After Parris Miller received his first criminal conviction at age 14 for possessing stolen property in 1994, he has never spent more than five years out of the state's custody, Pierce County prosecutors say.
After he was sentenced Friday for his second murder in the county, Miller, 42, might never have another day of freedom. Judge Grant Blinn handed down a high-end sentence of 43 years in prison for the Sept. 15, 2022 fatal shooting of Glennis LaDel Piper on Tacoma's Tideflats.
Miller was convicted in a jury trial in Pierce County Superior Court in May. According to court records, the defendant represented himself, did not testify and did not cross-examine any of the 20 witnesses prosecutors called to the stand. After little more than an hour of deliberations, Jurors found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and two counts of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
"Defendant's two murder convictions and the facts of this case give this Court no reason to believe that society will ever be safe, while Defendant is free from imprisonment," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The murder occurred after an exchange of words at a gas station, according to court documents. Piper was with a coworker in a moving truck, and he reportedly told his partner a man was giving him dirty looks, so he went to confront him in his SUV. It's unclear what was said, but after Piper returned to his truck and drove back to work at a warehouse, Miller followed them. The dispute escalated, and Miller shot Piper in the chest.
Miller had been out of prison for a year-and-a-half when the shooting occurred. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to second-degree murder at age 21 and was sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison, according to court records.
He was resentenced twice, first in 2012 based on a recalculation of his offender score and a second time, in 2021, after the Washington Supreme Court's Blake decision found the state's main drug possession law unconstitutional, allowing tens of thousands of cases to be resentenced. Ultimately, Miller's sentence was reduced to 22 years, and he was released in February 2021.
Victim shot, killed at work
The man Miller killed last year was shot on the job, and the state's Department of Labor & Industries honored him and more than 100 others at its Workers Memorial Day Ceremony in April. His mother told L&I her son loved life and that his family misses him. Piper had ties to Louisiana and Port Orchard. The News Tribune could not reach his family for comment.
Tacoma Police Department officers were called to the shooting in a warehouse parking lot in the 1500 block of St. Paul Avenue at about 10:25 a.m and found Piper with a gunshot wound and a knife near his right hand, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. He was transported to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was later declared dead.
An employee at the warehouse was interviewed by police. He reported that Piper called him and asked him to come outside because someone was following him, records state. The employee said he thought that was odd and said Piper was "an alpha male." He reported that both vehicles entered the lot, and at first, the altercation was calm. The two men sized each other up and walked side to side before Miller got back in his SUV and the victim started walking away.
"The victim then turned around, re-approached the SUV and appeared to talk to the suspect again," records state. "The employee heard the victim state, 'You didn't wanna do anything at the gas station, so what now?'"
Piper was shot seconds later, and Miller drove off. In interviews with detectives after his arrest, Miller denied purposefully killing the man, according to the probable cause document, stating that he only meant to fire in his direction and "scare him."
Defendant arrested after high-speed chase
Detectives obtained surveillance video that showed Miller's vehicle near the shooting, and the next day, officers found him driving in the Dome District. Miller fled from a traffic stop, and officers chased him seven miles to a West End apartment complex. Prosecutors alleged he wove in and out of traffic on southbound Interstate 5 and reached speeds of 90-100 mph on state Route 16.
Miller was detained after a foot chase. Inside his vehicle, detectives found a semiautomatic "assault-style" rifle and a loaded 9 mm handgun prosecutors described as a "ghost" gun that was used to kill Piper.
A ghost gun is an untraceable firearm without a serial number that is assembled, typically from a kit. In a news release issued Wednesday, the Department of Justice said it recovered 25,785 ghost guns in domestic seizures last year.
