Algonquin murder for hire case gets another look
An appellate court wants another judge to take a look at the case of a 48-year-old Algonquin woman who was convicted of soliciting the murder of her estranged husband.
Sherrianne Remsik-Miller was sentenced to 22 years in prison in summer 2010, but filed an appeal saying that her defense attorney at trial was ineffective.
During her trial, Kane County prosecutors said Miller offered a homeless man $30,000 in spring 2008 to kill her husband. The man, who met Miller while she volunteered at an Elgin homeless shelter, went to police and recorded conversations in which Miller told the man to strap explosives to the bottom of her husband’s truck and also discussed the possibility of using a gun.
Miller was convicted after a bench trial in June 2010 before Judge Thomas Mueller.
Before she was sentenced in July 2010, Miller told the judge she wanted more people to testify that she was just angry and would never follow through with the murder, but Mueller rejected this request saying it would be hearsay evidence.
In September 2010, Miller again appeared before Mueller, this time without defense attorney John Paul Carroll, and said she didn’t think Carroll did an effective job.
“The court should have at least asked her a follow-up question,” wrote the appellate court panel.
The appellate court wants the Kane Court to conduct a “preliminary examination into the factual basis” of Miller’s complaint, but only if it is separate from the hearsay matter.
Carroll could not be reached for comment.
No date or timeline has been set for the inquiry to take place.
Miller currently is serving her sentence at the downstate Lincoln Correctional Center and has a projected parole date of May 2027, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.