FORT SMITH — A prosecutor said Tuesday that James Aaron Miller deserves the death penalty for strangling his girlfriend and her two children, but the convicted killer’s attorneys asked jurors for a life sentence instead.
Attorneys made their opening statements in Sebastian County Circuit Court in the resentencing trial of Miller. He was convicted of three counts of capital murder in April 2008 for the December 2006 deaths of Bridgette Barr, 28, and her children Sydney, 5, and Garrett, 2.
Police said Miller strangled Barr in front of the kids and later tried to cremate Garrett’s body in the kitchen oven.
Miller, 35, was led into the courtroom Tuesday morning dressed in khaki slacks and a tan sweater that hung on his thin frame. He kept his gaze downward and walked with a slight limp across the courtroom to his seat between his attorneys, Dale Adams and James Wyatt.
Miller was sentenced to death in his first trial, but the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered him resentenced after ruling that Judge James O. Cox erred by allowing Barr’s relatives to tell jurors as part of their victim-impact statements they thought Miller should get the death penalty.
In his opening statement Tuesday, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue said Miller did not have the presumption of innocence that he had in his first trial because his murder convictions were upheld.
He said jurors must decide on whether several aggravating circumstances were part of Miller’s crimes:
That he previously committed a felony. Shue said Miller was convicted of aggravated assault on a household member in 1998.
That he caused more than one death.
That the murders were committed in an especially cruel and depraved manner, causing mental anguish for the victims and showing indifference to their deaths.
That he acted against victims he knew to be vulnerable to attack.
That the aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances.
That the aggravating circumstances justified the death penalty.
In his opening statement, Wyatt said Miller had brain damage that limited how far he could advance in school and life. He said Miller began exhibiting bizarre behavior in his teen years and could not live a normal life.
Wyatt said the perfect storm of conditions came together around Christmas 2006, when Miller lost his job, his support and his mind.
Defense attorneys in the 2008 trial tired to show that Miller was mentally incompetent and that the death penalty was not justified.
Wyatt also said sentencing Miller to death would not bring back Barr and her children.
He said he would ask at the end of the trial for jurors to allow Miller to die in prison rather than be executed.
Shue told jurors that Fort Smith police were dispatched to an apartment complex at 8809 South 28th St. on Dec. 26 to check on Miller’s welfare after receiving a call from his parents in Colorado.
He said Miller had been sending text messages to his parents and they feared he might harm himself.
When officers arrived, they talked to Miller and were about to take him to the hospital. But before leaving, an officer sawphotos of Barr and the children and decided to check to see if anyone else was in the apartment. When he saw what later turned out to be Barr’s foot sticking out from under a blanket in a bedroom, the officer asked Miller about it, and Miller admitted killing her.
Miller later confessed to strangling all three people, Shue said. He said he believed Miller strangled Barr in view of the children and he killed them possibly as long as a day later. Shue said Miller began “huffing” paint after the murders. He continued to inhale the fumes for days until he ran out of paint.
Sydney’s body was found next to her mother’s under the blanket, while Garrett’s body was found in a bathtub. The body had burns on it, and Miller admitted to attempting to cremate the boy’s body in the kitchen’s oven.
Shue said neighbors of the adjoining apartment would testify they heard a moaning sound on Dec. 22, and a strong odor began wafting into their apartment the next day.
The trial is expected to last all week.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/23/2011