in my life," said Mary-Katherine Sills. "Losing my mother, being put into the foster care system, being involved in my father's criminal case and trial, and then the recent passing of my foster mom.

"I want my father to walk me down the aisle at my wedding someday. When I have a family and children, I want my father to be there to hold my baby."