Death sentence imposed on F. Glenn Miller Jr. in hate crime killings

The 74-year-old Missouri man who unleashed years of pent-up anti-Semitism in a spasm of gunfire that killed three Christians was sentenced Tuesday to death.

Johnson County District Judge Kelly Ryan followed the recommendation of the jury that earlier this year found F. Glenn Miller Jr. guilty of capital murder in the April 13, 2014, shooting spree in Overland Park.

“Your attempt to bring hate into this community and terrorize this community has failed,” Ryan said as he announced the sentence. “You have failed, Mr. Miller.”

Immediately after the sentence was imposed, Miller exploded in an angry outburst. Deputies removed him from the courtroom.

Miller’s rampage outside the Jewish Community Center and the Village Shalom care center took the lives of 14-year-old Reat Underwood; his grandfather William Corporon, 69; and Terri LaManno, 53, who worked with visually impaired children.

Though Miller failed in his stated motive to kill as many Jews as possible that day, he defiantly declared his “mission” a success. On Tuesday, he reiterated his hatred of Jews and desire to kill Jewish people.

“I’d do it again,” he said of the shootings, “if they ever let me out of here.”

Before sentencing, Miller argued for a new trial based on several allegations that he did not receive a fair trial, including his request for a change of venue. The judge denied all of the issues raised in his motion.

According to testimony at Miller’s trial, he drove from his home in southern Missouri to Overland Park with four firearms and a large amount of ammunition after previously scouting the locations.

Police later found a flier in Miller’s car advertising a singing competition at the community center, and Miller testified that he chose that date because he believed there would be a large number of “young Jews” and their families there.

When he arrived at the center, he stopped behind a parked pickup truck occupied by Corporon and his grandson, a participant in the singing competition.

Miller shot Corporon in the head with a shotgun and then turned the weapon on Reat, shooting him in the face as he sat in the truck.

He then fired at a man and his son who were walking in the parking lot. Neither was hit.

Next, he fired multiple shotgun and rifle shots into the community center’s White Theatre, shattering the front windows and sending people inside diving for cover.

As a motorist drove past, Miller fired a shot into his vehicle. Again, that man was not injured.

Another man, Jay Coombes, who was working at the theater, had just gotten out of his car when Miller pulled up and fired a half-dozen pistol shots at him. None hit Coombes.

Miller then fired at another man who had run after his vehicle in an attempt to get the license plate number. Again, that man escaped injury.

Leaving the center, Miller drove to the nearby Village Shalom care center where he saw LaManno, who was there to visit her mother, a Village Shalom resident.

He shot LaManno in the face and neck with a shotgun. He then turned the weapon toward another woman and asked whether she was a Jew. When she answered no, he put the weapon in his car and left.

Miller drove a few blocks to an elementary school and parked there until police arrived.

He told officers that he was an anti-Semite and asked them, “How many did I get?”

At trial, Miller represented himself and testified that he believed the killings were justified because of what he termed the “Jewish genocide against the white race.”

In addition to the death sentence for capital murder, Miller was sentenced Tuesday on three counts of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm into an occupied building. The judge imposed a total sentence of 394 months, more than 32 years, for those crimes.

Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., will be housed in the special management unit at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in southeast Kansas. There, he will be confined to his cell 23 hours a day. The hour each day he will spend outside his cell to shower or exercise will be done with no contact with other inmates.

It is only the second time a case from Johnson County has resulted in a death sentence since Kansas reinstated capital punishment in 1994. Convicted serial killer John E. Robinson Sr. was sentenced to death in 2003. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld Robinson’s death sentence last week.

Some of The Star’s previous coverage:

After death sentence for murders, victims’ families thank those who “stare down the face of hate.”

Death penalty phase next after F. Glenn Miller Jr. found guilty in Jewish center shootings

“Every Jew in the world knows my name now”

Those who knew Miller in southwest Missouri thought he was all talk, no action - until Sunday.

Black Sunday: Apparent hate crime at Jewish centers leaves 3 dead

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Death sentence imposed on F. Glenn Miller Jr. in hate crime killings."