F. Glenn Miller Jr., convicted of capital murder in 2015, died Monday at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
Miller’s cause of death is pending an autopsy, but a preliminary assessment indicates he died of natural causes, prison officials said. He was 80.
Miller’s April 13, 2014, rampage outside the Jewish Community Center and the Village Shalom care center took the lives of Reat Underwood, 14; his grandfather William Corporon, 69; and 53-year-old Terri LaManno, who worked with visually impaired children.
Jurors found the murders especially heinous and sentenced Miller to death. Miller, who lived in Aurora in southwest Missouri, was also sentenced to more than 32 years in prison for other crimes, which included attempted murder for shooting at people who were not struck by his gunfire.
During the trial, Miller represented himself and argued the shootings were justified because he was trying to stop “the Jewish genocide against the white race.” None of the victims were Jewish.
Miller told jurors during the trial he regretted not killing more people.
“On most days,” he said at the time, “it’s the first thing I think about in the morning, and the last thing I think about at night.”
The shooting spree on April 13, 2014, at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom care center was fueled by Miller’s virulent hatred of Jewish people and his belief in a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the “white race.”
Miller said during the trial he was surprised there were Christians at a Jewish facility and chose that day for the assault because a talent competition was being held at the community center. Underwood was there to compete.
Miller testified that he had driven around the facilities on several previous occasions to scout the layout. On the day of the killings, he arrived in the morning, but not seeing people outside, he decided to leave and drive back to his home in southern Missouri.
But he changed his mind and drove back. He said he spotted Corporon and his grandson in a pickup truck parked near the entrance. Two others were walking by, so Miller said he stopped with the thought of shooting all four.
At his sentencing, Miller reiterated his desire to kill Jewish people, The Star reported.
“I’d do it again,” he said, “if they ever let me out of here.”
In March, his attorneys argued before the state Supreme Court that his death sentence should be overturned because the trial judge in Johnson County made a mistake when he allowed Miller to represent himself in the penalty phase of the case.
In a statement, the Corporon family said they were neither happy nor sad about the death of Miller, whose name they intentionally chose not to use.
“He stole so much from our family, but he didn’t steal our hearts or our dignity,” the family said in the statement. “He did not steal our memories, the love that sustains us or the ability to offer forgiveness and kindness in the face of such tragedy.”
Through grit, determination and faith, the family said they forgave “this murderer his sins against us.”
“In no way does this forgiveness mean that his actions were correct,” they said. “Our forgiveness releases the hate from our own hearts. Hate comes in all shapes and sizes, all colors and creeds. We pray that our healing journey helps others move forward during their own struggles and challenges.”
Citing their Christian faith, they said they were taught to forgive. They urged others not to allow hate to overcome them, saying it would rot them from the inside out.
“This murderer was rotten to his core,” the family said. “At no time did he ask for our forgiveness or offer regret for his actions. He was taught to hate by his own father from the time he was young. Only knowing how to hate another drove him to murder. This is heartbreaking.”
Mindy Corporon, who lost her son, Reat Underwood, and her father, William Corporon, in Miller’s deadly rampage, said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning that her family was thankful that Miller’s death stopped the appeals process.
She also noted that Miller died on the day her memoir, “Healing a Shattered Soul,” was published.
“He could have died on 364 other days in this year alone,” she wrote on Facebook. “Yet his death occurred on the birthday of this book.”
In a separate post, Corporon’s brother, Will Corporon, said he could not even remember Miller’s name, which he called a blessing. It had not been burned into his brain.
“He has occupied zero percent of my consciousness, only popping up when some legal procedure appeared and our family was asked to react by the media,” Will Corporon wrote. “We won’t have to react any more.”
Miller stole “so much” from Corporon’s family, Will Corporon wrote.
“He was sentenced to die on death row,” Will Corporon wrote. “He did.”
Source: kansascity.com, Luke Nozicka, May 4, 2021
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde