Mind of a Serial Killer

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Speaker 7 48 hours.

Speaker 9 We take you there.

Speaker 10 Don was bright, responsible, religious.

Speaker 11 He is like the boy next door.

Speaker 10 Then he snapped. First, his girlfriend mysteriously disappeared.

Speaker 12 Oh my God, he's killed her.

Speaker 13 Denise says, no, Dad, I didn't have anything to do with that.

Speaker 10 Then, one by one, other young women vanished.

Speaker 14 I could never imagine in a million years they could do this.

Speaker 10 Don was the prime suspect.

Speaker 12 I knew that he had to be caught because I knew that he would kill again.

Speaker 10 But the police were powerless.

Speaker 16 We could not put him in jail because we did not have a body to go on.

Speaker 10 Until finally...

Speaker 17 He strangled me with his hands.

Speaker 10 He was caught in the act.

Speaker 16 I drew my weapon and pointed it at his car.

Speaker 10 Aaron Moriarty.

Speaker 18 Do you see anything that was a sign of problems down the road?

Speaker 10 With a rare look inside the mind of a serial killer.

Speaker 19 It's a blinding fire,

Speaker 19 blinds your reason.

Speaker 4 He was an extraordinarily angry individual.

Speaker 10 But now this killer could walk free. unless the victims' families can stop it.

Speaker 21 Why would you even take a chance that that could happen again?

Speaker 10 Bill Lagatuda investigates.

Speaker 22 Last he had precisely the same type of weapon that he used to kill women.

Speaker 4 He's more dangerous today than he was then.

Speaker 10 The killer next door.

Speaker 10 Their names conjure up the dark side of human nature. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killers.

Speaker 26 Their crimes always shock us.

Speaker 10 Their inhumanity enrages us. But can we unlock the mystery of what's in the mind of a serial killer? Are killers born or are they made? Does any killer deserve a second chance at freedom?

Speaker 10 Tough questions the residents of one Midwestern town have been struggling with for years.

Speaker 10 Their fight is to honor the loved ones they lost and to protect all of us.

Speaker 10 We begin with Aaron Moriarty, in a place where things used to make a lot more sense, but then that was before there was a killer next door.

Speaker 10 How well do any of us know anybody else?

Speaker 29 How well do I know you?

Speaker 8 How well do we know each other?

Speaker 30 If you don't know what he's done, you can't tell that by looking at him.

Speaker 30 You see his innocent side.

Speaker 18 Those who grew up with Donald Miller in this quiet, middle-class neighborhood in East Lancy, Michigan, thought they knew him.

Speaker 14 You know, he always was very clean-cut.

Speaker 18 He usually had a nice smile on his face.

Speaker 14 He was very religious at the time, too.

Speaker 14 Could never imagine a million years that he could do this.

Speaker 6 And Christ is forever in me.

Speaker 18 Gene and Elaine Miller saw their son come of age in the mid-1970s. Now, is this when he was a youth minister? Yeah.

Speaker 18 While other teens grew long hair and dabbled in drugs, Don was all two parents could ask for. Did he drink?

Speaker 13 Oh, no.

Speaker 31 No, absolutely. Use drugs?

Speaker 18 No. He seemed like a nice guy.

Speaker 12 Pleasant and accommodating and helpful.

Speaker 8 Good sense of humor.

Speaker 18 Don was a straight arrow college student who played trombone in the Michigan State University marching band.

Speaker 18 Went to church every Sunday.

Speaker 11 He is like the boy next door.

Speaker 18 So you can understand why 19-year-old Martha Sue Young thought Donald Miller was the perfect boy to bring home to her mother, Sue. What could be safer than a boy from the neighborhood?

Speaker 12 And the boy that you go to church with.

Speaker 18 Martha's younger sister, Kay,

Speaker 18 there's Martha. Was 16 years old at the time.
What do you think when you see this picture?

Speaker 20 You know how gorgeous she is. She really is.

Speaker 18 Martha was also at Michigan State, a junior majoring in French, when she became engaged to Don.

Speaker 13 I think Martha was the first girl that he really deeply loved.

Speaker 18 But after only a few weeks, Martha had a change of heart.

Speaker 12 She had broken off the engagement. But he talked her into just being friends.

