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Paul Carter was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for extended supervision on April 6, 2021, for the first-degree intentional homicide of Samantha Roberts, 20, in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. Carter pleaded not guilty in March 2020. His trial was scheduled to begin February 2, 2021, and a Wood County jury found him guilty that February. The Wood County Circuit Court also ordered him to attend counseling and have no contact with the family or their residences.

Roberts had cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder. She could not walk or talk, used a wheelchair and lived with her mother and sister. Carter, then 43, moved into the home in December 2019. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals described Roberts's mother as Carter's fiancée; news reports called him her boyfriend.

The mother testified that on the evening of Friday, January 17, 2020, she fed Roberts through a feeding tube, showered her and put her to bed with the railings up. She helped her other daughter bathe, then took a bath herself, leaving Carter unsupervised on the same floor as Roberts's bedroom. Afterward, she watched television with Carter before checking on Roberts 10 to 20 minutes later. She found her in medical distress with foam coming from her mouth. Carter called 911 at her request. Emergency crews could not revive Roberts, and a deputy coroner pronounced her dead at the home.

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that Roberts died of blunt physical trauma to the head and neck. She had been struck in the head multiple times, with bruising all over her scalp and a severe impact injury to the top of her head that could not have come from a fall. Her injuries would have caused death within minutes, not several hours.

Police interviewed Carter on January 20, 2020, after preliminary autopsy results came in. He denied involvement, saying he never touched Roberts that night and was never alone with her. In another interview a few days later, he apologized for not being honest and said he wanted to come clean. He said he went to the kitchen for a beer while the mother was bathing, stopped to check on Roberts and grabbed her arm to reposition her. He said she fell out of bed and possibly struck her head on a medical device stand. The pathologist testified that her injuries were not consistent with a fall.

The mother testified that before Carter's second statement, he told her he thought he had seen Roberts take her last breath and that he should perhaps go to the authorities or talk to a priest. He admitted to her and police that he had hit Roberts in the face before the night she died. Her caregivers had noticed facial injuries after he moved in. Carter appeared in Wood County court on January 21, 2020, where bond was set at $1 million.

Carter sought a new trial, arguing that his trial lawyers were ineffective because they disparaged his character to the jury and opened the door to the mother's testimony about specific past abuse. The circuit court denied the motion after a hearing. On October 31, 2024, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals summarily affirmed the conviction and the denial, finding that he had not shown prejudice in light of what it called overwhelming evidence of his responsibility for Roberts's death.

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Part 2 of 3 of the recording described above.

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Part 3 of 3 of the recording described above.