Martin Miller retrial: Pathologist said there is ‘no way’ Miller’s wife died by homicide

Nationally known forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht on Tuesday testified at the retrial of Martin Miller, 56, that there was “no way” Miller’s wife’s 2004 death was a homicide.

Miller is charged with first-degree murder in the July 28, 2004, death of Mary Miller, 46, at the family’s central Lawrence home. On Monday, Douglas County Coroner Erik Mitchell testified that he conducted Mary Miller’s autopsy 11 years ago and concluded the death was a homicide by asphyxiation.

Wecht, a paid expert who says he has conducted more than 19,000 autopsies and has an institute of forensic science and law named after him at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, reviewed the autopsy, testimony and police reports at the defense’s request.

Upon review of the reports, Wecht said he did not believe that evidence of a three-quarter-inch “streak of hemorrhage” inside Mary Miller’s throat, petechiae inside her eyelids, edema foam on her nostril and hemorrhaging inside her scalp was caused by manual strangulation, as Mitchell did.

Pathologist Cyril Wecht, seen in this June 2009 file photo, testified Tuesday in Douglas County District Court that he believes the death of Mary Miller was not the result of a homicide.

“I do not believe there is significant forensic evidence to call this asphyxiation due to homicide,” Wecht said.

First at issue was the lack of exterior injury to Mary Miller’s body. Not a single bruise or laceration was found on the outside of her body, Mitchell and Wecht said.

Wecht said if someone were trying to kill Mary Miller, she would have had a natural instinct to fight her attacker, leaving evidence. Wecht compared the feeling to “being at the bottom of a football pile” or being held under in a swimming pool too long.

“The most horrible feeling for any living being is not being able to breathe,” he said. “If you’re being strangled, you’re going to be fighting and thrashing, and no such injuries are found.”

Even if Mary Miller were asleep at the time someone tried to suffocate her, Wecht said she would have awakened and fought.

“The brain reacts promptly to the lack of oxygen,” Wecht said.

Wecht said another sign of strangulation missing from Mary Miller’s body was that her hyoid bone, which is in the throat, remained intact. Wecht said the hyoid bone is often broken in strangulation deaths.

A third sign, he said, was that Mary Miller’s face was not discolored. Wecht said that in the “overwhelming majority” of suffocation cases, faces turn a bluish color, a process known as cyanosis. Mary Miller’s face was of normal coloring, he said.

Upon cross examination by prosecutor Mark Simpson, Wecht acknowledged that exterior injury, broken hyoid bones and cyanosis are not present in all suffocation deaths. However, defense attorney Ney questioned how many strangulation deaths would have all of those physical signs absent.

“It is very unlikely in manual strangulation that there would be a total absence of all of those physical signs,” Wecht said.


Battle of experts

Wecht suggested that Mary Miller could have died from an allergic reaction to one of the “90-some” herbal remedies that Mitchell had requested be confiscated from the home. Earlier testimony revealed the items were never tested and Mary Miller’s body was not examined for their contents.

However, rebuttal witness Kris Sperry said he did not believe this was the case. Perry, a paid expert for the prosecution, is the state of Georgia’s chief medical examiner,

“There are no anatomic findings that suggest anaphylaxis, there is no history of reactions, and there is no proof she’d ingested anything,” Sperry said.

Wecht said Tuesday that he thought the hemorrhaging inside the throat and scalp were caused after Mary Miller’s death. Wecht said it is not difficult to cause bruising on a “delicate” woman like Mary Miller. According to testimony, she was 5 feet 2 inches and weighed 120 pounds.

“(Hemorrhages are) created by the engorgement of blood,” Wecht said. “If vessels are full, it doesn’t take much. You just break a couple of capillaries.”

Sperry disagreed that a smaller person is easier to bruise than a larger person.

“There’s no basis for that in medicine,” Sperry said.

Wecht said the moving of the body or a medical technician checking her pulse could have caused the throat hemorrhage. The hemorrhages to the interior throat and scalp could also have come from the autopsy itself.

“You’re cutting; the blood vessels are there,” Wecht said, “they don’t go away because someone died.”

Wecht said the fact that Mary Miller’s brain did not swell and that there were no injuries to the top of her head further led him to believe the scalp hemorrhages developed after death. Additionally, Wecht said the petechiae, or dot-like hemorrhages inside her eyelids, could have been caused by a number of medical problems, such as a heart attack or sleep apnea. Sperry emphasized that petechiae are seen in 90 percent of asphyxial deaths.

Finally, Wecht said the edema foam indicates that fluid backed up into the lungs. Wecht said Mary Miller would not have had to have been strangled to have edema foam on her nostril.

Wecht said that “in less than 1 percent of autopsies” that a cause of death is not discernible.

“Sometimes, despite a thorough autopsy, you do not find cause of death,” Wecht said. “Good, competent forensic pathologists are not embarrassed to put ‘unknown.'”

Kansas University professor of neurology Ivan Osorio, who specializes in epilepsy, testified Tuesday afternoon that he “would expect to see” hemorrhages like the ones inside Mary Miller’s neck and scalp in a seizure patient.

“(Seizure) convulsion is like tying a noose around the neck,” Osorio said. “It’s quite likely the injuries are the results of injury sustained during seizure.”

But Sperry said he has “never seen hemorrhages like this in the neck of someone who died of a seizure.” Sperry also said Mary Miller was not diagnosed with epilepsy during her lifeime.

Osorio said that people who die during seizures often die from asphyxia when their breathing muscles tense and do not allow for air to come in. Osorio testified the edema foam found on Mary Miller’s nostril is “almost invariably present” in people who have suffered seizures.

“All the muscles to allow you to swallow are frozen,” Osorio said. “Fluid pools in the nose and the mouth (creating the edema).”

Osorio criticized Mitchell, saying further dissection of Mary Miller’s brain could have given investigators a better idea of whether she had a seizure. Sperry, however, said further dissection was not necessary.

The retrial will continue with closing arguments Wednesday. Reporter Caitlin Doornbos will be tweeting from the courthouse during breaks. Follow her at twitter.com/CaitlinDoornbos.

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