Convicted killer to serve 30 years in addition to death penalty

JACKSON, Tenn. — Urshawn Miller will serve 30 years in additional to facing the death penalty after a jury found him guilty in March of killing a gas station clerk during an attempted robbery.

“The state asserts that the defendant is a dangerous offender whose behavior indicates little or no regard for human life, no hesitation about committing a crime when the risk to human life is high,” District Attorney General Jody Pickens said in court.

Urshawn Miller was convicted of killing Bull Market gas station clerk Ahmad Dhalai after a jury trial earlier this year. Dhalai was shot and killed during an attempted robbery while working as a clerk at Bull Market on Hollywood Drive in November 2015.

Miller was sentenced to the death penalty after his trial, but returned to court today for sentencing on seven additional charges stemming from Dhalai’s murder.

“The jury also found him guilty on several other counts of this indictments,” Judge Don Allen said.

Miller’s sentencing hearing Monday was scheduled for attempted especially aggravated robbery, attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault, employing a firearm during the attempt to commit a dangerous felony, resisting arrest and evading arrest.

After an hour-long hearing, Allen sentenced Miller to serve another 30 years in addition to the death penalty he is already facing. Those 30 years will be served at the same time as his death penalty sentence.

Miller’s attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial. The hearing is scheduled for July 30. Miller’s attorney George Googe says they also plan to appeal Miller’s sentence.

“It will first be presented to the court and the court can look at it and determine if a fair trial was had in his opinion, then it would go to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Tennessee, then to the Tennessee Supreme Court,” Googe said.