In 2006, a Chatham County jury convicted Joseph G. Miller of malice murder and related offenses arising out of the shooting death of Lisa Sloan. Miller claims that his convictions must be reversed for three reasons: 1 the trial court erred in admitting out-of-court statements by Sloan under the necessity exception to the hearsay rule; 2 the trial court erred by giving the pattern jury instruction on prior difficulties evidence; and 3 Miller received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. Miller also contends the trial court erred in sentencing him to life in prison without parole. The State concedes the trial court erred in sentencing Miller, and we agree. We find no merit in Miller’s arguments seeking reversal of his convictions. Accordingly, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand with direction to the trial court to impose a legally authorized sentence.1 1. Miller does not claim that the evidence in the record is legally insufficient to support his convictions. Nevertheless, a brief account of Miller’s crimes may be helpful to put the issues raised on appeal into context. The evidence presented at trial would have enabled a rational trier of fact to find as follows.
Miller first met Sloan at a motel in Savannah known for prostitution and drug dealing sometime around 1999 or 2000. Miller, an admitted crack cocaine user, had gone to the motel, in his words, “to look for a woman.” He encountered Sloan in a motel room where she had been smoking crack cocaine with one of her drug dealers. The drug dealer was refusing to let Sloan leave because Sloan owed her money. Miller paid off the dealer so Sloan could leave with him. After that first night at the motel, Miller and Sloan lost contact with each other for several years. Miller met Sloan again approximately three months after the death of Sloan’s husband in January 2003. A couple months later, Sloan became one of Miller’s “girlfriends,” and the two continued seeing each other for the next two years. The relationship was an extremely abusive one, and Miller beat Sloan on numerous occasions, including one incident in which he assaulted her with a lead pipe.
