Sharee Miller
{{Short description|American convicted murderer}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Sharee Miller
| birth_name = Sharee Paulette Kitley Miller
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1971|10|13|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Flint, Michigan, U.S.
| charge = Second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
| conviction_penalty = Life in prison
| conviction_status = Incarcerated In Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, Pittsfield Charter Township
| spouse = 1. Unknown
2. Unknown
3. Bruce Miller (1999-1999; his death)
| children= 2 sons and 1 daughter - and 2 grandchildren
}}
Sharee Paulette Kitley Miller (born October 13, 1971) is an American woman convicted of plotting the murder of her husband, Bruce Miller, over the Internet with her online lover Jerry Cassaday, who later died by suicide.
Murder, trial and incarceration
Bruce Miller was found dead at his junkyard in Mt. Morris, Michigan on November 8, 1999, killed by a 20 gauge shotgun.
After Sharee was arrested in February 2000, she was held without bail until her trial. On December 12, 2000, the trial began and her case made national headlines. According to the prosecution, Sharee wanted Bruce dead for his money, and a divorce would not have given her enough. After two days of deliberation, on December 22, the jury found Sharee Miller guilty on all charges. On January 29, 2001, Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Judith Fullerton sentenced Miller to life in prison for the conspiracy to commit murder charge and 54 to 81 years for second-degree murder. She served part of her term at the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Michigan and, as of 2019, was serving a life sentence at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan.[https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/otis2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=326122 Michigan Department of Corrections] Her mother currently has custody of one of her three children.[http://www.courttv.com/trials/taped/miller/background.html "Mich. v. Miller: Sex, lies and murder"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417082010/http://www.courttv.com/trials/taped/miller/background.html |date=2008-04-17 }} CourtTV
Recent events
In 2007, while in prison, Miller was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses. She also claimed that she wanted to give back to the people she had selfishly taken from.{{cite web |url=http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/03/sharee_miller_in_prison_in_the.html |title=Sharee Miller, in prison in the death of her husband, to marry again -- behind bars |access-date=2008-06-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706174022/http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/03/sharee_miller_in_prison_in_the.html |archive-date=2008-07-06}}
In August 2008, a federal court judge overturned her conviction and ordered that she receive a new trial. The judge found that the suicide note from Cassaday (her boyfriend and the one who committed the homicide) should never have been admitted into court and seen by the jurors because Cassaday was dead and could not be cross examined.{{Cite web |url=http://www.crimapp.com/files/miller%20v%20stovall.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-01-07 |archive-date=2011-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708203708/http://www.crimapp.com/files/miller%20v%20stovall.pdf |url-status=dead }}
On July 16, 2009, a federal court judge ordered Sharee Miller's immediate release from prison on bond pending the new trial which was ordered in August 2008.{{cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6918262 |title= Judge orders release of Sharee Miller pending a new trial|website=abclocal.go.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604041751/http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=6918262 |archive-date=2011-06-04}} In response, on July 17, 2009, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton ordered that Miller immediately be re-arrested from prison where she was taken to the Genesee County Jail and held without bond to await new charges.{{cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6920614 |title= Sharee Miller released from prison and back in Genesee County Jail|website=abclocal.go.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604041836/http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=6920614 |archive-date=2011-06-04}} Sharee Miller was arraigned on July 22, 2009, again on charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder. The new trial was scheduled to begin on October 20, 2009. Miller's attorneys appealed this action.{{cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6927896 |title= Sharee Miller has been recharged in her husband Bruce Miller's 1999 murder|website=abclocal.go.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604041856/http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=6927896 |archive-date=2011-06-04}} The retrial was put on hold pending the federal appeal.
On July 29, 2009, Sharee Miller was released from the Genesee County Jail on a $100,000 recognizance bond until her new trial began.http://www.wnem.com/news/20225047/detail.html{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
In December 2009, Sharee Miller was found using the popular social networking site Facebook. Miller's lawyer, David Nickola, said that there was no reason for his client to be barred from using a computer, but Sharee's Facebook page was temporarily deactivated when it attracted publicity. "I don't think there's anything inappropriate about it," Nickola said. He states that Sharee used Facebook to keep in touch with her family members, and her son who is overseas in the military. "She's an innocent person out in society, and she's doing positive things," Nickola said. "Having a Facebook page to communicate with her son who is serving in the military overseas is nothing inappropriate whatsoever." While having a Facebook page is not a violation of Miller's bond, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said this is a perfect example of why people need to be careful when they're online. "People have to be careful when they're communicating with others who they don't know on the Internet," Leyton said.http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/12/convicted_killer_sharee_miller_2.html "Convicted killer Sharee Miller back on Facebook" mlive.com
On June 21, 2010, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the August 2008 federal ruling that the Cassaday suicide note was not admissible.{{cite web |url=http://cmm.lefora.com/2010/06/24/bruce-miller-sharee-miller-federal-court-upholds-r/ |title=BRUCE MILLER - SHAREE MILLER - FEDERAL COURT UPHOLDS RULING - STATE GETS TO APPEAL|access-date=2011-01-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007090107/http://cmm.lefora.com/2010/06/24/bruce-miller-sharee-miller-federal-court-upholds-r/ |archive-date=2010-10-07 }}
On November 14, 2011, the US Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals decision and remanded the case back to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the case based on recent U.S. Supreme Court case law. On February 16, 2012, the Sixth Circuit remanded the case to the District Court.
