A man killed his friend, stole a truck, chopped up the dead man and stored his body parts in a cooler in his trunk. 

Later in court, he said he had a “good reason,” for killing the man. 

Eric John Holland, 58, was arrested in Las Vegas in December 2021 after being found with the severed head and body of his friend, Richard Miller, 65, in his trunk. 

He has been sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and a maximum of 45 year in prison. He avoided life imprisonment by agreeing to a plea deal.

In court, with Miller’s family present, Holland said he was sorry about killing his friend, but that they had a history that should be investigated by police further, so that police would understand why he killed his friend, a explanation, he felt, that would give closure to the family. He declined to elaborate in the courtroom, due to the sensitive nature of the information which might be offensive to the family present.

Miller’s daughter, Amanda Dawn Potter, was in the courtroom, but she was not consoled by the apology. 

Holland was interviewed in prison by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and he revealed how the murder happened. During an argument, Holland said that Miller threatened to kill him and they both were armed. In the past, Holland had accused Miller of killing his own ex-wife, Jing Me Zhu, who had disappeared. Holland believed that Miller was responsible for her disappearance, even though Miller insisted that she had returned to China after they were divorced in 2019. Holland said that he killed Miller during their argument because of his belief that Miller had killed his wife. 

Miller’s daughter, Potter, said she already knew about Holland’s accusations that her father killed his wife, but she didn’t believe him. 

“I don’t really trust anything that comes out of that guy’s mouth,” Potter said.