WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — A man was sentenced to 48 years in prison for a September 2020 stabbing in Wheat Ridge that killed 32-year-old Robert Miller, the 1st Judicial District Attorney's Office said Monday.
Clinton Eugene Priest, 54, was found guilty by a Jefferson County jury in September of second-degree murder and first-degree assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury.
Priest was also sentenced to 32 years for the assault charge, which will be severed concurrently with the murder sentence.
“The judge determined in this case that the maximum sentence under the law was appropriate,” said the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “Hopefully this decision will ultimately give the victim’s family a sense of justice.”
On Sept. 23, 2020, Wheat Ridge Police Department officers responded to a bar at West 44th Avenue and Kipling Street to investigate a report of a man bleeding in the parking lot.
Officers found Miller unconscious on the ground behind the bar with multiple stab injuries, and he was taken to the hospital where he died.
A witness reported seeing a man arguing with Miller in the parking lot after Miller asked for a ride, and when the witness returned they saw Miller on the ground bleeding.
Priest was identified as the man Miller was talking to, and investigators found Miller's blood in the back of Priest's truck, on his person, in his house and on the murder weapon.
Initially, Priest reported that he was attacked. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, cleared without receiving treatment and refused to provide anymore information to investigators.
“We are grateful to the Wheat Ridge Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office for their dedication and hard work in bringing this case to trial to secure justice for Robert,” Miller’s family said in a statement.
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