By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — A continuation has been granted in the resentencing process for a Union County man who was convicted of capital murder when he was a teenager.
Steven W. Miller, 38, was one of four South Arkansas defendants who appeared Thursday in Columbia County Circuit Court in Magnolia to revisit prison sentences of life without parole that were levied when they were teens.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the sentences were unconstitutional. The decision affected more than 50 cases in Arkansas, two of which date back to 1975 in Washington and Lee counties.
Four of those cases fall within the 13th Judicial District, and the defendants in those cases — Miller, Richard Hill (Ouachita County, capital and murder aggravated robbery, 2000) and William Davis and Matthew Elliott (both capital murder, Columbia County, 2000) — all appeared for hearings Thursday in Magnolia.
Miller, of Norphlet, was convicted in the 1994 slaying of 21-year-old Leona Cameron during a robbery at Subway sandwich shop, then located at 1227 W. Hillsboro.
Miller was 16 at the time.
He and an 18-year-old accomplice — Heath Kennedy, also of Norphlet — were accused of robbing the store and shooting Cameron — the lone employee who was working in the store on the night of March 5, 1994 — after she complied with their demands to hand over money from the cash register.
Kennedy, who reportedly served as lookout, was convicted of capital murder in December 1994 for his alleged role in the crime.
Miller, who was identified as the shooter, striking Cameron twice in the head, granted a change of venue, and his trial was moved to Columbia County.
He was convicted of capital murder in early 1996.
Miller and Kennedy are serving life sentences without parole in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the change of venue for Miller’s trial in 1996, the resentencing process for Miller will remain in Columbia County.
David Butler, prosecuting attorney for the 13th Judicial District, was a prosecutor in Magnolia at the time of Miller’s trial and assisted in jury selection for the trial.
Butler said court proceedings went as anticipated on Thursday, with hearings lasting about 15 minutes for each defendant.
Each defendant was also determined indigent and eligible for a public defender.
Gregg Parish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, said he would appoint public defenders, including a couple of out-of-district attorneys, to the cases, Butler said.
Robert Jeffrey, managing public defender of the 13th Judicial District, was assigned to one of the cases, Butler said.
He said there were also discussions about the families of two of the defendants possibly retaining private counsel to represent them.
Because of a disruption that occurred in an unrelated case in Columbia County Circuit Court Thursday morning, Butler said Circuit Judge David Talley Jr. ordered family members and other supporters of the victims and those of the defendants in the resentencing cases to sit on opposite sides of the courtroom by the time hearings began in the afternoon.
The judge also warned against outbursts and disruptions, and he told audience members that they had the option of leaving before the four cases were brought before court or sitting through all of the hearings.
“It was packed. Everything went smoothly,” Butler said.
Because attorneys on both sides of the cases need adequate time to pore through related files and court transcripts and allowances for the discovery the process in order to prepare their cases, a continuance was requested and granted in each case.
Miller is due back in court on Jan. 19, 2017, unless, Butler said, there is a need for an appearance in court before then.
“It won’t be an issue of guilty or not guilty. The issue is how they were sentenced,” Butler said.
He said the resentencing cases could either go to before a jury for trial or any of the defendants could take a plea.
Butler said he anticipates that some of the four cases will be tried in court.
Consideration will be given to the full range of sentencing for capital murder — now 10 to 40 years or life in prison, penalties that were not applicable to a charge of capital murder when Miller was sentenced in 1996.
Miller could still be sentenced to life in prison, but the term could now come with the possibility of parole, Butler explained.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.