[Vision2020] RE: [Vandal]Eric's Life Worth 8 Years

[Tom Hansen]

To allow somebody to be eligible for parole after serving only eight years
after premeditatedly murdering a human being amounts to nothing more than
sweeping Eric McMillan's life under the proverbial rug.

Matthew Wells and James Wells cold-bloodedly, and with premeditation,
murdered Eric McMillan.  These murderers came to Moscow, in possession of a
handgun . . . went to a tavern . . . got into a scuffle (possibly with a UI
athlete) . . . sought out a UI athlete to vent their vengeance . . . found
the apartment of Eric McMillan . . . and murdered him.  For this Matthew and
James Wells are sent to their rooms for eight years.

WHAT A FRIGGIN' JOKE.

One could only hope that our next county prosecutor will be tougher on
crime.


Take care, Vandals (you, too, Moscow).

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
UI '96

"law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and when they
fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block
the flow of social progress."

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

-----Original Message-----
From: vandal-admin at uidaho.edu [mailto:vandal-admin at uidaho.edu] On Behalf Of
Phil Corless
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:21 AM
To: vandal at uidaho.edu
Subject: [Vandal]Eric's Life Worth 8 Years

Brothers sentenced in UI murder
by John Craig, Spokane Spokesman-Review

Two Seattle brothers who shot a University of Idaho football player to 
death in September 2004 were sentenced Friday to at least eight years in 
prison and as many as 20.

The Idaho Board of Corrections will decide whether Matthew R. Wells II, 28, 
and James Wells, 26, will be paroled during the 12-year indeterminate 
portion of the sentences for the second-degree murder of UI cornerback Eric 
McMillan.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson Jr. sought a 10-year fixed term with 
10 to 20 additional years on an indeterminate basis. Still, he said he was 
pleased that 2nd District Judge John Bradbury rejected defense 
recommendations for as little as four years.

Defense attorneys Thomas Whitney and Charles Kovis called for four-year 
fixed sentences and 12-year maximum terms.

Thompson called McMillan's murder "one of the most senseless and 
incomprehensible tragedies Latah County has ever experienced."

More than a year after the Wells brothers knocked on McMillan's Moscow, 
Idaho, apartment door and shot him, Thompson said he still has not heard an 
explanation that makes sense.

He said the killers claimed they wanted to talk to any University of Idaho 
athlete they could find because their nephew, 23-year-old Thomas Riggins of 
Kent, Wash., had been in a fight with University of Idaho football players 
at a nightclub the night before the shooting. The Wells brothers said they 
wanted to prevent future problems for Riggins, who planned to attend nearby 
Washington State University.

Thompson said the Wells brothers told authorities they were driving around 
Moscow looking for any athletic-looking black men when they saw one leaving 
the apartment building where McMillan lived. The brothers, who are also 
black, knocked on McMillan's door and both shot him when he answered.

McMillan died the next day without being able to tell anyone what happened. 
But Thompson said he is confident McMillan was "truly an innocent victim."

Dozens of witnesses confirmed the nightclub fight and identified people who 
participated, but they all said McMillan wasn't involved, Thompson said.

James and Matthew Wells were charged with first-degree murder and 
conspiracy to commit murder. They agreed to plead guilty to second-degree 
murder on Sept. 2, admitting McMillan did nothing to provoke them when they 
forced their way into his apartment.

"It wasn't his fault at all," James Wells said in court. "It was 
straight-up just nervous energy and boom! It happened so fast. Life was 
just changed that fast for everybody."

Matthew Wells said he fired at the same time his brother did, when McMillan 
seemed to move toward them.

"When I saw the young man reach toward my brother, I pulled out my gun and 
I shot," Matthew Wells said. "I didn't even know my brother shot."

The brothers denied they conspired with their nephew, Riggins, to shoot 
McMillan. Riggins was charged with conspiracy in the murder, but Thompson 
dropped the charge for lack of evidence. He said investigators determined 
that Riggins was in Seattle when the murder occurred.

However, several of the killers' relatives and a girlfriend of one of the 
relatives face perjury charges for testimony they gave to a grand jury 
investigating the murder.

After shooting McMillan, the Wells brothers fled in a white BMW and were 
pursued by Whitman County, Wash., sheriff's deputies for four hours. The 
Washington State Patrol finally stopped their vehicle in Vantage, Wash., 
150 miles from Moscow. Neither of the two handguns used in the shooting was 
found.

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