Man pleads guilty in rape, murder of Lancaster Co. woman

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Only Channel 9 was in court Wednesday as a man plead guilty to the rape and murder of a young woman that happened three years ago.

Hope Melton was newly married and planned on starting a family.

Melton was killed the day after Christmas in 2011. She happened to buy gas at a convenience store in Jefferson, in Chesterfield County. Nickolas Miller was in the store too. Surveillance video shows him watching her as she was filling up at the gas pumps.

He followed her in his car, and ran her off the road. Melton had called her grandmother telling her she was being followed, but the call dropped. Miller raped her, beat her to death with a baseball bat, and left her naked body off a rural road behind a turkey house in rural Kershaw County.

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Chesterfield County sheriff's deputies later found Miller in his car, shoeless, and acting nervously. They found the bloody baseball bat in the car as well, and later, Melton's wallet.

Deputies believe Melton was Miller's second attempt at an abduction that day. They believe he tried following another woman, but she drove north toward Monroe, a heavily-populated area, and he broke off, and later followed Melton.

Prosecutors wanted to seek the death penalty against Miller, but in court Wednesday they revealed why they instead, went for life in prison.

The assistant solicitor said the gross misconduct of former Chesterfield Sheriff Sam Parker was to blame.

When Parker met with the suspect, Miller, he told him if he showed him where the body was, he promised him he wouldn't get the death penalty. 

Because of that action, Miller's complete confession was considered coerced. That forced prosecutors to drop their push for the death penalty.

Parker was later convicted of corruption and misconduct charges unrelated to the Miller case, and is still serving time in prison.

The deal that led to a life in prison sentence for Miller angers Melton's family.  Several of them spoke out in court Wednesday, including her grandmother Loretta Roscoe.

"He doesn't deserve nothing but the death penalty, and I don't mind saying it," she said. "He raped my granddaughter, and beat her with a baseball bat!"

Melton's sister, Chanda Roscoe, told the court she disagrees with the plea deal and hopes Miller will suffer in prison.

"Let him suffer, let him be tormented, taunted, raped, beaten, just like he did my sister," she said.

Melton's brother-in-law Frankie Melton read a statement from her husband, who was too devastated to appear in court.

"When he brutally raped her he could have let her live, but he didn't. When she begged for her life, Nickolas Miller, why didn't you show mercy?" he said.

Miller's sentence does not allow for parole, and also does not allow any appeals. When it was his turn to speak, Miller said nothing. He showed no remorse and gave no apology. He told the judge he has two young children of his own, ages 6 and 7.

WSOC