Speaker 18 Then, just two days later, on New Year's Eve, 1976, Martha suddenly disappeared.

Speaker 12 I awakened with this absolutely horrible sick feeling

Speaker 12 because I hadn't heard her come in. And sure enough, her bed hadn't been slept in.

Speaker 18 She had spent New Year's Eve with Don Miller.

Speaker 12 And another horrible thing flashed through my mind and it was, oh my god, he's killed her.

Speaker 18 Don's story only confirmed that fear.

Speaker 12 He told me that he dropped her off at 2 in the morning and that she had sat down on our front doorstep in this horrible cold. I mean, you know, this made no sense whatsoever.

Speaker 18 Neither did Don's reaction. He wasn't concerned about it.

Speaker 12 There was totally no emotion.

Speaker 18 Did he seem concerned that she had disappeared? Absolutely.

Speaker 13 Absolutely.

Speaker 18 Gene Miller took time off from his job as a systems analyst for the state of Michigan to join his son Don in the search for Martha. Did you at all suspect your son? No, not at all.

Speaker 18 But the East Lansing police did.

Speaker 16 Well, we know that he wasn't telling the truth.

Speaker 18 Investigating Officer Rick Westgate didn't believe Don Miller's story from the start.

Speaker 16 We knew Don Miller knew something about the disappearance of Martha Soo-young.

Speaker 18 But when searches turned up no body, no witnesses, no evidence, the police were only left with their suspicions.

Speaker 16 We could not put him in jail because we did not have a body to go on.

Speaker 21 There was no question in my mind that the police were wasting a lot of time.

Speaker 18 Don's parents hired attorney Tom Bankston.

Speaker 15 The evidence was clear.

Speaker 13 He didn't do it.

Speaker 18 In the meantime, Donald Miller went on with his life.

Speaker 13 This is graduation from university.

Speaker 18 What was his major in?

Speaker 9 Criminal justice.

Speaker 18 And then in October 1977, 10 months after Martha Young disappeared, two hunters stumbled on something strange.

Speaker 18 The clothes clothes that Martha Sue wore the night she disappeared she had a winter jacket with a fur collar on it had the blouse inside the cold socks were inside the pants and the shoes were at the end of the pants but they didn't find Martha they were laid out as if she floated out of the clothes

Speaker 18 obviously that you know she was dead at that point you know after the discovery of Martha Sue's clothing there were no more leads no more clues the case of the missing girl remained unsolved for a year and a half.

Speaker 18 And then in June of 1978, another girl disappeared.

Speaker 16 A little bit older than Martha Sue Young.

Speaker 18 Marita Choquette was 26 years old.

Speaker 16 But if you look at the pictures, maybe looked a little bit like Martha Sue Young with glasses.

Speaker 18 Two weeks later, her mutilated body was found. And on that very same day, another young woman, Wendy Bush, disappeared.

Speaker 16 She was last seen walking on the MSU campus at night with an unidentified white male.

Speaker 18 And then, just two weeks after that, yet another young woman disappeared.

Speaker 8 You just don't think of anything like that happening.

Speaker 18 Margaret and Ken Gusky's 30-year-old daughter, Christine. She was your oldest.
She was our oldest. But this time, there was a possible witness.

Speaker 16 She saw something, but she couldn't recall, and they were going to use hypnosis.

Speaker 9 She reported a male who appeared to be physically attacking the female.

Speaker 16 And was able to come up with a license plate number and composite drawing and the composite drawing matched Don Miller to a T.

Speaker 16 And we could not bring in Don Miller for questioning.

Speaker 18 Why not?

Speaker 16 That is not enough evidence to convict or even arrest or bring somebody in for questioning.

Speaker 18 Did it ever occur to you when you were hearing these news reports of these other girls missing that your son was the killer? No.

Speaker 29 No.

Speaker 13 If that had been the case, I'd have been right to the police immediately.

Speaker 18 There was no physical evidence connecting Don Miller to any of the missing women, so police could only wait until the killer struck again.

Speaker 12 I knew that he had to be caught because I knew that he would

Speaker 12 kill again.

Speaker 18 And then, just two days after Christine Stewart disappeared, Donald Miller is caught in the act.

Speaker 18 Next.

Speaker 20 You know, it's a small town.

Speaker 18 It seemed safe.

