Martin Miller retrial: Daughter heard deceased screaming on morning of incident

The daughter of a 56-year-old former Lawrence carpenter and Christian school leader charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife testified at her father’s retrial Wednesday that she heard her mother screaming the morning her mother died.

A Douglas County jury convicted Miller in 2005 of first-degree murder in the July 28, 2004, death of Mary E. Miller, 46, at the family’s central Lawrence home. The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled in February 2014 that Miller should get a new trial based on errors in the jury instructions during his initial trial.

Martin K. Miller

On Wednesday, prosecutor Mark Simpson argued that Martin Miller strangled Mary Miller in their bed because he was engaged in a four-year affair with former Eudora resident Carrie Parbs. The state argues that Miller wanted a divorce, but that “was not an option” due to his religion, so he chose to kill Mary Miller. Simpson told jurors that Parbs is expected to testify.

Miller’s attorney, Richard Ney, said that he will argue that Mary Miller’s death was not a homicide. Ney said that jurors will hear from expert doctors, including pathologist Cyril Wecht, who will testify that Mary Miller’s death was likely of natural causes.

In Miller’s first trial, Lawrence Police Det. Scott Slifer testified he found more than 700 pornographic photos and 291 pornographic videos on Miller’s computer. Miller admitted to a pornography addiction, saying it led him to participate in an online adult-dating service and to his eventual extramarital affair with Parbs that included role-playing, bondage, spanking and explicit photographs. Jurors saw six sexual photographs of Miller and his mistress.

In February, Ney argued that evidence should not be admissible at Miller’s retrial because jurors cannot find that a homicide occurred based on Miller’s sexual escapades. Ney said the pornography was irrelevant to the case, but Simpson said it supported the state’s motive theory. District Judge Paula Martin ultimately ruled that pornography could not be shown at trial.

Melodie Ozorkiewicz, who took the last name of the family with whom she lived after Mary Miller’s death and Martin Miller’s original conviction, testified Wednesday afternoon that during the early morning hours of July 28, 2004, she woke up to the sound of her mother screaming in her parents’ bedroom.

“I thought she was having a nightmare,” Ozorkiewicz said. “She was saying, “No, please, don’t, no.”

Ozorkiewicz said the noises frightened her because her mother sounded scared, but relaxed when she heard her father tell her mother, “Shh, calm down. It’s going to be all right.”

“I heard my dad back there and figured he was taking care of it,” Ozorkiewicz said.

Ozorkiewicz said she fell asleep after “minutes” of listening to the disturbance. Around 6 a.m., she would wake up again, this time to police in her home and sirens outside. She then ran to her parents room, where she found her mother lifeless.

“I saw my mom on the bed and my dad on the side (of the room) and my dad said, ‘I don’t think she’s alive,’ and I started crying,” Ozorkiewicz said.

Ozorkiewicz then asked her father if he had heard the screaming earlier that morning. Ozorkiewicz said her brother had heard them, but that her father “looked surprised” at the children’s claims.

Lawrence Police Officer James Welsh testified that he overheard the conversation between Miller and his daughter. Welsh said the conversation caused suspicion, and he quickly separated the family members for individual questioning.

Former Lawrence investigator and current Douglas County Undersheriff James Martin, who responded to investigate the scene in 2004, also testified Wednesday afternoon. James Martin said that Miller’s conversation with Melodie Miller “gave us reason for concern,” so he contacted the coroner’s office “in case this was something more than a natural death.”

During his testimony, James Martin used the term “crime scene investigation” and referred to Mary Miller as “the victim.” Ney objected to both terms, and James Martin began using the terms “death investigation” and “deceased individual.”

The following day, Ozorkiewicz said, after everyone had been interviewed, Miller called a “family meeting” in his carpentry shop. There, Ozorkiewicz said her father told them “there were three possible ways that this could go down.”

The first way, Ozorkiewicz said, was that police would say Mary Miller died of natural causes. Second, that “someone had broken in and killed her.” Third, that Miller had killed her.

Ozorkiewicz said her father told them “the third option is most likely because they wanted the easy way, they wanted someone to blame it on.” Ozorkiewicz also said Miller told them that “since we had heard screaming and said he was back there, that increased the likelihood of the police saying that he killed her.”

Ozorkiewicz did not finish her testimony by the end of Wednesday’s court proceedings. Testimony will continue Thursday. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Reporter Caitlin Doornbos will be tweeting from the courthouse throughout the retrial. Follow her at www.twitter.com/CaitlinDoornbos.