ST. GEORGE — The two defendants charged in the slaying of a Minersville man in 2021 appeared in a Beaver County courtroom for sentencing on in what the judge would describe as an egregious act motivated by “extraordinary” selfishness.

Mike Allen Miller, 27, and Victoria E. Woerth, 30, appeared for sentencing in 5th District Court on 525 West in Beaver City on Monday.

Miller was sentenced on two first-degree felonies — murder and felony discharge of a firearm, along with second-degree felony conspiracy-aggravated murder. Woerth was sentenced on first-degree felony criminal solicitation. Both defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges in August.

District Judge Ann Marie McIff-Allen presided over the sentencing, while the state was represented by Beaver County Attorney Von Christiansen. Miller was represented by Jeanne Campbell, while Woerth was represented by defense attorneys Douglas Terry and Ryan Stout.

Early-morning shooting in Minersville

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2021, officers responded to a shooting reported in the 300 block of West 100 South in Minersville involving 38-year-old Shane Davis, a local man and homeowner who had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.

Officers arrived to find Davis slumped over in the garage of his residence with a wound to his back near the left shoulder area. They also found a blood trail that ran from just inside of the residence, continued along the garage floor and ended where they found the semiconscious victim.

Dying declaration and the investigation that followed 

Davis told authorities he did not shoot himself during what would turn out to be one of the final statements he made just before being loaded into an ambulance and transported to Beaver Valley Hospital. He died shortly after arrival.

Meanwhile, officers searched the immediate area for the firearm, but they were unable to locate the gun at that time, further supporting the victim’s statement that he did not take his own life.

Detectives learned there was an argument that started hours earlier between the victim and another man, identified as Miller, who was found a few blocks away several hours later and was taken into custody during a traffic stop by two Beaver County Sheriff’s deputies.

Miller told deputies he shot the man but said it was in self-defense and was transported to the sheriff’s office for questioning. The defendant’s statements would be brought into question when investigators found no evidence of an immediate threat of serious bodily injury to the defendant present at the time — and Miller himself admitted later there were other options available aside from using deadly force at the time of the shooting.

He was booked into the Beaver County Jail and charged with first-degree murder and has remained in custody since his arrest.

Second suspect emerges 

Investigators soon learned Miller did not act alone, based on a series of messages sent between Miller and a second suspect, Woerth, the victim’s wife. The content of the messages was further outlined by the prosecutor during the sentencing hearing held Monday.

Authorities received information relaying that Woerth, who was married to the shooting victim at the time of his death, was in a relationship with Miller, and was reportedly overheard saying “the only way Mike can marry her is if Shane is dead,” according to arrest documents filed at the time.

Just seconds before the shooting, witnesses said Miller walked down the hall with a gun, which is when the victim pulled his wife, Woerth, to his side, “so she didn’t get killed,” and then Davis was shot. Immediately after, Woerth walked into the kitchen without rendering any aid to her husband.

On Nov. 8, 2021, two months after the slaying, Woerth was arrested and initially charged with aggravated murder and criminal solicitation, both first-degree felonies, as well as conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. All but the solicitation charge were dropped in exchange for a guilty plea.

The state’s case

The prosecutor began by providing background of the victim, saying that Davis, who had many struggles in his life, was a first-time homeowner when in January 2019, he purchased the home in Minersville, Christiansen said.

After marrying the defendant in March 2021, Woerth began telling the victim that she wanted to share ownership of the home, asking on multiple occasions to be added to the title of the property. The victim opposed this for fear he would lose the property if anything ever happened. The prosecutor said this continued to be an issue throughout the six-month marriage that ended with Davis’ death.

A larger issue was that Woerth had insisted on having an open marriage, meaning she’d be permitted to participate in “what she referred to as a polyamorous relationship with another person.”

“And that person was Mike Miller,” the defendant, the prosecutor added.  

In addition to Miller being invited to live in the home, Woerth also allowed up to 10 other people, depending upon the time that they were all together there, to stay in the home. The victim was living in his own home with not only his wife but his wife’s “lover” and many other people, the prosecutor said.

For any reasonable person — that would be a recipe for disaster, he added. 

A video of the proceedings that includes footage of the Beaver County Department of Public Safety provided courtesy of Brittney and Kali Holyoak can be viewed at the top of this report. 

The plot 

It was during this time that Woerth and Miller started sending messages to one another using Snapchat, an application designed to erase the messages as soon as they are viewed, which outlined the various ways to end the victim’s life. One message stated the use of “rat poison, bleach and other certain cleaning chemicals in the right place at the right time goes a long way.”

In one of the last messages, Woerth wrote that she had been contemplating the killing of her husband “for a long time,” and said she’d rather have it “look an accident” as it would be the only way she could keep the house, and told Miller, “Just don’t get caught,” the prosecutor said.

The victim’s call for help 

It was at some point on the night of the shooting that the victim “must have sensed that something was wrong,” the prosecutor said. Davis called a friend asking for help removing all of the people, other than his wife, who were staying in his home. During the call, Woerth was talking on the other line and is heard saying, “I will shoot,” and later she was making comments eluding to everyone getting evicted, Four minutes of that call was played during the hearing.