Speaker 20 You don't think about murders happening in your town.

Speaker 18 By mid-August of 1978, the city of East Lansing and its police department were facing a crisis.

Speaker 16 The frustration level was beyond what any normal frustration level would be.

Speaker 18 In the last two months, one young woman had been brutally killed. Two others had vanished.

Speaker 16 I think we pinpointed Don Miller to a tea at that time and tried to say, what can we do? How can we do it?

Speaker 18 But there was little Detective Rick Westgate could do without any evidence linking Don Miller to these three cases or to the disappearance of Martha Sue Young more than a year and a half earlier.

Speaker 12 They just ran out of anything to investigate.

Speaker 18 Until one August afternoon, just two days after the last disappearance. Had you ever seen him before? Nope.
When Don Miller walked into this house.

Speaker 17 He looked innocent.

Speaker 18 14-year-old Lisa Gilbert was home alone when Don Miller walked through an unlocked door. No one knows why he picked this house.
How did he find you?

Speaker 17 I don't know.

Speaker 13 I don't have a clue.

Speaker 18 Lisa's 13-year-old brother, Randy, was outside with friends.

Speaker 25 It was at random.

Speaker 33 That's what they finally figured. It was just at random.

Speaker 18 Their stepmother, Donna, was at work when Miller attacked and almost killed Randy and Lisa. Have you two ever talked about it?

Speaker 17 No.

Speaker 4 Not to each other.

Speaker 17 No, not to each other.

Speaker 18 Why not?

Speaker 30 I guess maybe a little denial. I didn't want to know what happened to my sister.

Speaker 13 You know, I.

Speaker 18 It is too painful for Randy.

Speaker 8 I can't talk about it.

Speaker 18 Even 20 years later.

Speaker 30 Can you stop for a minute?

Speaker 11 Sure, of course.

Speaker 18 With Randy out of the room, Lisa describes what Don Miller did to her that day when she was only 14.

Speaker 17 He put his arm around me and had a knife holding at my neck. Then he took me into the master bedroom and told me to face down on the floor.

Speaker 17 He got knee-high stockings and shoved them in my mouth and tied my hands behind my back. And then he sexually assaulted me and proceeded to attempt to murder me.

Speaker 18 When you say attempt to murder you, what do you mean?

Speaker 17 He, first of all, started strangling me with the belt that I had on my shorts, and then that busted, and then he strangled me with his hands. And then that's when I blacked out.

Speaker 18 Randy rejoins the interview and picks up the story.

Speaker 30 I walked into the house. I saw Donald Miller come out of the master bedroom.
Then he walked around, grabbed me from behind, put a knife to my throat.

Speaker 30 We went into my room, and

Speaker 30 then I started feeling him cutting at my neck.

Speaker 30 And he started to strangle me with his bare hands.

Speaker 18 When Randy blacked out, Don Miller began stabbing him again. But meanwhile, downstairs, I heard Randy screaming.
Lisa had regained consciousness.

Speaker 17 So I got up and then just ran right out in the street.

Speaker 18 While a driver stopped to help Lisa, Don Miller was able to get away in his car.

Speaker 18 But the driver saw Miller's license plate, and with that information...

Speaker 16 I drew my weapon and pointed it at his car.

Speaker 18 The police finally had enough to arrest Don Miller.

Speaker 16 Don Miller, in his very quiet tone, said, What's going on? I've just been shopping at Meyers. Why are you doing this to me? What are you charging me with?

Speaker 18 Miller was convicted of rape and attempted murder and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison.

Speaker 16 We finally got Don Miller.

Speaker 18 But authorities still had the murder or disappearance of the other four women dissolved.

Speaker 34 There was no physical evidence to any of the crimes in Don Miller. None.

Speaker 18 Even without the bodies, prosecutor Peter Hauck went ahead and charged Don Miller with the murders of Martha Sue Young and Christine Stewart.

Speaker 34 We met with the families and said, we believe the cases we have are not strong cases. It was the agreement of all involved that we proceeded with the plea bargain.

Speaker 18 It was a highly unusual plea bargain. Donald Miller, who insisted he couldn't remember killing anyone, agreed to work with several psychologists to try and retrieve his memories.

Speaker 18 If successful, he would lead investigators to the missing bodies, but only under these conditions, that Donald Miller would be allowed to plead guilty only to manslaughter charges, and that no additional prison time would be added to his sentence.

