ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) - Quinteris Miller will serve 30 years in prison for fatally shooting his rescuer.
Miller, 19, was sentenced for shooting Anthony D’Mond Hart on Aug. 9, 2015. Miller pleaded guilty to murder and other crimes. He said he “shot the wrong guy” as payback.
Police, prosecutors and Michael Hart, father of Anthony, agree to the facts: Miller was beat up Aug. 2 in front of 515 Frank Street. Anthony Hart and his father helped Miller.
Miller had fallen unconscious. Hart stopped the man who was beating Miller. Anthony and his father saw the fight from two homes away. They saw Miller unconscious, then rushed to help him.
“And then a week later Mr. Miller came back and shot my son in the head and killed him,” Michael Hart said.
Miller came back to the site later Aug. 2 and shot several times through the window of 515 Frank St., trying to get revenge on his attacker. One bullet grazed a man’s head. Children and women were inside, but no one was killed.
Miller eluded police for a week and then came back on Aug. 9. He went to the wrong house, where Hart was standing in the driveway and shot him.
“My son died a hero,” Jennifer Hart said. “He helped that young man. And then that same young man came back and took it out on somebody. That somebody was my son.”
Prosecutor Willy Thompson said, if the case had gone to trial, Michael Hart would have testified how Anthony Hart had rushed to save Miller.
“Me and my son were talking outside my aunt’s house two doors down from where the fighting started,” Michael Hart said. “They had fought and it was like wrestlin’ on TV. The other guy lifted Mr. Miller up and when they fell back Miller’s head hit on the concrete and he was out. Unconscious. My son ran over there and pulled that man off Mr. Miller. We both tried to help that young man. My son saved Mr. Miller. Then this kid, just 17 years old, comes back a week later and looks for somebody to kill, and he started shooting and it was my son, who had saved him, that he killed.”
Rock Hill Police detective Ryan Thomas, the lead investigator in the case, said all murders are horrible. But this one somehow seems worse.
“First, the defendant shot the wrong person,” Thomas said. “Second, on Aug. 2 after the fight he came back and shot up the house later that same night. Third, he then came back a week later and shot a person who wasn’t even involved at a house that wasn’t even the house where the fight happened. Mr. Hart, the victim, potentially saved Mr. Miller’s life. And a week later he killed him.”
Anthony Hart had three children. He worked at a Charlotte warehouse. He was standing out front of an aunt’s house Aug. 9 talking with his father and others on a hot summer night. The talk was about a beach vacation and how proud he was of his kids.
“All my son did was be a good person, a good man, and help that young fella,” Michael Hart said. “And for that, for doing the right thing, his kids got no daddy and he is dead in the grave.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.