A Lawrence man charged with strangling his wife testified Friday that he was in the bedroom with her when their children heard her making wheezing noises – a fact he didn’t admit to police last summer despite at least four opportunities.

The reason Martin K. Miller never told police he was in the room, he told jurors, was that he was scared because he failed to recognize that his wife, Mary E. Miller, was having medical problems. He said he heard her make an “outburst of sound” in the night, went to her side to comfort her and went back to sleep after she said she was OK.

The next morning, he testified, he found her dead in their bed.

“I was scared that I had failed Mary. I didn’t call for help in the middle of the night,” he said. “I was afraid I had been negligent, I would be blamed for not calling when I should have. : I just panicked. I just made a really stupid decision to pretend I wasn’t in the room.”

During cross-examination, a prosecutor pointed out that Miller had told his family and police a different story again and again: that he’d been sleeping on a recliner in another room and hadn’t heard a thing.

“You want this jury to believe that what you’re saying is the truth?” Assistant Dist. Atty. Brandon Jones asked.

“Absolutely,” Miller answered.

Testimony ends

Miller, a 46-year-old carpenter and former Christian-school trustee, took the stand Friday in his own defense after a four-day trial that included details of his pornography addiction and extramarital affair.

Martin K. Miller, left, and his mother, Ocoee Miller, leave the courthouse Friday during the lunch hour after Martin MIller took the stand and broke down during questioning. Miller testified that his wife, Mary E. Miller, made an outburst

His defense attorney, Mark Manna, asked Miller why jurors should believe his version of events.

“At this point, they’ve dug up all the embarrassing things they can find on me and put it on public display,” Miller answered. “I don’t have anything else to hide.”

Jurors are scheduled to hear closing arguments Monday morning.

Prosecutors allege Miller killed his wife so he could pursue sexual relationships with other women and collect life insurance. Mary Miller, a former Kansas University librarian, died July 28, 2004, at the couple’s home at 2105 Carolina St.

Police initially said the death appeared natural, but they soon noticed that Miller’s story didn’t fit what his children heard, and he was arrested after a coroner ruled the death a strangulation.

Story changes

Miller initially told detectives and others that he went to bed about 11 p.m., woke up about 2 a.m. with pain in his head and hip, and went to sleep on a recliner. He said he stayed there until about 5:55 a.m., when he awoke and found his wife dead.

But Miller’s 14-year-old daughter, Melodie, told police that about 12:15 a.m., she heard her father walk down the hall and boot up a computer in the room adjacent to her bedroom. An examination of the computer found Internet searches around that time for information about sleep patterns.

Both Melodie Miller and her 12-year-old brother, Matthew, told police they later heard their mother cry out and heard their father comforting her.

The version Miller told jurors Friday was one he acknowledged he hadn’t told anyone except his attorney.

He said he went to bed about 11 p.m., woke up about 12:15 a.m., took some medicine for a migraine and searched the computer because he was curious about his own sleep pattern.

‘Outburst’

He said he then fell asleep on the recliner and woke up some time later – he doesn’t know when – because he had to urinate. He said he went to the bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom, sat down on the toilet, fell asleep, then woke up suddenly.

“I heard Mary make a noise. It was not a noise I had heard before,” he said. “It was an outburst of sound.”

He said he went into the bedroom and saw Mary propped up on her elbow on her left side.

“She appeared to be in some kind of distress,” he said.

He said he put his hand on her shoulder and asked her what was wrong. She took a deep breath as if she hadn’t been able to breathe, he said, and let out a shriek.

He said he told her to calm down and to breathe. Eventually, he said, he asked if she was OK, and she nodded.

“I thought everything was OK,” Miller said, pressing his fist to his lips and breaking into tears on the stand.

Mother testifies

Defense witnesses Friday included Miller’s mother, Ocoee, and a handful of family friends who saw Miller in the days after his wife’s death.

Ocoee Miller said her son was “stunned” and was crying on her shoulder when she saw him on the morning of the death.

“He was like a zombie. He was clearly shocked,” she said.

She said that in the months since the death, her son has said numerous times, “I did not kill her.”

Prosecutors have alleged that Miller showed little emotion and quickly began checking on his wife’s benefits after her death. But Ocoee Miller testified that she taught her son a lesson she learned from her own father, a career military officer.

“At the time of crisis, you take care of business,” she said. “You don’t fall apart when bad things happen.”