Life Sentence for Black Who Abducted, Raped and Beat White Woman to Death with Baseball Bat

WISTV
March 6, 2015

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Hope Melton was kidnapped and brutally raped by the foul beast before it finally beat her to death.

A man who admitted to raping, then killing a Kershaw County woman in 2011 has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Nickolas Miller, 26,  pleaded guilty to murder, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of solicitation to commit a felony and kidnapping.

While in court, Miller admitted to abducting 30-year-old Hope Melton, raping her, then beating her to death with a baseball bat. He had nothing to say when given a chance to do so by the judge.

Some of Melton’s family were outraged and angry at a sheriff who was recently convicted of corruption and severely jeopardized the case.

In court, Chanda Roscoe held back tears as she addressed the judge and her sister’s killer.

Chanda told Miller that he’s afraid to die and told the 26-year-old he’s a “piece of scum.”

“I hope that God shows him and gives him the same mercy that he showed my sister, and I hope he gets beat, and I hope he is tormented, and I hope he is mutilated just like he did my sister, because that’s what he deserves,” Roscoe said.

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Nickolas Miller will not be executed because the Sheriff did not follow correct procedure.

The Solicitor’s Office said back in late December 2011, Miller spotted Melton at a convenience store, trailed her in his vehicle, kidnapped her, brutally raped her, beat her to death with a baseball bat, and finally ditched her body behind a turkey barn in Kershaw County.

Miller may be behind bars for the rest of his life, but for Melton’s family, that’s not enough.

“I, myself, and my family wanted the death penalty,” Roscoe said. “He deserves to die, and he should die.”

Hope’s mother, Elizabeth, said they were let down to some extent.

In a release, Solicitor Dan Johnson explains he had no choice. He said former Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker severely jeopardized the case.

Johnson said Sheriff Parker got a confession from Miller under the illegal “promise” he wouldn’t seek the death penalty.

Johnson said Parker had a DOC inmate guard some of the case’s evidence, did other things to complicate evidence forensics, and then was indicted for corruption.

“As a result of Sam Parker’s gross misconduct in coercing Nickolas Miller’s confession with a promise of leniency, all statements made in reliance on that promise would be properly suppressed at a trial in this matter,” Johnson said in the release.