Tiller Shooter Pleads Guilty To Murder

The man charged with shooting Samuel Tiller during a November 2007 burglary of the victim's home pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder.

Joseph Paul Graham, 19, also pleaded guilty to armed burglary of a dwelling in reference to the Tiller case. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The state had previously filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Graham, but abandoned that notice in light of Friday's plea agreement.

Additionally, he entered guilty pleas in three separate cases to charges of burglary of a dwelling and two counts of grand theft. Graham also pleaded no contest to robbery with a firearm and burglary of a dwelling while armed with a firearm.

On Nov. 24, 2007, Graham, along with Gerald Sanders and Nicholas Mezie, broke into the home of Samuel Tiller, 82.

The victim surprised the suspects and Graham shot him in the back of the head.

"I made the biggest mistake of my life," Graham, a British citizen, said during Friday's court appearance. "I'm not going to sit here and lie and say I didn't do the things, but I was trying to be somebody that I wasn't."

Mezie and Sanders previously entered pleas of no contest to charges of second-degree murder and armed burglary. They were sentenced to 25 and 35 years, respectively.

Both co-defendants previously told court members they had chosen the Tiller home because it was dark. After breaking out a window, they drove around the corner, came back and discovered the house still had no lights on.

Mezie and Sanders entered the home through the broken window and went to let Graham in through the front door. Eventually, Tiller surprised the three after hearing the commotion.

"I heard a gunshot," Mezie previously testified. "I didn't know who shot or anything and then I just ran out the front door."

Mezie also testified that Graham later told them, "He shot and killed Mr. Tiller on accident."

"There is no evidence that would exonerate the defendant," Assistant State Attorney Steve Houchin said at Graham's Friday hearing.

Defense attorney Stephen Fisher said his client waived his right to a pre-sentence investigation and was ready for sentencing. Judge Peter Estrada then adjudicated Graham guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

"It is never, never justified to take another human life," Estrada told Graham. "To quote Tom Brokaw, America's greatest generation ... you took one of them."