Stacy Elizabeth Miller
Jurors found Stacy Elizabeth Miller age 36, guilty of fatally shooting Ricky Lee Anderson, 59, of Wilkesboro and Sandra K. Shew, 60, of North Wilkesboro and of shooting Shannon Jones of North Wilkesboro. The incident occurred in a home in a sparsely settled area along Hunting Creek Road in southeastern Wilkes County on the morning of July 17, 2022.
Miller was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences in prison. According to testimony, Miller shot Anderson once in the head in a bathroom, then shot Shew once in the head while she was in bed and shot Jones last while she was on a sofa in the residence.
Miller’s appeal was partly based on the assertion that the trial judge erred by allowing testimony “that impermissibly vouched” for the credibility of Jones, a key prosecuting witness. Jones, in her 30s, was shot twice in the head and once in the chest but survived and was a key prosecution witness. The appeal also was based on the claim the judge erred in multiple ways in his instructions to the jury.
The appeals court found that there were no errors.
Assistant District Attorney Lee Bollinger, co-prosecutor in the case, said in his closing arguments in Miller’s trial that she and co-defendant James Louis Robinson were homeless and lived in a car.
Bollinger said they were robbing Anderson and Shew when the two were shot to get money for methamphetamine and that Jones was shot “because she knew too much.” Miller testified that she and Robinson were addicted to meth.
According to testimony, Miller and Jones had been close friends and all five (Anderson, Shew, Jones, Miller and Robinson) were together at different times in the two days before the shootings.
Robinson was sentenced to 35-43 years in prison in July 2024 in Wilkes Superior Court after he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder as part of a plea agreement. Robinson was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Story: Wilkes Journal Patriot