LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 58-year-old man with an extensive criminal history was sentenced Thursday to 18 to 45 years in prison for killing and dismembering a man whose severed head was found in a stolen vehicle the ex-convict was driving about a year ago in Las Vegas.
Eric John Holland declared himself “truly remorseful” about the shooting death of a friend, 65-year-old Richard P. Miller, whose remains were found in coolers in the bed of a stolen Chevrolet Avalanche following a police chase.
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Holland pleaded guilty July 19 to a reduced charge — second-degree murder — and felony theft, avoiding trial on an open murder charge that could have resulted in a life sentence.
“It’s a terrible thing that happened and I’m just so sorry,” he said Thursday.
With Miller’s adult daughter in the courtroom and Miller’s son listening by internet audio hookup, Holland said he hoped authorities would continue to investigate his motive for the killing. He didn’t say why.
“I was going to bring it up in court, but I’m not going to because of family members,” Holland told Clark County District Court Judge Tierra Jones. “There was a reason, and I hope that they’ll get closure today.”
Holland’s attorney, Daniel Westbrook, told the judge he would not say more than what his client said. Westbrook declined additional comment after the sentencing hearing.
Miller’s daughter, Amanda Dawn Potter of Portland, Oregon, sobbed and haltingly addressed the judge.
“I feel very little relief,” Potter told the judge, calling her father’s slaying “the most bizarre thing to ever happen to my family.”
“I don’t know how to make sense of it,” she sobbed. “My dad didn’t deserve this.”
Holland was friends with Miller, who lived on a houseboat at Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir about a 30-minute drive from Las Vegas.
Miller was reported missing in November 2021, and investigators later determined he was killed during an argument with Holland.
The Clark County coroner found Miller had been shot several times, including at least once in the head. His death was ruled a homicide.
Las Vegas police said Holland drove away from patrol officers trying to stop him on Dec. 23, 2021, in a stolen pickup truck. They said that he was seen switching vehicles before he was arrested in the second vehicle by police, who tracked him to an apartment complex west of the Las Vegas Strip.
Police later found receipts in the vehicles for items including a power saw and trash bags purchased from a home improvement store after Miller’s disappearance.
Holland had been sought since May 2019 on an arrest warrant in a 2018 case in Las Vegas accusing him of embezzlement, identity theft, issuing false checks and theft, according to court records. He had posted $5,000 bail in that case.
Records show Holland also used the name Eric Allen Holland and served prison time in Nevada for a felony theft conviction stemming from a 2000 forgery case in Las Vegas. He also used names including John Carl Hall, Phil Whidden, Robert Daniel Lauer and Steven Tauber, prison records show.
Holland had prior felony convictions dating to 1987 in California for embezzlement, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest causing substantial bodily harm and property theft and false identification, according to a Las Vegas prosecutor, prison and court records.
Records show that Holland was convicted in Texas in a federal counterfeiting case, and later of attempted escape and aiding in an escape.