The friend Davis called that night, who said has been part of the victim’s family for decades, spoke during sentencing, saying, “I was five minutes away when my brother called me for help, and what haunts me the most is I was five minutes too late.”

And now, he said, everything that Davis had built “was demolished in one night.” 

Family members have their day in court 

Many victim impact statements were read during the hearings, including from one family member who said “It has been over two years of what will be a very long line of grieving for me for the death of my older brother,” adding it was the worst grief he had ever felt. 

Within days of “having planned and carried out this murder,” the family member said, Woerth reached out to the Davis family only to ask for money for the funeral, which was “heartless, cold and diabolical.”

One of the victim’s siblings said that when someone that is loved dearly dies at the hands of someone else, “it cuts much deeper,” he said. “I miss everything about him.”

Another relative said that Davis’s biological son, who was 10 years old at the time, “was literally mentally destroyed” when his father was murdered, and the losses continue since the boy’s father will never have a chance to play ball or to teach him how to shave. 

They closed by reading a poem written by Davis’ son about his dad that said, in part:

“He faced life’s battles with courage, and he never backed down. Now I’m living his lessons and wearing his crown. He may be gone from this world, but not from my soul and my heart.” 

The defense 

Woerth’s defense attorney Terry opened by saying that calling the case sad “is an extreme understatement,” and advised the court that his client pleaded guilty to criminal solicitation, not criminal conspiracy to commit murder, nor did she plead guilty to being an accessory to murder, and while the state certainly painted a picture that his client “planted a seed,” and maybe it could even be argued that she cultivated that seed.

“But Mike Miller is the individual that took Shane Davis’s life,” Terry said.

Terry closed by saying he had been a defense attorney for 40 years and has handled many cases involving injury to, and the loss of loved ones, and he said, “And I say this with all sincerity and I know how difficult it is when someone is gone. They’re just not here.”

Miller’s defense attorney said that Miller and the codefendant were in a relationship for more than five years prior to the shooting, and said that while the messages between the two are horrible, those messages “only gives us a snapshot of the toxic relationship,” that was full of manipulation by Woerth, and that in the end, that her client “wished that night had never happened, that he’s punished himself with the thought that he took a great man’s life.”

Miller’s address to the family

Miller told the court that he took the life of “a wonderful man,” one who would “give you the clothes off his back.”

He also said he had been called evil by those in the courtroom, but said he loved the victim, adding that he was destroyed, misled and misunderstood, but he was not evil, and closed by saying, “I’d like to ask for forgiveness, but I don’t deserve it.”

State’s position on sentencing 

As for Woerth, the prosecutor said what became “crystal clear” was that Woerth’s intent was to have sole custody of that $160,000 home that belonged to the victim, by any means possible,  and instead of doing it herself, she had “other people do her dirty work,” and since the incident, the defendant has shown “absolutely no remorse” for the role she played in soliciting her husband’s death.

This was evidenced by an application that was submitted less than six months before sentencing relating to a probate matter involving the victim’s estate.

What the state found in the application, Christiansen said, was that Woerth, while in the custody of the Beaver County Jail, had married another man on May 1 of this year, and the application also indicated that Woerth was listed as the “sole survivor” to the estate. Terry said Monday that his client has waived any claim to the victim’s estate.

The prosecutor said the state was asking for the term recommended by Adult Probation and Parole of three years to life in the Utah State Prison, with the exception that the judge make a recommendation to the Utah State Board of Pardons that Woerth serve the full life sentence, the prosecutor said. 

As for restitution, Christiansen said there is no grave marker at the cemetery that marks where the victim’s remains are located, and he requested that those costs be included and incorporated into the restitution order. 

For Miller, the shooter, the prosecutor said that based on several mitigating factors, the state was recommending a 1-15 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit aggravated murder charge, along with a stipulated sentence on the murder charge of 2-20 years in prison, and five to life on the weapons’ charge. The prosecutor also asked that the sentences run consecutive to one another.

The prosecutor reiterated that the plea bargain allowed for the conviction of murder that would be sentenced according to the manslaughter level, “But the conviction of murder will stand.” 

The judge’s ruling

During Woerth’s sentencing, the judge made the following statement prior to rendering her sentence.

“What is clear to this court is that the defendant Ms. Woerth engaged in despicable conduct that was motivated by extraordinary selfishness. And her part in the loss of Mr. Davis’ life is egregious, and every bit as active as her co-defendant.”

The judge sentenced Woerth to serve three years to life in Utah State Prison, the statutory sentence but would also send a recommendation to the Board of Pardons that they view the case similar to that of other murders, which would have resulted in a term of 15-years to life in prison.

To Miller, Judge Allen said the court rejects any explanations that blame others, including the codefendant, the victim or anyone else, adding, “This was an absolutely intentional act that was despicable and motivated by extreme selfishness.” 

The judge sentenced Miller to serve the terms as agreed to by the parties, adding that all three terms would run consecutive, meaning Miller would serve eight years before being considered for parole.

As for the stipulated sentence, the judge said, “The court does not believe that eight years, or 10 years is an adequate sentence,” as this was a murder case, and should be viewed as such.

While the decision as to how much time Miller spends in prison is up to the parole board, the judge said that she would recommend that he serve 15 years to life in Utah State Prison, since Miller “was the shooter that took a life.”

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