Speaker 18 In the end, the families felt they had no other choice.

Speaker 25 We needed to know for sure.

Speaker 12 There is always that hope against hope that they're alive

Speaker 12 if you don't have a body.

Speaker 18 So in July of 1979, I didn't do nothing to him.

Speaker 18 Psychologists tried to help Don Miller remember what he had done.

Speaker 4 We were dealing with two levels of consciousness.

Speaker 18 Dr. Gerald Briskin injected Miller with a sedative called sodium ametol to relax Miller and help him remember his past.

Speaker 15 Now open the door and let's see that other self.

Speaker 27 It took time. She's in the river, isn't she?

Speaker 19 Who's in the river?

Speaker 18 And Perseverance.

Speaker 35 Oh, no, I never did nothing.

Speaker 18 But after several sessions,

Speaker 18 Miller confessed to all four murders.

Speaker 36 Let's start with Marie.

Speaker 4 Did you kill Wendy? It seems so. Just like Martha, huh?

Speaker 15 As agreed. And where did you leave her body?

Speaker 18 Miller then led authorities to nearby wooded areas where they found the three remaining bodies.

Speaker 12 When you know that there is a body,

Speaker 12 then you stop looking for them to one fight walk through the door.

Speaker 16 That finally brought an end.

Speaker 15 At least to looking for her.

Speaker 18 But now, 20 years later, the plea bargain that seemed to make so much sense has come back to haunt the victims' families.

Speaker 18 At 43 years old donald miller could be out of prison in just a few weeks he's more dangerous today i think than he was then when we come back this is the case of the people of the state of michigan versus don gene miller the fight to keep donald miller behind bars

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Speaker 12 he should be locked away for life Although Donald Miller confessed to killing four women, every parole hearing has said exactly exactly the same thing, that he continues to be a threat.

Speaker 27 And even though he's serving 30 to 50 years in prison for rape and attempted murder, he could get out in a few weeks after serving just 20 years.

Speaker 12 It's not a matter of if he will kill again, but when.

Speaker 27 Sue Young, whose daughter Martha was Miller's first victim, is working to pass a bill in Michigan which would keep Donald Miller and serial predators like him locked up in psychiatric facilities after they've served their criminal sentences.

Speaker 12 Please give us a law which will quarantine killers who are due to be released from prison.

Speaker 27 But there's little chance the bill will become law before Donald Miller is due to be released. Prosecutors have found one more way to try and keep Donald Miller behind bars.

Speaker 27 One small discovery that's bringing Miller back to trial here in this courthouse, where, if convicted, he could be given life. What is this tiny new piece of evidence?

Speaker 27 Believe it or not, not, it's a shoelace.

Speaker 24 Well, this is the shoelace measured at 72 inches long.

Speaker 27 It may not seem like a lot.

Speaker 24 Those are the buttons or handles.

Speaker 27 But Eaton County prosecutor Jeff Sauter thinks it's just enough to keep Donald Miller behind bars.

Speaker 24 The nature of it's been changed. It's now configured as a weapon.

Speaker 27 The shoelace was confiscated from Miller's cell in 1994 because prison officials thought it could be used as a strangulation device. How would a weapon like that be used?

Speaker 24 I'd take the two handles, run the string through my fingers,

Speaker 24 loop it around once or twice, approach a person from behind. It's a purely offensive weapon.

Speaker 27 So Sauter is charging Miller with possessing a weapon in prison. That's the felony that could keep him there.

Speaker 4 Do you now view this as your last best hope of keeping him in prison for a long time? Yes.

Speaker 39 Yes.

Speaker 8 All right, please.

Speaker 27 But the case might not even get to court. Miller wants it dismissed.

Speaker 36 This is the case of the people of the state of Michigan versus Don Gene Miller.

Speaker 27 And today at a pretrial hearing, he takes the stand for the first time ever and explains the shoelace was not a weapon, but just a drawstring from his winter coat.

Speaker 22 I believe you also indicated that you had taken this out of your winter coat?

Speaker 34 To repair the hem.

Speaker 9 But then when you took it back out of your coat, you tied it back up together.

Speaker 31 I didn't want to lose the buttons. See, they stepped in.

