Tyler Miller Recieves (2) Life Sentences With No Parole For Double Murders Of Jaimi Hurlbert & Her Daughter Alyssa Burkett

December 28, 2011



A reserved Tyler Miller quietly pleaded guilty Wednesday to the savage Christmas 2010 murders of 35-year-old Jaimi Hurlbert and her 15-year-old daughter, Alyssa Burkett.

The surprise change of plea in front of Flathead District Judge Stewart Stadler came after Miller’s attorney filed for the hearing on Dec. 23, just two days before the one-year anniversary of the murders.

While he was questioned about his desire to plead guilty, Miller, 35, confirmed he made the decision despite the interest of his attorney, Noel Larrivee, in pursuing the trial that had been set for March 5, 2012.

Neither Larrivee nor Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan would comment on the hearing or the case.

Miller faces between 12 and 110 years in prison, life in prison or the death penalty for each of the two deliberate homicide convictions. His sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

Corrigan earlier this year filed notice of his intent to seek the death penalty. In a previous court ruling, Miller was found mentally competent to stand trial.

Security at the courtroom was slightly elevated, with attendees screened using metal-detector wands. Among the roughly 30 people at the hearing — which included several attorneys — were Hurlbert’s sister Jennifer Hurlbert, her father, Butch, and friend, D’Lon Lambright.

Jennifer Hurlbert said she was surprised when she heard Miller was going to change his plea.

“I did not believe it, I just thought that it was another one of his attention games,” she said.

She also was taken aback by his open guilty plea.

“It’s very shocking, actually,” she said, “considering he planned [the murder], did it and was very proud.”

The conviction was only the first of two specific steps necessary for justice, according to Butch Hurlbert, who said he has little faith the second step will be taken.

“I won’t be happy unless he gets the death penalty,” Butch said. “He’s convicted, but I can tell you already the judge isn’t going to give him the death penalty.”

Lambright agreed.

“He needs out of here, he needs hung,” Lambright said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Butch said what family and friends of the victims have gone through in the last year is “a load of hell.”

“Jaimi and Alyssa didn’t have anybody standing up for them, they didn’t get million-dollar lawyers, they got murdered,” he said, later adding: “I lost two members of my family. They died. I just celebrated Christmas without them. Christmas Day I got to go to the cemetery instead of watching my kid open presents. Not fun. Unless he gets the death penalty, I’m not happy.”

According to court documents, the chain of events leading to the murders began when Miller and Hurlbert broke up on Sept. 19, 2010. From that point on, Miller consistently sent her threatening text messages, broke into her home and stole money from her.

In a statement to police the day before her murder, Hurlbert said Miller was verbally and psychologically abusive to her during their relationship and after they broke up.

On Dec. 23, 2010, Miller began sending Hurlbert emails threatening her life.

Police were notified of those emails when her friend, Michelle Koffler, called 911 to report that Miller was attempting to break down Hurlbert’s door the following day.

Investigating officers also found Facebook messages sent by Miller to Hurlbert on Dec. 24 threatening her, Koffler and their friends.

Butch Hurlbert filed a complaint against Miller that morning after Miller left a profane and threatening message on their answering machine. The message referred to an accidental phone call in which he said he overheard Hurlbert and Koffler talking about him.

“I’m going to die soon, next day or two,” Miller said at one point in the message. “I can’t have a (expletive) family because she has to have her (expletive) crack. I’m going to show this world if I can’t have my (expletive) family then I’m gonna make a mark on your (expletive) crackhead (expletive).”

That day, Miller told Hurlbert “this is my day to die” and that he was “going to go out like a true soldier.”

Later that evening, Miller showed up at The Scoreboard while Hurlbert was working. When she saw him running across the parking lot toward her, she ran back inside. Another employee said he was threatening to kill Koffler and have a shootout with police.

On Christmas Day, the infant daughter of Miller and Hurlbert was at his mother’s house west of Kalispell. Miller was not allowed at the house due to his methamphetamine use, but he convinced his mother to let him come over and promised her there would be no confrontations between Hurlbert and himself.

Miller smuggled a .45-caliber handgun into the home in a backpack, then went into the bathroom, moved it to the waistband of his pants and “avoided tight hugs” with family members. Prior to going to his mother’s house, he had test-fired the gun to make sure it would work properly.

When Hurlbert arrived, one of Miller’s relatives was on the porch with Miller. She pushed him inside when he refused to go in so Hurlbert could pick up their child. At that point, Miller went back outside through the garage just as his relative went inside.

People inside the house heard Hurlbert say “Oh my God” just before the sound of gunfire.

Miller shot Hurlbert two times, once in the face and once in the shoulder, before shooting Burkett once in the center of her chest. He then hit Hurlbert in the face with the butt of his gun, splitting her lip completely in two.

When a mortally wounded Burkett started screaming “Mom! Mom!” Miller kicked her in the face.

Hurlbert died at the scene and Burkett died later at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Miller stole Hurlbert’s vehicle and fled the scene before abandoning it and stealing another car, which he drove to a vacant trailer home west of Kalispell, where he was located and arrested.

