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Miller gets maximum sentence for shooting

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By Dustin Lemmon | Tuesday, August 07, 2007 | 4 comment(s)

A Davenport man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for the April 2006 shooting death of Andrell Hearn in Rock Island.

Jermil Miller, 27, received the maximum sentence available on the second-degree murder charge from Judge Charles “Casey” Stengel in Rock Island County Circuit Court.

Members of Hearn’s family applauded immediately after the sentence was announced, and the judge asked them to calm down. Several of the relatives wept as the judge informed Miller of his appeal rights.

Before being sentenced, Miller expressed regret in a statement to the court.

“I want to apologize to the whole Hearn family for everything they’ve went through,” he said. “I can’t take their pain away. I’m sorry.”

Miller added that the shooting was a mistake.

“I wish death upon nobody,” he said. “It was an unfortunate situation we all wish we could take back.”

The judge heard testimony Monday from Cainnan Gates, one of the men traveling with Miller the night of the shooting, and Rock Island police detective Gene Karzin, who interviewed the witnesses and Miller.

According to the testimony, Hearn began firing shots in the air in the 1200 block of 15th Avenue after another man broke up a fight involving one of Hearn’s friends.

Miller and three others had just arrived and were watching when Hearn attacked the peacemaker and hit him in the back of the head with the gun, witnesses said. The witnesses claimed the man pulled one fighter off Hearn’s friend, who was losing the fight, and Hearn apparently was upset that he intervened.

Miller had a gun in the vehicle, which he was going to use for protection in a planned drug deal. The four were planning to give a buyer fake cocaine in a “drug rip-off,” but the meeting fell through shortly before the fight, witnesses testified.

Miller took the gun from Gates and fired two shots at Hearn as he was running away, striking him in the back, witnesses said. According to the witnesses, Hearn’s gun had jammed.

Gates, 24, of Moline, who pleaded guilty to a felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon for his role in the incident, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17.

Latora Johnson, one of Hearn’s cousins, read a letter in court that was written by Hearn’s mother. She asked for the maximum of 20 years for Miller.

“Jermil should pay for his actions,” she said. “Andrell had consequences to his lifestyle, which was his death. Jermil should also have consequences.”

Stengel told Miller, who has a prior drug-related conviction in federal court, that he did not have much sympathy for him.

“Neither one of you were in the right,” the judge said. “You make the streets unsafe for everyone involved.”

The Hearn shooting reportedly led to the murder of Vincelina Howard in Davenport in August 2006, when friends of Hearn, looking to avenge his death, were involved in a drive-by shooting at a party Howard was attending. Four men were later convicted and sentenced for her death.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.