FAYETTEVILLE -- A Pine Bluff man who admitted he killed a man who he believed had raped a woman he considered his sister was found guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday and sentenced to 36 years in prison.
Steven Maurice Rice, 24, had been charged with accomplice to capital murder, but a jury in Washington County Circuit Court convicted him of the lesser charge in the Aug. 11, 2020, killing of Mario Lamont Miller, 47, of Fayetteville after about 30 minutes of deliberations.
Rice, whose trial began Tuesday, was sentenced to 30 years for the murder charge. He was also convicted of tampering with evidence and sentenced to an additional six years in prison.
Being an accomplice to capital murder is punishable by life without parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors waived the death penalty before the trial.
Keishayla Hill, 24, of Stuttgart, who was also charged with being an accomplice to capital murder and tampering with physical evidence, testified against Rice as part of a plea bargain.
She testified that Miller raped her and she and Rice plotted to kill him.
"I told him to shoot, pop his a**," Hill said she texted Rice as they were riding around with Miller. They were arrested about 10 months later in Pine Bluff.
After Hill testified, Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay stopped the Rice trial and sentenced Hill to 40 years in prison on a reduced charge of accomplice to first-degree murder and six years for tampering with physical evidence. The terms will run concurrently.
THE INTERVIEW
Rice told police he and Hill used a ruse -- Hill promised the victim sex -- to lure Miller to a location where they got in his car. Hill sat in the front seat and Rice, with the gun Hill had provided, sat in the back seat behind Miller. Hill had asked Miller to give Rice a ride and drop him off.
Rice directed Miller to a secluded spot. When Miller stopped the car, Rice put the pistol to the back of Miller's head and pulled the trigger.
Rice and Hill then dumped Miller's body in a wooded area. Rice said Miller was too heavy for the two to put the body in the trunk of the car and they were also interrupted by a woman who lived nearby, so they left it by a driveway.
Rice said the original plan was to burn the car with Miller's body in it to dispose of evidence. They ended up taking the car to Pine Bluff and later selling it.
Hill pawned the pistol in Pine Bluff as well. Police later tracked down the gun, and testing at the crime lab found Miller's blood and DNA on it.
CLOSING ARGUMENTS
Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett told jurors police found no evidence that Miller had raped Hill. The closest they got was Hill saying Miller was aggressive with her during sex.
Lee Short, one of Rice's attorneys, argued Rice was filled with pain, anger and emotion and acted on impulse after Hill told him Miller raped her.
"He truly believes this guy raped his sister," Short told jurors. Short urged jurors to come back with the first-degree murder conviction, the same as Hill's plea bargain, arguing Rice acted on emotion.
Steven Rice