“I probably pulled off the most evil, manipulative pathetic thing today, but I feel good about it,” Miller said after being arrested. “(Expletive), I wish I felt bad, I wish to God I (expletive) felt bad, but I am (expletive) happier than hell. I prayed to God that I could pull off something like this.”

During other interviews after his arrest, Miller talked about being on meth during the days leading up to and during the murders.

“The meth had nothing to do with what I did, it just made it easier because it makes you numb,” Miller said, adding “I would do the same thing again if I had a chance to do it over. I just wouldn’t have done it in front of my family ... I’m glad she is dead.”

When asked by an officer how he was feeling, Miller said “I feel great.”

While in jail, Miller’s cell mate reported he repeatedly told the story of the murders and how he killed Jaimi and Alyssa.
“I’ll do it again if I don’t get the death sentence,” Miller said during another police interview. “In prison, I’ll figure out a way to do it...hurt somebody else ’til I get that death sentence ... I’ll live to be 80 in prison and it ain’t happening.”


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He definitely needs to be exterminated. What a POS.

raine1953 wrote:He definitely needs to be exterminated. What a POS.

02-10-12

A Kalispell man who admitted murdering his former girlfriend and her daughter on Christmas day in 2010 was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole, after a lengthy, emotional hearing in Flathead County District Court.

Tyler Miller, 35, stood to receive the sentence from Judge Stewart Stadler on Feb. 10 after the nearly three-hour hearing. Miller admitted last December to shooting Jaimi Hurlbert, 35, and her daughter, Alyssa Burkett, 15, with a .45-caliber pistol.

During the often-tense sentencing hearing, the victims’ families expressed anguish and anger at Miller, who would alternate between smiles and frowns during their testimony.

Though previous court records describe Miller as proud of the killings, he expressed remorse during the sentencing hearing.

“I can’t really find the words to say how I feel,” he said. “If I could take it back, I would.”

Hurlbert’s friends and family described a poisoned relationship between her and Miller, though the couple did seem happy after the birth of their daughter.

D’Lon Lambright, Hurlbert’s friend for 16 years, began her testimony with a description of the beating Miller delivered to Hurlbert after he shot her, saying that the damage done to her face made her unrecognizable.

“This is what you did to my friend and you sit there with that smirk on your face and it repulses me,” Lambright said.

She went on to say that Burkett would never get the chance to experience life beyond her 15 years, and that Miller stole those chances from her. The relationship between Miller and Hurlbert was caustic, Lambright said, and Hurlbert was afraid for her life.

“She was tired of being scared of you,” Lambright told Miller. “You loved her and no matter what, she hated you. Every single time she came back to you it was because she was scared and just wanted to live in peace.”

Hurlbert’s younger sister, Jennifer Hurlbert, repeatedly told Miller to look at her while she spoke, which he did. She told Miller that though he had previously said he was “going down like a true soldier,” he was actually “going down as a true coward” because he killed a child and ambushed a woman with a gun.

She asked Miller if he remembered her sister’s unique eyes and the way she loved being in the outdoors, or Burkett playing her guitar and riding her longboard.

“It is obviously so unfortunate that you were ever brought into this world,” Jennifer Hurlbert said, and “even more unfortunate that Jaimi met (and trusted) you.”

Hurlbert’s father, Butch, called Miller a “cancer” and a “coward” who shoots “women and little girls.”

“I’ve never known hate in my life like I hate you,” Butch Hurlbert said.

The witnesses also said Hurlbert was struggling with a methamphetamine addiction, but was trying to come to terms with it before her death.

Miller’s defense attorneys, public defenders Noel Larrivee and Nicole Ducheneaux, questioned a mental health therapist who said Miller was bipolar and on meth, creating a “perfect storm” for the events that transpired.

The therapist said she believed Miller could be rehabilitated now that he was off methamphetamines and on mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic medications.

Larrivee also presented evidence that law enforcement had been contacted at least 10 times on Dec. 24, 2010, regarding Miller and his threats toward Hurlbert and her family, and still he was not arrested.

Despite this, Larrivee repeatedly said Miller is the only person responsible for the deaths of Hurlbert and Burkett.

Before sentencing, Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan asked the judge to make Miller ineligible for parole. He said any mental health defect or statement of duress that Miller was under during the time of the murders was the result of meth use, and therefore cannot serve as a mitigating factor.

Larrivee told Stadler that he wanted to try the case in court because it could have brought many emotions and issues to light, but Miller decided to change his plea. Miller is bipolar, Larrivee said, and the meth only enhanced it.

“All I’m asking you to do is recognize that Tyler, once medicated, once treated, once clean, is capable of being a good person,” Larrivee said.

While sentencing Miller, Stadler said there were multiple aggravating factors in this case, including Miller’s lengthy criminal history, his inability to finish treatment programs, disciplinary write-ups from previous incarceration and warnings on file that he is a threat to society.

And though Stadler acknowledged evidence of mental health difficulties, he said Miller’s voluntary meth use largely negated them as mitigating factors.

It also appeared that Miller responded to being medicated, Stadler said, but noted that the only time this has been successful was while Miller was in custody. This makes Miller an “immediate threat” to the general public, Stadler said.

Stadler sentenced Miller to two life sentences at the Montana State Prison, to be served consecutively, without eligibility for parole.

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