On August 2, 2012, the District Court entered its opinion and ordered reinstatement of Miller's convictions and revoked her bond. The court held the suicide note possessed sufficient guarantees of trustworthiness to satisfy the defendant's constitutional right of confrontation. It also found that the Michigan Court of Appeals' factual determination, that the statements were spontaneous, voluntary, made to Cassaday's parents, and less likely to be fabricated because he was about to kill himself, were reasonable findings.
On February 11, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the federal district court's reinstatement of Miller's convictions and sentences.
In 2016, Sharee Miller, in a four-page typed letter sent to Judge Fullerton, admitted to her role in her husband's death.
{{cite web|url=http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2016/04/sharee_miller_admits_guilt_in.html|title=Woman in infamous internet love triangle slaying admits guilt 17 years later|date=28 April 2016 |publisher=}}{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Sharee|title=Sharee Miller murder confession|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/310761091/Sharee-Miller-murder-confession#|website=Scribd|publisher=mlive.com|access-date=5 March 2017|ref=confession|language=en|date=21 March 2016}}
On August 28, 2017, Judge Judith A. Fullerton of the Genesee County Circuit Court issued an opinion denying Miller's motion for relief from judgment.
In popular culture
{{ external media
| video1 = [https://web.archive.org/web/20130203161856/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35988098/ns/dateline_nbc-crime_reports/t/instant-message-murder/#.WLv8jfkrK00 Dateline NBC - "Instant Message Murder"
original air date: March 2010]
| video2 =[http://www.watchfree.am/watch-episode/snapped-2x3-sharee-miller/ Snapped Oxygen - "Sharee Miller"
original air date: March 2005]
| video3 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu7IuGmA2TU&t=22s Forensic Files - "Web of Seduction"
original air date: 8 March 2006]
| video4 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDFZwJ_zb0s Murder, Mystery & Makeup - "Murder on the Web: Catfish Gone Wrong!"
original air date: 5 June 2023]
}}
The trial made national headlines; Miller's life was profiled on A&E American Justice, Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women and on the Oxygen Channel's true crime series Snapped.{{Cite episode |title=Forbidden Love |episode-link=List_of_Deadly_Women_episodes#Season_3:_2009_-10 |url=https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/deadly-women/full-episodes/forbidden-love |access-date=23 December 2018 |series=Deadly Women |series-link=Deadly_Women |network=Investigation Discovery |date=15 September 2009 |season=3 |number=5 |df=dmy-all }}
- {{cite magazine |date= |title=Deadly Women Season 3 Episodes |magazine=TV Guide |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/deadly-women/episode-5-season-3/forbidden-love/197460/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20181223110832/https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/deadly-women/episode-5-season-3/forbidden-love/197460/ |archive-date=23 December 2018 |url-status=live}} The case was the subject of a book, Fatal Error, by Kansas City Star reporter Mark Morris and Paul Janczewski."Fatal Error", {{ISBN|0-7860-1524-1}}
A television movie produced by Lifetime Television titled Fatal Desire, starring Eric Roberts and Anne Heche, was based on the case. There also was an episode on Forensic Files about this case ("Web of Seduction", season 8, episode 24). The case was covered in a 2017 episode of Murderous Affairs titled "Dead Silence." Miller also admitted her crimes on the television show 20/20 in February 2022.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/movies-based-on-true-crimes-fatal-desire-based-on-the-murder-of-bruce-miller-110899-flint-mi/ Movies Based on True Crimes: Fatal Desire [based on the murder of Bruce Miller 11/08/99 Flint, MI]]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Sharee}}
Category:1999 murders in the United States
Category:People from Flint, Michigan
Category:American people convicted of murder
Category:American female murderers
Category:People convicted of murder by Michigan
Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Michigan