Woman given consecutive sentence after judge calls treatment of her mother 'torture'

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Lori Meers was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of one to 15 years for manslaughter and abuse.
The woman's mother, who had dementia, was found by her sister covered with waste and later died in the hospital.
The judge described Meers' treatment of her mother as "torture" and said she will always remember a video of abusive treatment from the trial.

SALT LAKE CITY — Lori Meers was visibly emotional on Tuesday as a judge called her actions toward her 77-year-old mother "torture."

"I can't imagine what that must have felt like," 3rd District Judge Coral Sanchez said, noting disturbing photos and videos depicting where the woman's mother spent her last months.

The judge told Meers that her mother, referred to by the initials W.P. in court documents, was in what was likely the most vulnerable time of her life and was counting on her daughter for care. Instead, the woman was repeatedly left uncomfortable in her own waste.

Sanchez said a video from a neighbor's camera shown at the trial where Meers was verbally abusing her mother who looked "helpless, whimpering, confused," is something that will never leave her mind.

"That gave me a glimpse of of what life for your mother was during that period of time," Sanchez said.

The judge ordered Meers, 54, to serve two consecutive prison terms of one to 15 years for manslaughter and intentional aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, second-degree felonies. Meers will spend between two and 30 years behind bars.

A jury found her guilty of both charges on July 10, finding after about three and a half hours of deliberating that Meers caused her mother's death by not adequately caring for her.

The judge cited evidence from the trial that there was no reason that Meers needed to be keeping her in their home and that W.P. had other resources available if Meers had reached out for help.

"What I find disturbing is that this was not a stranger to you – this was your own mother," Sanchez said before ordering the sentences to run consecutively.

On March 10, 2025, police responded to Intermountain Medical Center, where Meers' mother was admitted. The woman had lived with Meers while she had dementia. The mother's twin sister had visited the home earlier that day and called 911, handing the phone to Meers.

W.P. died on March 29, 2025, and prosecutors reported her death was from "septic shock due to acute pancreatitis." Meers was charged on Sept. 9, 2025.

Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Ben Bartholomew said W.P.'s family attended the sentencing, but had said everything they wished to say in a letter submitted to the judge before the sentencing.

He said Meers knew her mother's condition was deteriorating for a long time, but continued to allow her to live in a "home that was beyond repair, caked in feces and urine." He said when help arrived, the home was barely at 60 degrees and that Meers' mother had many ulcers and open wounds.

Bartholomew encouraged the judge to issue consecutive sentences, saying it was a "deeply troubling" situation.

The prosecutor also said she had been written up for inciting a riot at the jail. Meers' attorney, Matthew Strickland, claimed that calling it a riot was an "exaggeration." He said she had sought help for a woman who was engaging in self harm, and that the woman had thrown a bowl at her but she did not fight back.

Strickland argued for the sentences to be run at the same time, saying a concurrent sentence would give her enough time to address her mental health needs and would be an "appropriate punishment that wouldn't be overly punitive."

Strickland said his client admits that her choices were ignorant and neglectful. He said she is not a threat to the community.

"I think she's extremely remorseful for what happened to her mother. She loved her mother and she refers to her mother as her best friend," the attorney said.

Meers thanked the judge for listening to her case, but didn't make any comments in the hearing about her actions.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced the sentence in a press release and thanked all those involved for actions that brought justice in the case.

"We appreciate the judge seeing the gravity of the situation created by the defendant in her neglect of her own mother," Gill's statement read. "The judge did not mince words when she handed down the sentence saying the defendant's treatment of her mother amounted to torture. This was not a case of mistakes by an overwhelmed caretaker, this was outright neglect."

Gill said that in Utah, anyone who believes a vulnerable adult is being abused, neglected or exploited must report it to police or Adult Protective Services.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.