A man arrested December 2021 in Las Vegas, after police found the severed head of his friend and other body parts in a stolen truck he was driving, has received a sentence of up to 45 years behind bars.
A Clark County District judge sentenced 58-year-old Eric John Holland to a minimum prison sentence of 18 years and a maximum of 45 years for the charges of second-degree murder and felony theft.
During his sentencing, the convicted murderer, Holland, expressed his remorse for killing Richard Millar, 65, whose remains were found by police in coolers at the back of a stolen Chevrolet Avalanche after they stopped him in December last year.
Police found that Holland had shot Miller several times, including one headshot, before he carved up his body and put it in the coolers.
Holland apologized to Miller’s family, saying that what he did was terrible and he was sorry.
However, that apology seemed to have not much effect on the deceased man’s daughter, who was in court during the sentencing. She tearfully told the judge that Holland’s apology and his guilty pleas in July provided little relief to her. The killer pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, avoiding going to trial for an open murder charge which could have gotten him get sentenced to life in prison.
Amanda Dawn Potter, Miller’s daughter, said that her father’s murder was the most bizarre thing that ever happened to her family, and she could not make sense of it.
Holland told authorities during his sentencing that they should continue investigating his motive for the murder of Miller. He said he wanted to talk about it during his sentencing, but because Miller’s family was present in the courtroom, he didn’t disclose his reasons for killing the man.
Holland told the judge that there was a reason he murdered Miller, and he hoped the family would get closure after he was sentenced.
During a recent prison interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Holland revealed that he and Miller had a heated confrontation, and Miller had threatened to kill him, and that is what prompted the murder. He said he had a gun, and Miller also had one.
While Holland was in jail, he accused Miller of the killing of Miller’s ex-wife Jing Me Zhu. Holland wanted investigators to look into the disappearance of Zhu, saying that Miller was responsible for her disappearance.
Miller and Zhu got divorced in 2019, and Miller said she left the US to live in China, and police were unable to locate her to hand over a court summons. Holland believed that Miller killed Zhu. However, the police said they did not have a missing person report for Zhu.
Miller’s daughter told the Review-Journal that she already knew about Holland’s accusations and doesn’t believe him.
“I don’t really trust anything that comes out of that guy’s mouth,” she said.