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Miller loses bid for shorter sentence

A 70-year-old Altoona man serving a minimum of 55 months in the State Correctional Institution at Somerset has lost his bid to receive a shorter prison sentence, Pennsylvania Superior Court said Tuesday.

On March 27, 2017, Gary Paul Miller entered an open guilty plea to charges of flight to avoid apprehension and failure to comply with registration requirements under Megan’s Law.

He was under court order to register with state police for the rest of his life from a previous case.

Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan sentenced Miller to 18 to 36 months for flight to avoid apprehension and 33 to 66 months for failing to register.

The judge made the sentences consecutive, meaning Miller’s total sentence was 55 to 102 months in a state correctional institution.

Miller, through his attorney, John F. Siford, appealed the sentence, questioning whether the judge abused his discretion by imposing consecutive sentences at the top of the standard sentencing scale recommended by the state.

The defense contended the sentence was the result of “bias and ill will” and not from “careful consideration of the relevant sentencing factors.”

The defense’s argument against the consecutive sentences was that Miller’s failure to register and his attempt to flee from police were part of the same criminal episode and therefore the judge imposed an illegal sentence by making the the penalties consecutive.

Sullivan informed the Superior Court he thought the overall sentence of 55 months to 110 months was appropriate.

Superior Court judges Judith F. Olson, Paula Francisco Ott and Gene Strassburger pointed out that Altoona police officers on Oct. 30, 2015, went to Miller’s residence to interview him about an alleged sexual assault.

He left the residence before talking to police, and he wasn’t located until Dec. 16, 2015.

When he spotted police coming to talk to him, he fled, but an officer was able to apprehend him.

He was charged with failing to comply with the registration requirements between October and December and with fleeing from police.

The Superior Court opinion, written by Olson, explained that there are four issues that must be addressed to show that a judge has abused his discretion: the appeal must be timely; the issues were argued during an earlier stage of the case; the legal brief contained no flaws; and that the questions raised were legally “substantial.”

In the Miller case the court concluded the first three conditions were met, but the defense had failed to raise a substantial question of law or show the judge’s sentence was “unreasonable.”

Miller, it was concluded, raised a “bald claim of excessiveness” in the sentence, yet it was pointed out that Miller admitted to two separate crimes, and the sentences imposed on each were within the standard recommended range.

“Because (Miller) has failed to raise a substantial question, we deny his request for review,” the opinion stated.

After Miller was apprehended in December 2015, he was charged with multiple sexual offenses against a child, and Sullivan last November sentenced him to 90 to 180 years on those offenses.

The judge, during the sentencing proceeding in November, stated Miller showed “no potential for rehabilitation,” and concluded, “He’s great menace to the community, especially children.”

Miller stated during his sentencing hearing on the child abuse charges that he wanted to appeal.

The Superior Court as yet has no record that an appeal was filed.

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