Man who asked for death penalty gets life

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.

Jurors on Wednesday spared the life of a 21-year-old man convicted in the multiple stabbing and mutilation death of a local driving instructor.

Jurors sentenced Anthony Prentice to life in prison without parole in the September 2002 slaying of Dan Miller, a 58-year-old man who had tried to help Prentice and had let him live with him.

Prentice, an admitted white supremacist, had asked jurors to sentence him to death.

Prosecutors had urged jurors to return with a sentence of death, noting that Miller was stabbed 128 times and a swastika was carved into his back. He'd also been hit over the head with a blunt object.

Prentice's attorney, Greg Denue, said he expected jurors to sentence his client to an execution, given the heinous nature of the crime.

"He's the poster boy for the death penalty," he said. "This jury showed more mercy than he's ever been shown in his entire life."

But one juror, who spoke to the Sun on the condition of anonymity, said most jurors did not want to show mercy toward the convicted killer.

The juror said that nine jurors favored the death penalty, while three jurors were against it. The jurors ultimately reached a compromise and settled on life in prison without parole.

"I voted for the death penalty, but the three jurors were adamant" in their decision to spare Prentice's life, the juror said as he walked out of the Clark County courthouse.

The juror said it was the heinous nature of the slaying that made him believe Prentice should be executed.

"Mr. Miller was slaughtered. He wasn't murdered, he was slaughtered," he said.

Authorities say Prentice's friend, James Harrison, played the major role in the killing and that Harrison may have killed Mills at Prentice's direction. Harrison will stand trial on murder charges in June.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said it is often difficult for jurors to sentence a defendant to death when the defendant was not the primary assailant. Jurors could return a harsher penalty against Harrison, he said.

"That's the person they want," Kane said.

Still, prosecutors said they were satisfied with the sentence.

"Death penalties, as we all know, are infrequently carried out," Kane said. "Life in prison without parole means exactly what it says. He goes to prison and he dies there. And that's all right with us."

Miller's sister, Nancy Cornwall, said she also was satisfied with the jury's decision. She was hoping for a sentence of life in prison without parole because an execution "would be an easy way out," she said.

"I think justice was served," said Cornwall, who wore a pin with her brother's picture on it. "It will never bring Danny back. No penalty will ever bring Danny back."

Cornwall described her brother as a giving man who constantly helped people who were down on their luck. He often went without in order to help people like Prentice.

Cornwall said she believed her brother would have been satisfied with the punishment as well.

"Dan thought everybody had good in them, you just had to look for it," she said. "He might even be forgiving."