NORTH COAST, Calif. – A North Coast man who last year was arrested after shooting a neighbor and attempting to shoot the neighbor’s wife during a fight over a property easement has been sentenced to more than a decade in state prison.
Harry William Miller, 70, of Anchor Bay was sentenced on Friday in Mendocino County Superior Court for attempted voluntary manslaughter in the March 2018 shooting of his neighbor, Paul Palestrini, and felony assault with a firearm on Palestrini’s wife, Desiree, along with special enhancements related to use of a firearm, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said.
According to reports from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office, on the afternoon of March 26, 2018, there was an altercation regarding an easement on a shared driveway – specifically, a small gravel pile on the shared roadway – between Miller and Paul Palestrini in the 35000 block of South Highway 1 in Anchor Bay.
Authorities said that during the dispute Miller produced a firearm and shot Palestrini, without provocation, in the stomach at point blank range. Palestrini in turn hit Miller with a shovel while defending himself.
After shooting Paul Palestrini, Miller fired four shots at Desiree Palestrini, but missed, authorities said.
Both Paul Palestrini and Miller suffered significant injuries and had to be flown by air ambulances to Sonoma County for treatment.
In June, Miller entered a guilty plea for attempted voluntary manslaughter for shooting Paul Palestrini, and also admitted a sentencing enhancement that he personally used a firearm in the commission of the attempted killing, the District Attorney’s Office said.
At the same time, authorities said Miller pleaded guilty to felony assault with a firearm on Desiree Palestrini, and admitted a sentencing enhancement under that count that he personally used a firearm in the commission of that separate offense.
On Friday, the District Attorney’s Office said Judge John Behnke found there was no provocation or other cause to have justified or mitigated Miller from shooting point blank at Paul Palestrini and firing four shots at Desiree Palestrini.
Judge Behnke also found that the evidence supported the district attorney's argument that the defendant succeeded in killing Paul Palestrini but that medical teams were able to use their collective skills and experience to bring him back to life multiple times.
Behnke denied Miller’s application for probation as contrary to the interests of justice and instead sentenced Miller, who recently had been living in Santa Rosa, to 11 years, 10 months in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, authorities said.
At the conclusion of Friday’s extended proceedings – the lengthy sentencing hearing carried over from the morning session into the afternoon – authorities said Miller was handcuffed and taken into custody, and then escorted by deputies from the courthouse to the jail for later transportation to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Both convictions are felonies and, in concert with the two personal use sentencing enhancements, are legally characterized by the California Penal Code as violent crimes.
Because of that characterization, the District Attorney’s Office said any good or work time credits Miller may attempt to earn in state prison will be limited to no more than 15 percent of the defendant's total sentence. In other words, Miller will not be eligible for parole under current law until he has served just over 10 years.
Susan Mary Miller, the defendant's wife, was previously convicted by a separate jury of being a felony accessory to the violent crimes of her husband. The District Attorney’s Office said she was given permission to observe Friday’s proceedings in Behnke’s courtroom after agreeing to later surrender herself at the Mendocino County Jail to begin serving her own 10-month jail sentence.
Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster prosecuted the Miller case. The law enforcement agencies that gathered the necessary evidence supporting the convictions were the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's own Bureau of Investigations. Eyster offered special thanks to the Stutchman Forensic Laboratory of Napa for its exceptional forensic analysis and work on this case.
The District Attorney has expressed gratitude to all the medical professionals – from the medical care providers in Gualala to the emergency life flight helicopter team to the surgeons, nurses, and medical staff at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital – for their combined and exceptional work to save Paul Palestrini's life. Eyster cited medical providers in Fort Bragg who provided important after care services.
Anchor Bay man who shot neighbor, attempted to shoot another over easement dispute sentenced to state prison
- Lake County News reports
- Posted On