WURTLAND, Ky. — A man who in 2010 murdered former Chimacum resident Chadd E. Miller in Kentucky is waiting to begin serving a life sentence for the crime.
Miller was shot to death 11 days after he moved to Wurtland, Ky., to be with a woman he met online.
Beryl W. Smith, 35, pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to murdering Miller, 27, and was sentenced Feb. 23 in Greenup County Circuit Court, Deputy Clerk Angie Barnett said Tuesday.
Smith was awaiting transfer then from the Greenup County jail to serve his sentence at the Kentucky State Men’s Reformatory, Deputy Jailer Angie Howard said.
“They call us one day, then transfer him the next,” Howard said.
Smith, who also pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and first-degree wanton endangerment, will be eligible for parole after 25 years.
“He really did not make a statement in court,” Barnett said. “He just admitted he did it.”
While those affected by the crime can make statements or submit letters to the court at sentencing, there was none at Smith’s sentencing, “which is unusual,” Barnett said.
Miller, a Chimacum High School graduate, was on the social networking site MySpace when he met Amber Nolan, then 33, in 2010, according to the Greenup County Sheriff’s Office.
A few months later, in July 2010, he arrived in Wurtland, an Ohio River town of about 1,000 people, to be with her.
Eleven days later, at about 3:15 a.m. Aug. 7, 2010, Smith barged into Nolan’s house and shot Miller several times with a 9 mm handgun while Miller was in bed with Nolan.
Neither Nolan nor her two children, one of whom was fathered by Smith, were injured.
Smith was arrested about 15 minutes after the shooting with the gun in his hand while standing in the street outside of Nolan’s house.
Miller had a son who was 9 at the time and who lived with Miller’s mother and stepfather.
Miller, who worked the counter at Westbay NAPA Auto Parts in Port Townsend for four years until Aug. 2, 2009, was unemployed.
He traveled 2,500 miles by Greyhound bus to be with Nolan.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
