Martin Miller waits for the fifth day of his retrial to begin on Friday, April 3, 2015 in Judge Paula Martin's courtroom at the Douglas County Courthouse. Miller is charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his wife, Mary Miller. Miller was awarded a new trial in 2014 because of an erroneous jury instruction.

Jurors on Wednesday found a Lawrence man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his wife, nearly a decade after he was convicted of the crime in a previous trial.

Martin K. Miller, 56, was charged with first-degree murder in the July 28, 2004, death of Mary Miller, 46, at the family’s central Lawrence home. Miller was convicted of the charge during his first trial in 2005, but the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in February 2014 that he should get a new trial based on an erroneous jury instruction.

The retrial ended Wednesday when jurors returned with a verdict almost five hours after closing arguments.

When the verdict was announced, several spectators sitting with Miller’s children on the prosecution’s side of the courtroom cried with apparent relief. Others just stared ahead.

On the other side of the courtroom, Miller’s wife, Laura Cuthberson Miller, sat behind her husband. She told defense attorney Richard Ney that he “did the best (he) could.”

Mary Miller

In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Mark Simpson argued that Miller strangled his wife in her sleep sometime before 6 a.m. July 28, 2004. Simpson said that evidence of the defendant’s unhappiness in his marriage and his desire to be with his mistress gave Miller the motive to kill Mary Miller.

“He just doesn’t want to be with Mary Miller anymore,” Simpson said.

Ney said that jurors could not consider motive to decide whether Mary Miller’s death was a homicide.

“We don’t convict people of murder based on the fact that he may not have been a good husband,” Ney said.

Still, Simpson said, “you can consider motive to explain the defendant’s actions.”

Simpson pointed to Miller’s actions after his wife’s death as suspicious. Testimony from investigators, Miller’s children and Miller’s former mistress last week revealed Miller denied being in the room with Mary Miller on the morning of her death.

Miller’s children, who were 11 and 14 years old at the time of their mother’s death, testified last week that they heard their father’s voice in their parents’ bedroom that night while their mother appeared to be under duress.

“If the defendant didn’t kill his wife, why on earth did he tell his daughter he was not in the room?” Simpson said. “Could it be because he knew exactly what he did in that room?”

Ney argued that jurors could not find Miller guilty because Mary Miller did not die by homicide. Expert doctors testified Tuesday that Mary Miller’s autopsy revealed no exterior signs of injury or “defensive wounds” to suggest she was strangled or struggled with an attacker.

“Unless you find that this was a homicide, none of the rest of this matters,” Ney said.

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. Mitchell testified that bruising on the inside of Mary Miller’s neck and scalp, edema foam seeping from her nostril and petechiae inside her eyelids were “consistent with strangulation.”

Ney highlighted for jurors Friday that it took Mitchell “more than a month” to rule the death a homicide and that was only after Mitchell consulted investigators. Ney asked Mitchell if he, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, could look at just the medical evidence and say that it was a death by strangulation, and Mitchell said he could not.

“He based his scientific opinion on police input,” Ney said. “Manner of death is one thing, but the medical opinion? You don’t base that on what the police said.”

After Miller was found guilty, District Judge Paula Martin revoked his $250,000 bond, remanding him back into custody. He had been out on bond since April 9, 2014.

After a court security deputy placed handcuffs around Miller’s wrists, he leaned over to embrace and kiss his wife. He was then taken to a holding cell to be transported to the Douglas County Jail. He is scheduled for sentencing on May 20. His original sentence was 25 years to life.

Cuthberson Miller said she continues to have faith in her husband’s innocence.

“We’ve been down this road before,” Cuthberson Miller said. “God’s got it.”

More coverage

• Jury selection begins in retrial of Lawrence man once convicted of murder

• Still no jury after second day of voir dire

• Daughter heard deceased screaming on morning of incident

• Children recall morning of mother’s death; detective says Miller admitted to affair

• Former mistress testifies about four-year affair

• Coroner testifies about Mary Miller’s interior bruising, cause of death

• Pathologist said there is ‘no way’ Miller’s wife died by homicide