Speaker 36 Yes, sir.

Speaker 27 The judge is not convinced.

Speaker 40 The court is going to deny the motion to dismiss.

Speaker 27 The prosecutors get their chance to take the case to a jury, but they will have to convince that jury that this shoelace is not just a shoelace, but a weapon used to kill.

Speaker 24 I'm looking at Don Miller's history. I know he's killed two women and tried to kill a third

Speaker 24 with an improvised device like that.

Speaker 27 He has a history of strangling people.

Speaker 27 It's that history of strangling people that Prosecutor Sauter wants the jury to hear.

Speaker 8 He's sick.

Speaker 17 He just makes my skin crawl.

Speaker 27 And he wants them to hear it from Lisa Gilbert, the woman Donald Miller attacked 20 years ago.

Speaker 17 He used a belt on me to strangle. He used his hands to strangle.
Not only me, but my brother.

Speaker 21 This is where he's been since he's been arrested.

Speaker 27 Tom Bengston, Miller's attorney, is just as anxious to keep that information out of court.

Speaker 41 The jury would be terribly influenced against Don if that evidence came in and convict him because he's a bad person.

Speaker 27 The judge deals a blow to the prosecution, ruling that Lisa Gilbert will not testify.

Speaker 36 I think there's too much prejudice here to even admit it.

Speaker 27 Not only that, the jury will not be told anything at all about Donald Miller's strangling or his serial killer past.

Speaker 27 So they'll have to make their verdict based on just the facts of the shoelace in the cell. That's correct.
And nothing else. That's correct.

Speaker 15 Is it possible that in this case a shoelace is just a shoelace?

Speaker 24 If you're asking me, do I think that that's something other than a weapon? No. Is it possible the jury will think so?

Speaker 23 Sure.

Speaker 27 So will a shoelace be enough to keep Donald Miller from walking out of prison? His fate and the fight to keep him behind bars hang by a thread.

Speaker 9 Later on 48 Hours.

Speaker 35 No,

Speaker 8 no.

Speaker 8 Next.

Speaker 4 He was an extraordinarily angry individual.

Speaker 19 It's a blinding fire.

Speaker 19 Blinds your reason.

Speaker 10 Inside the mind of a serial killer.

Speaker 20 If you picture somebody who just is about ready to explode.

Speaker 10 Should someone have seen the signs?

Speaker 4 We didn't.

Speaker 10 If you were searching for a serial killer in the making, exactly what would you be searching for?

Speaker 10 Experts in criminal profiling say that there often are warning signs in childhood. These include the destruction of property and cruelty or violence toward other children or to animals.

Speaker 10 Perhaps our most disturbing image of a serial killer is from the movies. Remember Hannibal Lecter?

Speaker 15 He was the brilliant psychopath in Silence of the Lambs. As for the real-life Donald Miller, he can only hope that he doesn't look the part.

Speaker 10 He still has a chance to go free, even though he confessed to killing four young women. Here again is Aaron Moriart.

Speaker 42 Hannibal Lecter is an extraordinary character and people think, wow, isn't that a different kind of monster?

Speaker 43 A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice yandy.

Speaker 42 But the truth is much more mundane. Serial killers look just like anybody else.

Speaker 18 That's what makes Donald Miller's possible release such a concern to psychiatrists like Park Deeds.

Speaker 42 Is that there's nothing so special about serial killers that you can see them coming.

Speaker 18 To look at Miller now, you'd never suspect this slight, soft-spoken man is in fact

Speaker 18 a brutal serial killer. You must have racked your brain over the last 20 years trying to figure out what didn't we do or what should we have done.

Speaker 8 Yeah, an awful lot of that.

Speaker 18 Donald's father, Gene, says he saw nothing in his son's past.

Speaker 13 This is done, I think, in 1962.

Speaker 18 That can explain his more recent behavior.

Speaker 13 If I did, I would tell you, but no, we didn't, you know.

Speaker 18 Both Gene and his wife, Elaine, took parenting seriously.

Speaker 13 We always went to church.

Speaker 18 They raised Donald and his two younger sisters in a very strict Let's take a look at Proverbs 4.

Speaker 18 Very religious home.

Speaker 37 Listen children to a father's instruction and be attentive that you may gain insight.

Speaker 18 Gene describes Don as a model child.

