Man gets 36 years in death of Iraq war vet

Man gets 36 years in death of Iraq war vet
November 03, 2011 2:54 PM
LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE
A man was sentenced to 36 years in prison Thursday after admitting his role in the 2010 suffocation death of an Iraq war veteran whose body was stuffed in a child’s toy box and left on a roadside near Colorado Springs.

Peter Steven Miller Jr., 39, was the last of four people to be sentenced in the June 2010 murder of Duane Maasch.

Prosecutors said the 40-year-old was beaten and suffocated with a plastic bag in a dispute over a missing cellular phone and some stolen cash. The Gazette earlier incorrectly reported the killing was over a drug debt.

Miller had faced up to 48 years under a September plea deal.
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