Yahoo Autos After 20 years in WA prison for murder, he killed again in Tacoma. Here’s his sentence
After Parris Miller received his first criminal conviction at age 14 for possessing stolen property in 1994, he has never spent more than five years out of the state’s custody, Pierce County prosecutors say.
After he was sentenced Friday for his second murder in the county, Miller, 42, might never have another day of freedom. Judge Grant Blinn handed down a high-end sentence of 43 years in prison for the Sept. 15, 2022 fatal shooting of Glennis LaDel Piper on Tacoma’s Tideflats.
Miller was convicted in a jury trial in Pierce County Superior Court in May. According to court records, the defendant represented himself, did not testify and did not cross-examine any of the 20 witnesses prosecutors called to the stand. After little more than an hour of deliberations, Jurors found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and two counts of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
“Defendant’s two murder convictions and the facts of this case give this Court no reason to believe that society will ever be safe, while Defendant is free from imprisonment,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The murder occurred after an exchange of words at a gas station, according to court documents. Piper was with a coworker in a moving truck, and he reportedly told his partner a man was giving him dirty looks, so he went to confront him in his SUV. It’s unclear what was said, but after Piper returned to his truck and drove back to work at a warehouse, Miller followed them. The dispute escalated, and Miller shot Piper in the chest.
Miller had been out of prison for a year-and-a-half when the shooting occurred. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to second-degree murder at age 21 and was sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison, according to court records.
He was resentenced twice, first in 2012 based on a recalculation of his offender score and a second time, in 2021, after the Washington Supreme Court’s Blake decision found the state’s main drug possession law unconstitutional, allowing tens of thousands of cases to be resentenced. Ultimately, Miller’s sentence was reduced to 22 years, and he was released in February 2021.
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