August 25, 2022 at 11:45 a.m.
'These were the acts of an assassin':  Anderson sentenced to life in prison for murder of Hannah Miller
'These were the acts of an assassin':  Anderson sentenced to life in prison for murder of Hannah Miller
After reading aloud from notes and text messages found on Hannah Miller's cellphone describing the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of Christopher Terrell Anderson, as well as her desperate attempts to break free from him, Oneida County circuit judge Mike Bloom sentenced Anderson to life in prison with no eligibility for release at any point.
Bloom handed down the sentence on Tuesday afternoon, just over a week after Anderson, 31, pled guilty to the execution-style killing of his former girlfriend, the mother of his child, on a local roadside.
Miller's body was discovered in a ditch on River Bend Road at about 11 a.m. June 30, 2021. She had been shot four times. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy later reported a wound to the chest, two to the back and one at the base of the skull, along with a graze wound to the arm.
Oneida County district attorney Mike Schiek said he submitted photos of the wounds to the judge for review in making the determination as to whether Anderson should at some point be eligible for release on extended supervision. The photos were described in vivid detail in open court as were the years of abuse - physical, sexual and emotional - Miller endured and documented.
As Bloom himself put it, the question before him on Tuesday boiled down to whether Anderson's decision to plead guilty to first-degree intentional homicide - sparing the family, the community and the state the burden of a trial - should entitle him to an opportunity, at some point in the future, to seek re-entry into society.
"In my judgment, the answer is no," the judge said.
"This wasn't the act of a spurned lover or a jealous man caught in a fit of passionate rage," the court said prior to pronouncing sentence. "It wasn't the act of a despairing father overwhelmed by anguish over the thought of losing contact with a child. These were the acts of an assassin, brutal, ruthless, cold-blooded, committed against the mother of his daughter at a time when Hannah Miller was on the very threshold of escaping what she had endured for so long as a result of her decision to allow the defendant into her life."
"The defendant's actions were vicious and aggravated," he added. "The gravity of this offense, even in the context of murder, is extreme."
Per the terms of the plea agreement, Schiek argued that anything less than 40 years in prison prior to potential eligibility for release would be unacceptable.
He stressed that Anderson's actions were not accidental, negligent or the result of a heated moment, but carefully planned weeks in advance.
"Four shots ensured the victim will never be able to tell her story," the prosecutor said, adding that Anderson may have believed, after evading police for approximately 70 days after Miller's body was found, that he had committed the perfect crime. He was taken into custody in Illinois in early September, the first step toward the prison cell where he will now spend the rest of his life.
For his part, defense attorney Jeff Anderson made no attempt to downplay the severity of the crime. In fact, he stated that the recommendation of at least 40 years served prior to any opportunity to request release, was "essentially a joint recommendation."
He described Anderson as very quiet but indicated he believed his client took an important step in pleading guilty and accepting responsibility.
"He realized what the right thing to do was and he took that step," his attorney said. "There's hope for him. He has a heart. Someone who doesn't have a heart can't take that step. They'll just go the full mile, trial, everything, kicking and screaming."
Given his chance to speak, Anderson offered an apology for his actions and stated that he was praying for forgiveness and for God and the judge to give him a second chance at life.
In their victim impact statements, Miller's father, aunt and close friend also addressed the subject of life - the life of the person Anderson took from them.
Her friend said she misses the sound of Hannah's voice, her laugh and her jokes.
"Now there's just silence and nothing fills the void," she said through tears. She ended her statement by telling Anderson that he failed in silencing Hannah.
Her friends, who she considered sisters, will be her voice, the witness said.
Miller's aunt recounted the day Hannah was born at the Rhinelander hospital.
"She's my only niece, she was my daughter's only cousin," she said, adding that she recently spent time playing in a swimming pool with Hannah's young daughter. She recounted an incident at the pool where a person asked the girl "why are you so cute" and asked if she got her "beautiful face" from her mommy or her daddy. The aunt then explained that she had to tell the person that the girl's father had killed her mother.
"That slice of hurt I experienced with (the child that day) is only a fraction of what my sister and brother-in-law experience weekly, daily, many times a day, because of Chris's insecurities, his selfishness and his cowardice. He has caused so much pain for this family, her friends, the community, most of all the pain he has caused (the child) for the rest of her life. For that judge, I ask that he get the rest of his life to think about this," she said.
The final person to speak for Hannah was her father.
"I want to talk about Hannah, first of all," he said. "Hannah was our baby, our only child, our daughter, and we dedicated our life to her. We planned our life around her from the time she was born. Hannah was a friend to everyone and sometimes that was her downfall as well, but that made her likable to everyone and helped her to excel in life and work. She took great pride in her work and made us so proud of what she accomplished."
"It's not what I lost, it's what (my wife) has lost, that is most devastating to me," he added, noting that his wife and daughter had always been extremely close.
He went on to describe Hannah's efforts to build a new life "around the needs of her daughter" and how she began to share what was happening to her.
"It wasn't until last spring that we began to learn the true torture that she had been going through (for years)," he continued. "That shy, always wanting to please kid who didn't want to admit that she had made a mistake, thinking she could quietly fix it or it would go away, was at the end of her rope."
He told the court he regrets that he repeatedly gave Anderson "the benefit of the doubt" in hopes he would "do the right thing."
"You planned this murder for weeks, it was not random or in haste, but planned," he continued, addressing Anderson directly. "My daughter is dead today for no other reason than she wasn't going to be your golden goose anymore," he added, noting that for years his daughter worked to support herself and her daughter while Anderson remained unemployed and essentially lived off of her.
He said his daughter would give Anderson money in an effort to keep him away from her but she wasn't going to do that anymore. Instead she was talking about a restraining order.
Every time Hannah tried to pull away, her father said, Anderson would find a way back into her life.
Killing his child's mother is the most "evil, selfish act that could be done," he added, his voice rising. "On June 30 last year, you ambushed my daughter, and took her, and you executed her. You planned it for weeks and you did it and you shot her over, over and over and over again. In the back. You shot my daughter in the back of the head, you executed her, you executed her..."
While Anderson's choice to plead guilty was a "worthy decision that can't be ignored," Bloom said the totality of the horrors he wreaked upon the mother of his child were such that he should never again be free, even if he reaches old age.
"There are certain things that simply must be said out loud about this case, about the death of Hannah Miller, if justice is to be properly served," Bloom said, before reconstructing the last few years of her life through the cellphone notes and text messages found on her phone.
"The record in this case establishes that over a number of years Hannah Miller was abused, controlled and terrorized by the defendant," he said. The same record, he said, shows "a man devoid of character and dangerous, a threat to the public."
"The totality of the defendant's actions against Hannah Miller is simply beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct," he finished before formally ordering the life sentence.
Anderson's co-defendant, Seth Wakefield, has also agreed to resolve the case against him without going to trial.
According to court records, Wakefield, 26, is scheduled for a plea and sentencing Sept. 6 on a charge of first-degree intentional homicide (as party to the crime). He is accused of taking part in discussions and other actions to help advance the plan formulated by Anderson to kill Miller.
Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].
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