Robert Miller, 63, of Lima, was sentenced Monday to two years in prison on a charge of inducing panic. In 2019 Miller wrote a letter to his former wife in which he threatened to blow up the Pandora-Gilboa school and to cause harm to an unidentified Catholic priest.
J Swyart | The Lima News
LIMA — Lima resident Robert Miller, who in 2019 wrote a letter to his ex-wife in which he threatened to blow Pandora-Gilboa Elementary School and a Catholic priest to “kingdom come,” was sentenced Monday to two years in prison.
With more than three years of credit time spent in psychiatric hospitals and the Allen County jail it remains to be seen whether or not Miller will spend any additional time behind bars.
Miller, 63, was indicted in June of 2019 on two counts of inducing panic causing the evacuation of a public place or otherwise causing serious public inconvenience or alarm where the public place is a school, a second-degree felony, and a first-degree misdemeanor count of inducing panic by threatening to commit any offense of violence.
In the letter sent to his ex-wife he referenced an unnamed “God damn catholic priest” and stated that “we all will blow that (expletive) elementary school and priest to Kingdom Come,” according to court records.
Miller did not explain why he was upset with the school or the unnamed priest other than to say the priest scares his grandchildren. He reportedly told investigators he did not have any means or real intention to attack the school or anyone else and he was just trying to scare his ex-wife for reasons still unknown.
He told Judge Jeffrey Reed during Monday’s sentencing hearing that he “didn’t mean anything” by the letter and that he never intended to hurt anyone. “I would never do something like that,” Miller said.
Reed called the man’s actions “very serious” and said that he caused “psychological and economic harm” to the Pandora-Gilboa school system and likely caused anxiety for the students there.
Miller, who was described in court on Monday as “homeless,” has been a patient at the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in Toledo since August or September of 2019 after he was found by doctors to be incompetent to stand trial. Mental health experts expressed the belief that Miller’s competency could be restored over time.
In November of last year Miller was re-examined and doctors issued a report to the court stating that the man’s competency and his ability to assist in his own defense had been restored.
In February of this year he entered into an agreement with prosecutors whereby he agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge of inducing panic in exchange for the state’s dismissal of the misdemeanor count.
Reed sentenced Miller to the minimum two years in prison, but acknowledged that the jail time credit for Miller would exceed that sentence.
“The Ohio Department of Corrections may apply the credit and release him immediately, I don’t know,” Reed said.
