SOCASTEE, S.C. (WBTW) — For close to two years, supporters of Mica Miller have been vocally demanding justice. This past Sunday, during a protest, they expressed that the recent federal charges against her estranged husband mark a positive initial step.

“It was overwhelming. Tears of joy,” shared Gina Whittington on Sunday morning, standing outside Mercy Church on Highway 17 Bypass South. “My husband and I were overcome with emotion when we received the news. It’s exactly what we were hoping for.”

Whittington, alongside about a dozen other demonstrators, gathered outside the ministry led by Mica’s estranged husband, John-Paul. They have been consistently protesting there every week, holding up large signs that accuse him of harassment and abuse.

Last Thursday, John-Paul was indicted by the FBI on charges of cyberstalking and making false reports to law enforcement. These charges came following the death of Mica on April 27, 2024, at Lumber River State Park in Robeson County.

Protestor Melissa Pfeiffer emphasized that their group is determined to continue their efforts without slowing down.

“It gave us hope and the will to continue going,” she said of the indictments. “It’s a start, for sure. I think it’s the start to Justice for Mica for sure.”

If convicted, Miller could face up to five years in prison on the cyberstalking charge, two years on the false-statement charge and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 12 in Florence.

The indictment alleges that between Nov. 16, 2022, and April 27, 2024, Miller “used interactive computer services, electronic communications services, electronic communication systems of interstate commerce, and other facilities of interstate and foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that placed Victim 1 in reasonable fear of death and serious bodily injury and caused, attempted to cause, and the course of conduct would be reasonably expected to cause Victim 1 substantial emotional distress.”

Whittington, who once was a member of Miller’s now-defunct Solid Rock Church, met Mica several times.

“I think one of the greatest things we can do in the move is change the law to where no other woman or man suffers the way that she did,” she said.

Miller, 45, was released from his ministerial duties at Solid Rock not long after Mica’s death, also allegedly “used or threatened to use nude videos and photographs” to harass his wife and posted a nude photo of her online without her permission, the indictment said. He also is accused of placing a tracking device on her vehicle and interfering with her finances and other daily activities.

Police reports and personal diaries kept by Mica revealed details of the emotional and psychological abuse she experienced. She planned to divorce John-Paul, filing separation papers the same day of her death.

Recently, state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Murells Inlet, pre-filed a bill that would make coercive control punishable under South Carolina law.

The bill outlines coercive control as:

• Isolating the person from friends, relatives, or other sources of support;
• Depriving the other person of basic necessities;
• Monitoring the person’s communications, movements, daily activities and behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services;
• Frequent name-calling, degrading and demeaning of the other person;
• Threatening to harm or kill the person or a child or relative;
• Threatening to publish private information or make reports of defamatory or false claims to police or authorities;
• Compelling the other person by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct from which the other person has a right to abstain or to abstain from conduct in which the other party has a right to engage; or
• Engaging in reproductive coercion which consists of control over the reproductive autonomy of a person through force, threat of force, or intimidation.

Many have deemed it “Mica’s Law” before it was ever filed.  

“I don’t have any problem with it being named “Mica’s Law”, but I know that there are 100 others out there,” Goldfinch told News13 last week. “I mean, that’s my only thing, is there are a lot of people out there that just didn’t get the publicity that Mica did. Hers got the publicity because there’s just a lot of bad stuff happened around the periphery of that case.”  

Pfeiffer is hopeful lawmakers agree.

“I really hope that people will get out and write their senator and try to help get that pushed along, because we need better laws,” she said.