Eric Donald Robert was born on May 31, 1962, in Massachusetts, United States. When he was an infant, his father abandoned the family, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister alone in Wisconsin. His mother, who worked three jobs while attending college, struggled to provide stability, and Robert often took on a protective, father-like role in the household. Despite this turbulent upbringing, Robert performed well in school, graduating from Hayward High School in 1980. He later attended the University of Wisconsin–Superior, earning a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry.

As an adult, Robert pursued steady work and eventually secured employment as a wastewater treatment supervisor in the city of Superior, Wisconsin. To his coworkers, he appeared competent and reliable. However, his personal life told a different story. Former girlfriends described him as aggressive, controlling, and abusive, often revealing that behind his professional exterior lay a volatile and violent temper.

By the early 2000s, Robert’s life unraveled into criminal behavior. On July 24, 2005, he kidnapped a woman near Black Hawk, South Dakota. The victim survived, but Robert was arrested and convicted of kidnapping.

On April 12, 2011, the day of his 63rd birthday, veteran corrections officer Ronald “R.J.” Johnson reported to work at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Johnson, who had served for 23 years and was nearing retirement, was stationed at the Pheasantland Industries shop, where inmates manufactured furniture, signage, and other goods. That morning, Johnson was alone in the shop when he was ambushed by Eric Robert and fellow inmate Rodney Berget, who had been plotting an escape for months.

The plan was brutally executed. Robert and Berget bludgeoned Johnson with a metal pipe, causing severe head trauma. They then wrapped his head in plastic wrap, suffocating him. The autopsy later revealed three fatal head injuries and multiple broken bones in his arms and hands, indicating that Johnson fought desperately to defend himself. After killing him, the inmates concealed Johnson’s body in the workshop.

To escape, Robert dressed in Johnson’s corrections officer uniform while Berget hid inside a box on a cart. Together, they attempted to pass through the prison’s West Gate. When a guard challenged Robert for failing to swipe an ID card, he tried to bluff his way out by giving a false name. Suspicious officers quickly discovered the deception, and a struggle broke out. Berget emerged from the box, and both men fought the guards before being subdued. Their elaborate escape ended in failure, and Johnson’s body was later discovered inside the workshop.

Robert, Berget, and their accomplice Michael Nordman — who had provided the murder weapons — were all charged with Johnson’s murder. Under South Dakota law, the killing of a corrections officer during an escape attempt qualified as a capital offense.

Robert pleaded guilty in October 2011 and declined a jury trial. He openly requested the death penalty, telling the court that if he were not executed, he would kill again. His lack of remorse and his chilling statement that his only regret was not murdering the officer who caught him sealed his fate. On October 27, 2011, Judge Bradley Zell sentenced him to death, citing the brutality of the murder and Robert’s complete lack of rehabilitation potential.

Robert’s co-defendant, Rodney Berget, was also sentenced to death but pursued appeals, delaying his execution until October 29, 2018. Nordman, who supplied the pipe and plastic wrap but did not participate in the killing itself, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Eric Robert waived his appeals, fasted for 40 hours before his death, and shared ice cream with his lawyer as his last meal. On October 15, 2012, he was executed by lethal injection at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. His final words were addressed to the warden: “I forgive you.” He was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m.