GUILTY SC - Hope Melton, 30, abducted, raped & murdered, Jefferson, 26 Dec 2011

Chanda Roscoe walked out of the courtroom in Camden Monday, no longer able to hold back tears. Three years after the horrific murder of her sister, Hope Roscoe Melton, she's had to once again sit in court across from the man accused of killing her. "He's a monster. No remorse. Cold-hearted," Roscoe said.

Nickolas Miller, 23, faces the death penalty in the rape and beating death of Melton. On Monday in Camden, the judge set a trial date of Feb. 9, 2016.

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Hope Melton had no idea what was about to happen to her. In surveillance videos from a convenience store in the town of Jefferson, the woman can be seen smiling. At the same gas station was 23-year-old Nickolas Miller, the man charged with abducting, raping and killing Melton. Surveillance video shows Miller opening store’s door for Melton, buying a beer and sitting in his car.

When Melton finished pumping her gas, Miller followed.

“She did not know him. There was never a conversation with him,” said Melton’s brother-in-law Juan Garces. “She had no indication she was in any danger.”

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Frankie says Hope tried to call her grandmother several miles away from the store, after she realized someone was following her.

"He got right up on her back bumper and she, at that point, called her grandmother and said that someone was following her and it was a black man from the store, that she had seen at the store," said Frankie."Her grandmother told her not to stop for anything and come straight on to her house and don't stop for anything and that's the last they heard from her"...

"The details are absolutely incomprehensible; this was not a crime of passion in a moment," said Frankie. "This guy had a long time to think about this. He followed her for miles. He drove her around in his car for several miles."

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Parker said the suspect followed her from the store to a remote location on Angelus Road in Jefferson -- inside the more than 45,000-acre Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge.

It was there the suspect passed her and pushed her vehicle off the road toward a ditch. Then, the sheriff said, the suspect kidnapped Melton and took her to a separate location in Chesterfield County, where he sexually assaulted her. After the assault, investigators said, Melton was driven to Kershaw County where she was beaten to death with a baseball bat.

“It was very brutal... probably in the 37 years of my career, this was one of the worst I’ve seen,” Parker said. “There was just no reason for it. It was absolutely ridiculous.”

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Two years after vowing to seek the death penalty in a brutal 2011 murder case, South Carolina prosecutors have reportedly settled on a plea deal with the alleged killer.

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Family members would not speak to FITS on the record about the case – citing a January 2014 gag order that also sealed records related to the prosecution.(So much for transparency, right?)
But we’re told they are “living a nightmare.” And their anger – brimming just below the surface – is about to explode.
“Do they not have evidence? How can a taped confession be contaminated?” one of Melton’s relatives told us. “Due to the gag order that was handed down, our family has kept everything we know silent. We thought if we followed these orders, justice would be served.”

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When Hope was kidnapped she was on her way to give her grandmother her Christmas gift. "She loved giving and she gave her heart to a lot of people." Although three years have passed, her mother said it has been a long journey and she just wants closure. The family looks ahead for when the case does go to trial. "We want justice done, we won't give up and we know God's justice will prevail."

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stillwatersc said:

http://www.fitsnews.com/2015/02/24/savage-sc-slaying-wont-see-death-penalty/

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Nickolas Jermaine Miller, who confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Hope Roscoe Melton in December 2011, is expected to avoid a death penalty trial by taking a plea deal Wednesday in Richland County court.

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Standing before Circuit Court Judge D. Craig Brown, and with a group of Melton’s family members nearby, Nickolas Jermaine Miller, 26, pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual assault in the case.

Brown immediately sentenced Miller to life in prison without the possibility of parole...

“This was such a heinous crime. He held her captive for hours, he raped her, beat her. She pleaded with him for her life. She talked about God as they drove around. He kidnapped her and took her to Jefferson and raped her,” Melton said. “He took her to Forty Acre Rock at some point and then went to a place off S.C. 903 in Kershaw County behind some turkey barns.” As Miller tried to assault her again in an area on the outskirts of the Mt. Pisgah community, Hope Melton resisted and was killed by Miller with a baseball bat and piece of wood, Frankie Melton said.

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