Speaker 13 He only helped around the house. He had a good work ethic and was never unkind to animals or people that I know of.

Speaker 18 But that, says psychologist Gerald Briskin, was exactly the problem.

Speaker 4 He was too good. He was too controlled.
He was an extreme.

Speaker 18 Dr. Briskin says you can learn a lot about Donald Miller.

Speaker 19 Just mostly relax.

Speaker 18 By studying the videotapes he made back in 1979 while Miller was under the influence of sodium ametol.

Speaker 19 It's a blinding fire. It blinds your reason.

Speaker 4 One thing that is, I think, very certain is that he was an extraordinarily angry individual.

Speaker 19 I always try to keep this under control.

Speaker 18 Miller would show one face to the world.

Speaker 18 What kind of personality did he have?

Speaker 9 Very kind.

Speaker 18 While what he called his lower self felt something else.

Speaker 19 Anger. Lower self always feels anger.
It's primitive.

Speaker 4 You know, he talks in terms of the good self and the bad self.

Speaker 19 The other self is

Speaker 19 ruled by pure emotion.

Speaker 4 The evil part are these very, very hateful, rage-like impulses that he's had all of his life.

Speaker 18 Don managed to hide it from nearly everyone, except Martha's younger sister, Kay.

Speaker 20 He would get angry about something and we ended up going 130 miles an hour and driving like crazy.

Speaker 20 To me it wasn't normal. If you picture somebody who just is about ready to explode, you know, who's so angry they want to just do something, you know.
And that's the way he seemed.

Speaker 18 Briskin says he believes Donald Miller was mentally ill.

Speaker 4 You know, that's the lay way of putting it. He's crazy.

Speaker 18 And really didn't remember killing anyone.

Speaker 35 No, I never hit her.

Speaker 35 No.

Speaker 18 Is it possible that Donald Miller was faking it when he claimed he couldn't remember any of this?

Speaker 4 Sure, it's possible.

Speaker 4 That's the enigma, isn't it? Gotta have to be one hell of an actor.

Speaker 18 That's exactly what psychiatrist Park Dietz believes.

Speaker 42 And some people fall for this.

Speaker 18 That Donald Miller is not mentally ill at all. Just acting like he is.

Speaker 19 Sulfur sick.

Speaker 19 Self is sick.

Speaker 18 We asked this nationally known expert on serial killers to review Donald Miller's case.

Speaker 35 And you feel like

Speaker 19 you're in limbo like

Speaker 42 he sold himself to various people as mentally ill.

Speaker 42 This helps him with his family, helps him with his church, helps him with how the public sees him, because people can think, gee, he's a Christian gone sick. That's not true at all.

Speaker 25 He's a bad guy who's conned a lot of people.

Speaker 18 According to Dietz, Miller and most serial killers like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or Jeffrey Dahmer are not insane, but missing a key ingredient from birth.

Speaker 42 What would be genetic is lack of anxiety about killing or lack of empathy, lack of conscience. Those things probably have some genetic basis.

Speaker 18 And while it is not clear how, the killer's early environment also plays a part.

Speaker 42 It's not just born that way. It's take what you're born with, take what your family gives you, what your environment gives you, and decide whether you're going to do it.

Speaker 18 When you look back, do you realize that he was more troubled than you ever realized growing up?

Speaker 15 No, I can't see it.

Speaker 18 But there were signs, clear signs, that Donald was seriously troubled. I have been told that Donald had incestuous relationships.
with at least one of his sisters.

Speaker 19 Well, we were having some sexual foreplay, which we both really didn't like, but we did know that

Speaker 19 sometimes on her request, and sometimes on mine.

Speaker 18 Gene says his wife Elaine told him about the incident only after Donald had been arrested.

Speaker 13 She didn't think it was of any big consequence. Also, she knew that if I heard about it, that I would probably be a little more upset than she was with it.

Speaker 18 Aren't those signs that those parents should have reacted to?

Speaker 42 Those would be good clues, yeah.

Speaker 18 But neither Gene nor Elaine, who declined to speak with 48 hours, sought counseling for their son.

Speaker 42 People don't want to see their children as disturbed. It'd be a mistake to blame the parents for this young man's crimes.
It'd be a mistake to blame anybody but him for his character.

