Man sentenced to 59 years for murder of his Utah wife in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Family members of Saria Hildabrand told the court that she was a loving, caring and beautiful person in an Alaska hearing on Friday before her husband was sentenced to 59 years in prison for killing her and hiding her body in a nearby storm drain.

Hildabrand, formerly Saria Barney from Mt. Pleasant in Sanpete County, and her husband Zarrius Hildabrand were both members of the U.S. Army and were living in Alaska as newlyweds in August 2023 when she was shot and killed.

Zarrius Hildabrand was sentenced to 55 years for murder in the second degree, in addition to two consecutive two-year sentences for tampering with physical evidence. A statement from Alaska's Department of Law said he could spend up to 80 years in prison, but some of his sentence was suspended, and he will be eligible for parole after serving at least two-thirds of the 59 years.

Jurors found him guilty in June after hearing him testify about waking up, finding her dead and then hiding her body. He claimed he has no memory of what happened the night before. When asked during cross-examination how he knows he didn't pull the trigger, he responded: "I don't."

Saria Hildabrand was shot in the head after a night out drinking, celebrating her husband's 21st birthday. Prosecutors claimed, based on phone evidence, that the wife had caught her husband being unfaithful and confronted him before being shot.

The next day, testimony showed that Zarrius Hildabrand purchased cleaning materials, used a trash can to move her body, and then helped her family, friends and officers search for her.

A statement from the Alaska Department of Law said the judge commented on the "abhorrent nature" of Zarrius Hildabrand's actions after the killing — saying he showed a lack of remorse in police interviews, during the search for his wife and in his testimony at trial.

Judge Peter Ramgren said Friday that although he respects the jury's decision to not find Hildabrand guilty of murder in the first degree, he found for sentencing purposes that Hildabrand had acted intentionally when killing his wife.

Saria Hildabrand's mother testified at the trial about going to Alaska to search for her daughter and said Zarrius Hildabrand was acting "very paranoid" and uncomfortable.

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