Defendant to testify; mistress takes stand

The carpenter and former Christian-school leader charged with strangling his wife is expected to take the stand today in his own defense.

After three days of testimony, prosecutors on Thursday rested their first-degree murder case against 46-year-old Martin K. Miller. Late Thursday afternoon defense attorney Mark Manna called his first witness, and Miller is expected to testify this afternoon to tell jurors his version of what happened in his bedroom the night his wife, Mary E. Miller, died.

His version is that the couple’s children heard her scream because she was having a bad dream, not because she was being strangled.

“He and Mary were the only ones in the bedroom that night,” said Manna, who has tried to argue that the death could have been natural. “The only other witnesses in that room was Marty, and he has to testify.”

Miller, former board president of Veritas Christian School, is charged with killing Mary Miller last July 28 at their home at 2105 Carolina St. as their children slept in nearby rooms. Prosecutors allege he wanted to be free to pursue other women but didn’t want to get a divorce for religious reasons.

‘Bible studies’

Much of the last day of the state’s case was taken up by testimony from Miller’s mistress, Eudora resident Carrie Parbs. She described the commitments Miller made to her, including slipping a silver ring on her finger at a ceremony in 2002, and described the couple’s use of Bible studies as a pretext for their sexual encounters.

Parbs said she met Miller on an adult Internet site, where he used the name “Kennyisfun.” They got together for what they thought would be a one-night stand, she said, but eventually became romantically involved.

In December 2001, she moved from Roeland Park to Eudora so it would be easier to meet with Miller. The two went as far as getting a false Eudora phone listing for her under the name “Fred and Randi Peters,” she said.

Parbs testified the couple got together on Saturdays under the guise that Miller was having a Bible study with Fred Peters. They occasionally would study the Bible.

“Marty taught me a lot about being in touch with the Lord,” she said.

Then, they would engage in sexual activity that included role-playing, bondage, spanking and taking photographs.

“Mary and I were so different. He felt like he had found in me what he had been looking for,” Parbs said. “Things like outward affection, affirmation of the things he did : being more adventurous.”

Divorce plans

Parbs testified that she and Miller often went on out-of-town trips on the pretext that Miller was going to woodworking conferences or other events. In 2002, they had a “commitment ceremony” and exchanged rings during a camping trip.

Parbs testified that Miller often told her he planned to divorce his wife. At one point, he said it would happen as soon as he refinanced his home. But after he refinanced, he told her it wouldn’t occur until their junior-high-age children were grown up.

“I thought he was trying to break up with me,” Parbs testified.

But the affair continued up until Mary Miller’s death. Earlier in July 2004, Parbs and Martin Miller got a Jacuzzi suite in St. Joseph, Mo., to celebrate the two-year anniversary of their commitment.

“He told (his family) that Fred and Randi Peters were moving and that they’d asked for his help,” Parbs testified.

Lawrence Police Det. Scott Slifer testified he found more than 700 pornographic photos and 291 pornographic videos on Miller’s computer that were concealed using a software program that hid the folders from the average user’s eye.

He also testified about finding Miller’s profile on three online dating services. On the sites, he put his marital status as “Involved, sort of,” “Single” and “Ask me later.”

Parbs was at the Millers’ home as late as the day before Mary Miller’s death. As Miller’s wife and children were at Vacation Bible School, she said, she was at the home helping Martin Miller plan a water garden.

“It made me feel like we were planning our future,” she wrote to him in an e-mail afterward.

Parbs testified that on the morning of Mary Miller’s death, Martin Miller wrote her an e-mail that said: “Mary died last night in her sleep. Don’t know why. mkm.”

A few months after Mary Miller’s death, Parbs said, she learned that Martin Miller had gone before a local Evangelical council to confess he’d had an affair and to say his relationship with Parbs had been “severed.”

Dismissal denied

At the end of the state’s case, defense attorney Manna stood and said the charge against his client should be dismissed for lack of evidence – a standard step by defense attorneys in felony trials. Judge Paula Martin denied the motion, saying there was enough evidence to let jurors decide.

Manna’s first witness was Laura Cuthbertson, a Lawrence woman who met the Millers through Victory Bible Church. Cuthbertson said she began visiting Martin Miller to support him after his wife’s death, and said she also helped comfort Parbs and “purge” her apartment of items related to Martin Miller.

In fall 2004, Cuthbertson told Parbs that she and Miller loved each other. Prosecutors – who had previously called Cuthbertson as a witness – allege that’s evidence Miller has moved into a new romantic relationship.

Manna called Cuthbertson to the stand again to clarify the relationship. She testified her relationship with Miller was not sexual, and she wasn’t sure if it was romantic.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know my own heart yet.”