Investigation Discovery / The Arizona Department of Corrections William Craig Miller was sentenced to death in Arizona after being convicted of murdering five people.
Tonight’s episode of The Killer Beside Me on Investigation Discovery takes a look at the case against William Craig Miller who was convicted of killing five people including Tammy Lovell and her boyfriend Steven Duffy in 2006, according to the East Valley Tribune.
According to the episode synopsis for the episode, which is titled “Fatal Fraud,” “In Scottsdale, Arizona, single mom Tammy Lovell pays the ultimate price after she forces her boyfriend to confess to police his role in an insurance fraud scheme. Little does she realize, this good deed will soon cause her family’s destruction.”
Lovell, who was 32 at the time of her death, was in a relationship with 30-year-old Steven Duffy, according to the East Valley Tribune. Miller has been convicted of killing Lovel and Duffy as well as Duffy’s brother, 18-year-old Shane Duffy and Lovell’s children, Cassandra, who was 15, and Jacob, who was 10 years old.
Miller Was Convicted of Fatally Shooting Five People
Miller was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder, the East Valley Tribune reported.
According to the newspaper, Duffy and Lovel both worked for Miller previously, and they were both informants against him in a 2005 arson case. According to authorities, Duffy was enlisted by Miller in the arson, which Miller would use to collect insurance money on his burnt home.
The Daily Mail reported that police believed Miller first tried to hire four different hitmen to carry out the murders of Duffy and Lovel, but when that didn’t work out, he took matters into his own hands.
Soon after the murders, according to Monsters and Critics, Miller wanted to throw police off his track. He faked a robbery at his own home and tried to make it look like the same people who murdered Lovell and Duffy had robbed his home. Instead of that, though, police found evidence that linked him to the massacre while searching his home.
The same site reported that Miller pleaded guilty to fraud and arson charges against him and was sentenced to 16 years in prison for those crimes. He was serving that time when he was tried for the murders.
Miller Was Sentenced To Death For the Murders
According to the East Valley Tribune, Miller was sentenced to death by a jury, joining the other 127 inmates that were on death row in Arizona at that time. Miller’s attorneys reportedly argued that he suffered from diagnosed bipolar disorder and should be spared the death penalty. Jurors deliberated for just six hours before announcing their decision to sentence Miller to death.
“While today’s jury verdict cannot bring back the lives taken by the hand of William Craig Miller, it does declare that those who take innocent life will pay the ultimate price,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement, according to the East Valley Tribune. “The challenge for our justice system now is to carry out this punishment without unnecessary or undue delay.”
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Miller is currently on Death Row at the Browning Unit of the Eyman Complex in Florence, Arizona.
READ NEXT: Blaeke Wolfe and Devin Stringfield Sentenced To Life Without Parole