State rests in court in Abilene’s father and son murder case

Johnny Miller and his son Michael Miller stand trial in Abilene for the murder of their neighbor Aaron Howard.

ABILEN, Texas. The indictment in the 350th District Court of Taylor County settled on the trial of the murders of Johnny and Michael Miller.

Father and son pleaded not guilty to the September 2018 murder of their neighbor Aaron Howard after an altercation in a Don Juan Street alley.

The state called former Abilene City Code Enforcement Officer Josh Mares on Wednesday morning to speak about their meeting with Howard in 2018. Mares testified that at first Howard was calm and cooperative, then his demeanor changed when Mares began referring to the “garbage truck” in the driveway.

Mares said that Howard began to raise his voice and became defensive, saying: [explicative] from my property. If you return, you will be shot without warning.”

A neighbor later identified as Johnny Miller came out and tried to defuse the situation, Mares said. He said he sometimes told Miller that it was best to just walk away.

When Mares returned to investigate the violation, it was resolved, so the case was closed. He later learned that Howard had been charged with threatening a government official.

Abilene Police Department Sergeant. Jordan Brown was called to the podium in the middle of the morning. Although he worked for the department’s Fraud Unit, Brown said he was called to investigate the Howard shooting because he remembers at least three murders that occurred in the city within 48 hours, meaning that other detectives were working on those cases.

Brown said that when he arrived at Don Juan Street, there were several people detained in separate patrol units. After gathering basic facts from the scene, the decision was made to take the Millers back to APD headquarters for an interview.

He said he learned about the video footage of the incident before he left the scene and received permission from Kara Box Montyan to take the video.

Brown was assigned to interview Michael Miller and Frank Shoemaker was assigned to interview Johnny.

“I briefly introduced myself, then left to talk to the supervisor and watched the video again,” he said. “As a detective, you want to know everything you can before you go and talk to someone.”

Michael Miller told Brown that less than a month after Aaron Howard moved into the house next door to the Millers, someone called him code enforcement – “the guy who got shot – Aaron.”

Michael said that about a month after the code call and confrontation with Mares, Howard and Justin Campbell were “fighting back” in their backyard. At the time, according to Michael, Howard threatened a neighbor across the street for calling the police.

Moving on to the September 2018 incident, Michael told Brown that Johnny went out into the alley and found a mattress at their gate.

“My father came back inside and said, ‘Take my gun and take your gun.’

Michael said that as he was heading outside, he heard his father say, “Step back, step back” several times, and then saw Johnny finally draw his gun from its holster. He said he thought “brother” had called the police.

Less than two minutes later, Howard told Campbell to go get the gun. Previous testimony had determined that said weapon had been pawned, so Campbell handed Howard a baseball bat.

“Aaron started threatening my father with this bat,” Michael told Brown. “He kept talking. He came within inches of my father and dropped the bat, so my father fired again and I fired again.”

Both Millers told the police that the first shot was not fired until after Howard had thrown the bat at Johnny.

Later in the interview, Brown asked Michael, “Why didn’t you call the police?”

Michael said because “they already called the police.”

– Why did you shoot? Brown asked.

“I wasn’t sure my father would do it again.”

Michael told Brown that he feared for his father’s safety and said he wasn’t sure if Johnny really hit him the first time, “and I just wanted to end the threat before it escalated again… my dad is 67.” summer man. I didn’t want my father to get hurt.”

After cross-examination by the defense, Brown was acquitted, and the state stood its ground.

The defense will begin its arguments on Wednesday afternoon.

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