Ricky MillerCARLISLE, Pa. (WHTM) -
Friday afternoon, a Cumberland County judge ruled that the July 2009 shooting of Kenneth Geiger near his home in Hampden Township was first degree murder.
The crime was brutal. Geiger was shot in the back of his head while he was sitting in the passengers seat of his girlfriend's Volvo SUV while her three young children were sitting in the back.
The shooter was Ricky Miller, the estranged husband of his girlfriend. Miller has always admitted to the shooting.
Friday, he testified he never intended to hurt anybody and that he had driven to Geiger's home to discuss his children with his wife.
"It was a bad nightmare," he said. "Everything went wrong -- everything went haywire" and that he wished Geiger was "still alive."
Miller also told the court, "I think about it every day and pray about it every night. I'll have to live with it forever."
Prosecutors said this crime was premeditated and planned out. They said in the days leading up to the July 26th shooting, Miller had made several threats on Geiger's life, calling him a "dead man" and that it was "hunting season on Bent Creek Drive" -- the road where the shooting occurred.
"From our perspective, we are looking at the evidence from that night and we are standing up for the victim," explained District Attorney Dave Freed, "The defendant is going to say what the defendant is going to say. We are trying to get justice for the victim."
Following the ruling, Geiger's family was emotional. They said they had come to the hearing hoping for justice, but that could never bring back their Kenny.
This ruling likely means that Miller will spend the rest of his life in jail.
