John-Paul Miller and estranged wife Mica's family reach settlement after her mysterious 'suicide' as her family issues shock plea to parishioners

Pastor John-Paul Miller and the family of his late, estranged wife Mica reached a settlement Monday, in a shocking twist after her suicide captured national attention.

Mica's family had previously called for a more robust investigation into John-Paul and alleged he abused her but now, both parties have reached a truce and are asking protesters to leave the pastor's South Carolina Church. 

'This is over,' John-Paul's lawyer Russell Long said Monday. 'This global agreement is Mica's justice. The next step is the legislative goal. We only ask that you remember Mica as the wonderful, beautiful person that she was.'

Both parties have agreed to end litigation and not file any lawsuits against one another in the future. 

Mica, 30, was found with a gunshot wound in a North Carolina state park on April 27, 2024 with her death deemed a suicide by the Robeson County Sheriff's Department.

Regina Ward, a local attorney who represented Mica's family and hung a giant 'JUSTICE FOR MICA' banner in front of her offices, understood the confusion some of her supporters might be feeling. 

'I know that some of you are going to be disappointed. Whenever you're involved in litigation of this magnitude and this many things to cover, it could take years to go through a court system,' Ward told WBTW. 

Ward said that now, the family and John-Paul will focus on a law banning coercive control abuse.

'We are ready to go to the next chapter,' she said. 'The next chapter is to go and convince our general assembly to take a look at the coercive control law bill. We need that on the agenda ASAP.'

She added that she doesn't 'want to talk about Mr. Miller' anymore and is going to start fundraising on behalf of such a bill, which last stalled in the South Carolina legislature in 2021.

Long, similarly, asked protesters to now leave churchgoers at Market Common alone.

'The Francis family just asked them, through their attorney, to focus their energy on something else. She asked them to focus their energy toward the passing of this coercive control act,' he said. 

'I would ask that they leave churchgoers alone. These poor people are just trying to go to church on Sundays, and they're being harassed and being put in fear.' 

John-Paul Miller now will avoid any civil wrongful death suits connected to his wife's death.

Mica's sister, Sierra Frances, had filed a petition to gain control over her estate but that request has also been withdrawn. 

The terms of the entire settlement, including who will administrate Mica's estate, are confidential.

Mica's suicide captured national attention after John-Paul delivered a sermon announcing her death to his congregants, where he abruptly ended proceedings for the day demanding he not be questioned. 

Dome internet sleuths claimed that he had a hand in her death, with some spotting him wearing the same necklace Mica was wearing when she died. 

But John-Paul insisted he was not with his wife that day when she shot herself at Lumbee River State Park in North Carolina. 

'I was in Charleston with about 100 people from my kids' school,' John-Paul - a popular pastor with a criminal record that includes multiple counts of aggravated assault and battery - told NewsNation. 

'We were all together at the soccer fields that day. Afterwards, after the soccer game, somebody was with me the entire time... somebody that I love more than anything else on planet Earth... was with me. 

'And we went shopping in Charleston. And we got food in Charleston. And there's all the receipts from that throughout the time.' 

In a bizarre claim, John-Paul said his wife would have been in an 'incredibly euphoric attitude' on the day she died - after eerie images showed her smiling while buying a gun hours before she shot herself. 

'Someone sent me screenshots of the Dick’s pawn shop pictures, where she's smiling, which out of the six or seven times that she tried to commit suicide in the past, only one of those times was she depressed,' he continued. 

'The other times, she was very euphoric. And she would wake up and say, "I think I'm supposed to die today."' 

He said that these instances would be triggered by Mica not taking her medications, as he claimed that he warned her family that she would kill herself 'if y'all don't get her her lithium.' 

'I told her friends this, I told everybody,' he said, adding that when he got news of Mica's suicide, his reaction was: 'I told y'all.' 

He also said that when Mica would take her medications, 'we had the greatest marriage you could ever imagine.' 

John-Paul said he did not believe his wife was murdered, a claim backed up by a toxicology report that determined her cause of death was suicide and she had not been drugged. 

After John-Paul's sermon announcing his wife's death, he implied that he had laid with her body in the morgue, sparking concern from some observers. 

But he now claims that he couldn't lay with her because of the position of her body in a coffin, but he did say that he 'hugged her' and 'sat on the floor and just talked to her for a while.' 

The pastor added he then attempted to raise her from the dead, but unsurprisingly his attempts at resurrection did not work. 

John-Paul also admitted that an apology letter he wrote to his wife that emerged after her death was legitimate, in which he said he was sorry for manipulating her including slashing her tires and tracking her movements.

Miller, a popular pastor with a criminal record that includes multiple counts of aggravated assault and battery, attributes his previous silence to 'wisdom and self-control'.

He stated how his intent to uncover the truth behind his wife's death and claiming, 'Mica will have justice.' 

Following a court hearing on June 5, 2024, Mica's family was granted rights to her belongings and called for legislative changes to a domestic violence bill, proposing it be named 'Mica's Law.' 

Authorities have previously stated that John-Paul Miller was not present at the scene of Mica's death and released 911 call recordings together with photos and surveillance footage showing Mica purchasing a gun before traveling to North Carolina the day of her suicide.

Miller has consistently denied any abuse, asserting, 'She has never once been abused as long as she has been married to me.'

The Robeson County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the FBI, has been involved in the investigation.