Barnes & Noble child molester sentenced

A 72-year-old registered sex offender was sentenced to 82 years to life in prison Tuesday afternoon for luring a 10-year-old girl into an isolated part of a San Mateo Barnes & Noble store to molest her in 2013, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

In addition to the lengthy prison sentence, Christopher Wendell Miller of San Jose was ordered by Judge Richard Livermore to pay $5,920 in fines as well, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. A jury found Miller guilty in November of kidnapping to commit a lewd act with a child, child molestation, felony indecent exposure and felony child annoyance for sexual purposes.

Miller had found the girl in the children’s reading area of the store at 11 W. Hillsdale Blvd. at about 3 p.m. on June 23, 2013. He exposed himself to her there, ordered her to touch his penis, and then lured her to a secluded section of the store near the bathrooms. In the bathroom area, he exposed himself again and touched the girl over her clothing, prosecutors said.

He asked for her name and address and for her to tell him what times she was normally alone. Miller was arrested the following September for other crimes involving children, including exposing himself to young children in Union City and at a Mountain View Walmart store, prosecutors said.

He was convicted in Santa Clara County that November for indecent exposure and child annoyance charges and sentenced to four years in prison.

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