By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A Fort Smith man sentenced to die for killing his girlfriend and her two children over the Christmas holiday in 2006 will get a new sentencing hearing.

The Arkansas Supreme Court today upheld James Aaron Miller’s conviction on three counts of capital murder but overturned his death sentence, ruling that errors occurred during the sentencing phase of Miller’s trial when witnesses told jurors they should impose the death penalty.

Miller was convicted of killing Bridgette Barr, 26, and her daughter and son, Sydney Barr, 5, and Garrett Barr, 2. Fort Smith police discovered the victims’ bodies in the apartment Miller and his girlfriend shared on Dec. 26, 2006, after Miller’s father called from Colorado to report he was afraid his son might harm himself.

Police and emergency medical personnel went to the apartment and determined Miller was physically OK but decided he should go to a hospital. Miller gave police a key to the apartment so they could lock up, and officers subsequently found the bodies.

Medical examiners determined that Bridgette Barr and her daughter died Dec. 22 or 23. Bridgette Barr was strangled and her daughter was stabbed in the neck and suffocated.

The boy’s time of death was unknown because his body had been placed in a hot kitchen oven after his death from suffocation.

Miller lived in the apartment with the bodies for several days, authorities said.

Miller, now 33, argued on appeal that his right to a fair trail was violated when two relatives of the victims testified during the sentencing phase that he deserved the death penalty. The state admitted that the testimony should not have been allowed but argued that it did not affect the outcome.

The Supreme Court said today it was impossible to determine whether the outcome was affected.

“On the record before us, we cannot say that the jury would have imposed the death sentence absent the request from the victims’ family members to do so,” Justice Donald Corbin wrote in the court’s opinion.

The court rejected Miller’s argument that his conviction should be overturned because Fort Smith police found the bodies during an illegal search of the apartment.

Miller told the officers who came to his door that he and his girlfriend had been fighting, and the officers saw blood on the door, smelled a foul odor and saw photos of two children, so it was reasonable for them to enter the apartment to ensure no one was in danger, the court said in the opinion.

The court also rejected Miller’s argument that potential jurors who wrote on a questionnaire that they did not believe in the death penalty should not have been removed from the jury pool without an opportunity for the defense to ask them additional questions.

Arkansas law allows circuit courts to use written questionnaires, and it is within the trial court’s discretion whether to allow counsel to ask additional questions, the Supreme Court said in its opinion.

In a separate opinion, Chief Justice Jim Hannah said he concurred with the majority’s decision to order a new sentencing hearing but disagreed with the conclusion that exigent circumstances gave police reasonable cause to enter the apartment without a warrant.

Despite the presence of photos of two children, officers heard no sounds indicating children were present, and there was no reason they could not have remained at the apartment and waited for a proper warrant, Hannah said. Exigent circumstances are circumstances requiring immediate action, he said.

Hannah said officers did have authority to enter the apartment, but only because Miller gave them his key to lock up, which implied consent to check that all was well before locking the door.

“The majority misinterprets the law, and as a consequence of that error, improperly broadens the application of exigent circumstances,” Hannah wrote.