FARMINGTON — Joanne Landau had a great zest for life.
There was no cheerleading squad in her high school, so she created one and made the uniforms. An honor student, she headed the East Coast and Canadian branch of the B'nai B'rith Girls youth group and visited an Israeli kibbutz. As a nurse, she knew little about heart transplants at first but quickly learned as much as possible and soon became the in-house expert at the University of Utah hospital.
That made it even more shocking when her loved ones learned her husband of 28 years beat and suffocated her one morning, then dumped her body into a bathtub of cold water.
Richard Stuart Carlson, 53, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder in May for the brutal slaying of his wife on Feb. 9, 2006, in their Layton home.
Second District Judge Rodney Page sentenced him Tuesday to five years to life in prison but said he would recommend that Carlson not get a parole date until after 20 years behind bars.
On the day of the murder, the couple's son, Trevor, then 19, heard cries for help, looked into his parents' bedroom, spotted Richard Carlson forcing a pillow over Joanne Carlson's face and ran for help. She was airlifted to a hospital but died the next day.
Her grieving family flew in from Connecticut for the sentencing and gave impassioned accounts of their heartbreak, rage and sense of loss.
They painted Richard Carlson as a narcissistic and lazy man who discouraged his wife from becoming a doctor, spoke to her rudely and let her support the family during the nine years since his military retirement while he did nothing.
Joanne Carlson was going to leave the marriage, her relatives believe, but Richard Carlson killed her in cold blood because he mangled their finances and could snatch a $1 million life insurance policy.
"This was a premeditated murder for money," Saul Jack Landau, Joanne's father, told the judge.
Saul Landau said he and his wife, Leona, found "bins of unopened mail" in the house, including back tax notices, letters from collection agencies and a shut-off warning from the gas company. Further, a college fund for Trevor was gone.
Rick Landau, one of Joanne's brothers, read written statements from the children, now college students, in which they recounted the horror of thinking about their beloved mother being murdered by their father.
"I have lost so much, I cannot fully comprehend the pain," wrote Joanne's daughter, Rachel Carlson. "My mother was my best friend."
"As much as I loved my father, I could never feel safe around him again," Trevor Carlson wrote, adding that, to him, his father now is dead.
Richard Carlson tearfully apologized to his children, the Landau family and the community.
"I don't know why I did what I did," he said.
Earlier, the Landau family met with several University Hospital staffers to donate inspirational books to encourage transplant patients on waiting lists. Former patients and co-workers of Joanne's wiped away tears as they spoke of her compassion and professionalism.
Chuck Landau, another of Joanne's brothers, said the family wanted to bring something positive out of something ugly, and to celebrate Joanne's life.
Joanne's brother Alan Landau said his sister was deeply religious in the best sense.
"She never had anything other than a kind word for everyone," he said. "She was not motivated by money. Her joy and wealth came from doing the right thing."
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com