Emotions were raw as the Rev. Frankie Melton sat in a Richland County courtroom and watched as the man who killed his sister-in-law, Hope Melton, pleaded guilty to the brutal 2011 slaying,
Judge D. Craig Brown, immediately sentenced Nickolas Jermaine Miller, 26, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Though it’s been more than three years since Melton was abducted, assaulted and later killed near a turkey barn in a secluded area on the day after Christmas, Frankie Melton, pastor of Heath Springs Baptist Church, said the memories from that day came rushing back.
Listening as prosecutors presented the case, Melton said it was difficult for the family to stomach the sordid details of the crime, some of which they had never heard until that day.
“We heard some facts of the case about how he got her out of the car and hit her with a baseball bat in the head while she was running into the woods,” he said. “It was very difficult for us to hear those things.”
Melton called his sister-in-law’s death a “brutal slaying.”
“I don’t know that many people realize how brutal it was. He brazenly ran her off the road. He tried to get her to pull over by flashing his lights behind her. When she didn’t, he passed her, turned his car around and headed straight toward her like he was playing chicken,” he said.
“She, of course, swerved off the road, like most people would have done, and her car got stuck and wouldn’t move. So she got out and ran, but he caught up to her and hit her with a baseball bat.”
He said prosecutors detailed Miller's drawn-out attack.
“This was such a heinous crime. He held her captive for hours, he raped her, beat her. She pleaded with him for her life. She talked about God as they drove around. He kidnapped her and took her to Jefferson and raped her,” Melton said. “He took her to Forty Acre Rock at some point and then went to a place off S.C. 903 in Kershaw County behind some turkey barns.”
As Miller tried to assault her again in an area on the outskirts of the Mt. Pisgah community, Hope Melton resisted and was killed by Miller with a baseball bat and piece of wood, Frankie Melton said.
“I spoke to the judge in the courtroom on behalf of my brother. I said ‘Nickolas Miller, why didn’t you show her mercy when she asked for mercy?” he said.
Miller never showed remorse and did not speak at sentencing.
