The California Supreme Court upheld Thursday, May 28, the San Bernardino County conviction and death sentence of Johnny Duane Miles for the murder of Nancy Willem, 35, of Wrightwood, who was also robbed and raped during the attack in the Rialto office where she worked.
Six of the justices upheld the verdict and sentence, and one dissented. The majority rejected a challenge by Mills, who is black, that two African-American jury candidates were excused solely on race, in violation of his right to a fair trial.
Associate Justice Goodwin Liu said in his dissent he would reverse the case based on the African-American jury candidate rejections. He was sent to state prison from Los Angeles County in on a sentence of 75 years and eight months for second-degree robbery, oral copulation with force, penetration with a foreign object, possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and an enhancement of use of a firearm, prison records show.
Miles, a Compton resident at the time of his arrest who also had lived in Moreno Valley, had robbed one man and raped two other women in separate but similar attacks in Victorville and San Bernardino in the weeks after the Willem slaying, prosecutors said at his trial.
He was also found guilty of those crimes. There was a competency trial for Miles after his conviction but before the penalty phase. Willem was attacked inside the offices of Behavioral Health Services in Rialto, where she worked as an office manager. By Richard K. De Atley The Press-Enterprise. More in Crime and Public Safety.
