A Lancaster County judge has denied a West Lampeter Township convicted murderer’s petition to be released from his life sentence to receive medical care, writing that his claim of receiving inadequate care in state prison “defies logic.”

In his Sept. 4 opinion, Judge Jeffery D. Wright wrote that Randall Scott Shreiner’s claim that state prison cannot provide him the care that he needs and that he should therefore be released into the care of his wife “defies logic” when lifesaving treatment is already available to him there.

Shreiner, formerly of the 1800 block of Conestoga Avenue, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole followed by two to seven years of incarceration after he pleaded guilty in 2015 to criminal homicide and a felony firearms offense for the shooting death of 44-year-old Monica Miller.

An attorney representing the now-68-year-old Shreiner had filed a petition in July to remove him from prison, claiming he was suffering from stage-five chronic kidney disease and that he had less than six months to live. Shreiner’s attorney argued that the care he was receiving in state prison was inadequate.

While state law does give the sentencing court the discretion to “temporarily defer service of the sentence of confinement and temporarily remove the inmate … for placement in a hospital, long-term care nursing facility or hospice care location,” First Assistant District Attorney Travis Anderson argued that Shreiner’s own medical documents showed that his dire medical condition was due to him refusing dialysis treatment, which the documents stated are “necessary for his survival.”

That suggests, Anderson wrote, that Shreiner “has manufactured his own terminal condition by refusing necessary medical treatment.” Additionally, Anderson noted that the medical treatment Shreiner needs is already available to him in the correctional system, and that releasing him posed an unacceptable risk that he could attempt to escape.

Judge Wright agreed with the Commonwealth, writing that while Shreiner’s medical condition is poor, “[his] limited life expectancy appears to be the self-inflicted result of his repeated refusal to accept treatment.”

Additionally, Judge Wright noted that Shreiner’s ongoing risk he poses to the community “is simply undeniable,” noting that he committed a premeditated murder just a decade ago.

“[I]t would shock the conscience of this Court to allow [Shreiner] to be released, essentially unsupervised, to his wife’s home to live out whatever time he has left in peace and comfort when he so gruesomely and heartlessly cut short Ms. Miller’s life and has served only 10 years of his life sentence,” Judge Wright wrote.

Shreiner shot Miller four times outside her Ephrata apartment building during the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 2015. Shreiner had laid in wait for Miller, confronted her and then shot her at close range with a pistol he had purchased the day before.

Miller died at the scene before first responders could arrive.

When police arrested Shreiner the following day he admitted to ambushing and shooting Miller as she tried to flee from him. Shreiner also admitted he did not have a license to carry the weapon.

Ephrata Police Det. Graeme Quinn filed the charges.