By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
—
PRINCETON – After being reminded repeatedly Thursday about his constitutional right to a trial by jury, a Mercer County man elected to plead guilty to the July 2009 murder of a Princeton area resident.
Bruce Lee Milam, 34, of the Spanishburg-Kegley area appeared in Mercer County Circuit Court before Judge William Sadler for a plea hearing. Milam was indicted in 2009 on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the death of 58-year-old Lester Sloane.
Prosecuting Attorney Timm Boggess told Sadler that the state would have shown that on July 16, 2009, Milam went to Sloane’s home, had an altercation with him, and stabbed him 11 times in the face area. Sloane had defensive wounds on his arms and hands.
Milam then went through Sloane’s pockets, and then through his cabinets in search of money and prescription drugs, Boggess said. Witnesses also said that Milam had a confrontation with Sloane a few days earlier.
Milam was later found in Monroe County. After he was apprehended, investigators found money with blood stains on it and prescriptions belonging to Sloane, Boggess said, and Milam then admitted to “cutting and stabbing” Sloane.
Judge Sadler questioned Milam and warned him that pleading guilty would equal “a conviction.
“All the court has to do is accept a plea of guilty and you are convicted of first-degree murder,” Sadler said.
After reading the indictment, Sadler asked Milam if he wished to plea guilty or not guilty. If he said nothing, his plea would be understood as not guilty.
“Guilty,” Milam said quietly.
In the plea agreement, the state agreed to dismiss a charge of first-degree robbery.
Sadler sentenced Milam to a term of life imprisonment with a recommendation of mercy, meaning he could be considered for patrol in 15 years; however, this does not mean parole will be granted at that time. Milam will be credited for the 241 days he has spent at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley since his arrest.
The Mercer County Sheriff’s Department and the West Virginia State Police investigated the murder.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
