Man found with friend’s severed head in car after Vegas police chase: “There was a reason”

An ex-convict who led police on a chase round Las Vegas earlier than officers discovered the severed head and dismembered physique of his pal in a stolen automobile he was driving was sentenced Thursday to at the least 18 years in jail.

Eric John Holland stated he was “really remorseful” for killing Richard P. Miller, whose stays have been present in coolers within the mattress of a Chevrolet Avalanche wherein Las Vegas police stopped Holland final December. Authorities discovered that Miller had been shot a number of occasions, together with at the least as soon as within the head, earlier than his physique was carved up.

“It is a horrible factor that occurred and I am simply so sorry,” Holland stated.

That offered little consolation to Miller’s daughter, who tearfully and haltingly informed a choose she felt “little or no reduction,” that Holland pleaded responsible in July to a diminished cost and avoiding trial on an open homicide cost that might have resulted in a life sentence behind bars.

“I do not know make sense of it,” sobbed Amanda Daybreak Potter, who traveled from Portland, Oregon, for Holland’s sentencing. She known as her father’s slaying “probably the most weird factor to ever occur to my household.”

“My dad did not deserve this,” she stated.

Holland, 58, has an in depth felony historical past, principally for forgery and embezzlement, but additionally together with an tried jail escape in Texas.

Earlier than Clark County District Court docket Decide Tierra Jones sentenced him to 18 to 45 years for second-degree homicide and felony theft, Holland stated Thursday he hoped authorities would proceed to research his motive for killing Miller.

“I used to be going to deliver it up in courtroom, however I am not going to due to members of the family,” Holland stated. “There was a motive, and I hope that they will get closure at the moment.”

Holland’s lawyer, Daniel Westbrook, informed the choose he wouldn’t say greater than what his consumer stated. Westbrook declined further remark after the sentencing listening to.

Holland informed CBS affiliate KLAS-TV after his sentencing that the killing was sparked by a confrontation and claimed that Miller had threatened him.

“It was very heated,” Holland informed KLAS-TV from jail. “He had a gun, and I had a gun.”

Holland was pals with Miller, 65, who lived on a houseboat at Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir a few 30-minute drive from Las Vegas.

Miller was reported lacking in November 2021, and investigators later decided he was killed throughout an argument with Holland.

The Las Vegas Assessment-Journal reported Thursday that in jailhouse interviews, Holland stated he wished police to research whether or not Miller was chargeable for the disappearance of Miller’s ex-wife, Jing Me Zhu, in 2018 or 2019.

“I’ll jail for the remainder of my life, and I simply need to be sure that she wasn’t forgotten,” Holland informed the newspaper.

Holland stated he believed Zhu lived in China and Canada earlier than marrying Miller in 2018. In divorce proceedings lower than a yr later, Miller alleged in courtroom paperwork that Zhu left him and moved to China. Information confirmed that Zhu couldn’t be situated to obtain a courtroom summons.

Westbrook informed the newspaper that Holland believes Zhu is useless and that Miller killed her.

Holland didn’t present particulars of Miller’s demise, the Assessment-Journal reported.

Las Vegas police stated Thursday they’d no lacking particular person investigation associated to Zhu.

Police beforehand stated Holland drove away from patrol officers attempting to cease him on Dec. 23, 2021, in a stolen pickup truck and that he was seen switching autos earlier than he was arrested within the second automobile by officers who tracked him to an house complicated west of the Las Vegas Strip.

Police later discovered receipts within the autos for objects together with an influence noticed and trash luggage bought from a house enchancment retailer after Miller’s disappearance.

Holland had been sought since Could 2019 on an arrest warrant in a 2018 case in Las Vegas accusing him of embezzlement, id theft, issuing false checks and theft, in response to courtroom data. He had posted $5,000 bail in that case.

Information present Holland additionally used the identify Eric Allen Holland and served jail time in Nevada for a felony theft conviction stemming from a 2000 forgery case in Las Vegas. He additionally used names together with John Carl Corridor, Phil Whidden, Robert Daniel Lauer and Steven Tauber, jail data present.

Holland had prior felony convictions relationship to 1987 in California for embezzlement, assault with a lethal weapon, resisting arrest inflicting substantial bodily hurt and property theft and false identification, in response to a Las Vegas prosecutor, jail and courtroom data.

Information present that Holland was convicted in Texas in a federal counterfeiting case, and later of tried escape and aiding in an escape.