Richard S. Carlson, 53, was sentenced Tuesday to five years to life in prison for bludgeoning and suffocating his wife, Joanne F. Carlson, 18 months ago in their bedroom. Carlson pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder in May.

The sentence was the maximum under Utah sentencing guidelines at the time of the murder, said District Judge Rodney Page.

Page recommended Carlson not be paroled for at least 20 years, saying the former Air Force officer "knew what he was doing" when he murdered his wife, put her body in the bathtub to make it look like an accident and then laundered the bloody clothes.

"Those are not the actions of a person who has lost his mind," Page said.

Page said he did not take into consideration the family's claim that Richard Carlson killed Joanne for her $1 million life insurance policy.

"After Joanne's murder . . . we discovered a fiscal mess," Saul "Jack" Landau, Joanne Carlson's father, told the court.

The family found bins of unopened mail from the IRS, the state and collection agents. He said the Carlsons' adult children, Trevor and Rachel, told him that they found a gas cut-off notice, and that the college fund Landau set up for Trevor had vanished, the grandfather said.

"Joanne discovered the problem when her wages were garnished by the IRS, which was a major embarrassment," Landau said. "The children reported that [the couple] began to argue about the money, and Joanne finally told [Carlson] she was going to leave him."

Joanne, a nurse in University Hospital's heart-transplant department, was the family's main breadwinner, Landau noted.

"It is quite obvious that Richard Carlson murdered Joanne Carlson and attempted to stage an accident for the insurance money."

Trevor Carlson, 21, in a written statement, said he was 19 when he awoke to a muffled cry and found his father assaulting his battered mother. He and Rachel, now 25, moved to relatives' homes in Connecticut and sent statements for Robert Carlson's sentencing.

"I hate him for putting this awful image in my head, that no one should have to see - to see him over my mother's body, murdering her. Then to be running around frantically, looking for help," Trevor Carlson wrote. "When I heard that he may only get 15 years in prison, I became very angry. I want my father to be in prison for the rest of his miserable life."

Rachel Carlson said she is afraid her father will try to find her when he is released.

"He murdered her and in the process took them both away," she wrote. "I deserve to have my parents here now. I deserve to have my father walk me down the aisle when I get married and my mother there to support me. I deserve to have my mother share in my joy and help me when I have children.

"So many things become significant when you realize that you always shared them with your parents."

ealberty@sltrib.com