Driver Convicted in Fatal 1980 Crash
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RIVERSIDE — A Riverside County man faces a prison term of 15 years to life for causing a fatal car crash nearly two decades ago that authorities had originally considered to be accidental.
Richard Craig Miller, 44, was convicted of second-degree murder Friday by a Riverside County Superior Court jury and is due to be sentenced Nov. 19.
During the weeklong trial, prosecutor Michele Levine presented evidence that Miller repeatedly rammed a car driven by Alma Nappier until it spun off a dark, two-lane road in 1980. The car flipped and Nappier was thrown to her death.
The two had argued in a Winchester bar, and the defense contended that Miller accidentally struck Nappier’s car with his truck in a mutual game of cat-and-mouse.
The crash had been considered accidental until Miller’s ex-wife related details of the incident in a letter to authorities, who reopened the hit-and-run case.
The ex-wife’s letter also revealed that Miller had failed to register as a sex offender after serving a dozen years in prison for molesting his stepdaughter.
Miller is now serving a seven-year term for failure to register and is being held in the Riverside County Jail.
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