Speaker 18 In fact, not even a professional can accurately predict that a child will grow up to be a killer. In this case, Dr.

Speaker 18 Dietz theorizes that Donald Miller may have accidentally killed Martha Su Young in anger and then continued to kill because he enjoyed it.

Speaker 18 Donald Miller did receive a few years of psychological treatment in prison, raising the question: can he be cured?

Speaker 42 Treatment is excellent and very powerful for genuine mental illness. Treatment for people who are just bad actors

Speaker 25 or have bad character

Speaker 42 is slow and not very successful.

Speaker 42 So the odds of successfully changing what's actually wrong with Donald Miller are slim.

Speaker 10 Just ahead. I've made a loop and I'm pulling each side.
What was Donald Miller doing with that shoelace in his cell?

Speaker 21 It was an innocent device, it was a shoestring.

Speaker 22 Precisely the same type of weapon that he'd used to kill women.

Speaker 10 What the jury decides could help a confessed serial killer go free.

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Speaker 30 Nobody should have to go through life with what we have in our heads and our minds. And that's what will happen if he's released.

Speaker 27 More than 20 years have passed since Donald Miller strangled and nearly killed Randy Gilbert and his sister Lisa.

Speaker 30 Sometimes it sickens me to even think we're at this point.

Speaker 27 Yet today, Randy and his stepmother Donna Irish are revisiting the past.

Speaker 25 I just prayed that he'll be found guilty on these charges.

Speaker 27 Because after 20 years in prison, serial killer Donald Miller is back on trial.

Speaker 27 And without a guilty verdict, the man some experts say cannot be cured could end up back on the streets in just a few weeks.

Speaker 30 I don't know if this is like last chance to keep him in as long as we can, but it is a chance.

Speaker 21 I got it. Don has done his time.

Speaker 23 He should be released.

Speaker 27 Attorney Tom Bankston represented Donald Miller 20 years ago. Do you think that the prosecution have something out for your client?

Speaker 21 It's overly aggressive on the part of some to prosecute this case.

Speaker 27 Overly aggressive, according to Bankston, because this case isn't about serial murder. It's about a shoelace.

Speaker 21 He had used it as a drawstring on his coat in the past. It was an innocent device.

Speaker 23 It was a shoestring.

Speaker 27 The prosecution team says the shoelace was actually a strangulation device found in Miller's prison cell four years ago.

Speaker 22 He had precisely the same type of weapon that he'd used to kill women and attempt to kill a woman.

Speaker 27 And here is why prosecutors believe one shoelace is their last best hope of keeping Donald Miller behind bars.

Speaker 27 If he's found guilty of having a weapon in his cell, that would be his fourth felony conviction.

Speaker 27 Under Michigan law, he would then be considered an habitual offender, and he could get the sentence of life.

Speaker 13 The charges are unfounded, and I think it's very unfair.

Speaker 27 Donald Miller's parents, Gene and Elaine, have come to the courthouse to support their son.

Speaker 15 Why do you think it's unfair?

Speaker 13 Well, because shoelace was sold inside the institution. It was not used in any bad way that I can perceive.

Speaker 9 Was Donald Miller allowed to have the shoelace in his cell and could it be used as a weapon?

Speaker 27 That's what the jury members will decide and the judge has ruled they will make that decision without knowing Miller's history of strangulation and serial killing.

Speaker 27 As far as the jury is concerned, this is just a matter of a shoelace in a jail.

Speaker 18 Routine weapon in prison.

Speaker 25 Do you think the jury will convict on that alone?

Speaker 45 That's the scary part.

Speaker 11 I really don't know.

Speaker 27 And for those who know Donald Miller's past, the stakes are high.

Speaker 24 He's a murderer.

Speaker 11 He's a serial killer.

Speaker 17 I don't feel that he's fit for society. I don't want him hurting anybody else.

Speaker 30 How can a person like that just change?

Speaker 13 People do change. They are productive after they've done murders.
I think he could do well on the outside.

Speaker 27 So, prosecutor Pat Shannon introduces the shoelace without tying it to Miller's criminal past.

Speaker 25 What did you find in the box, if anything?

Speaker 27 Presenting testimony from the prison guard who found the shoelace in Miller's foot locker.

Speaker 40 It went through my mind automatically as a weapon that could be used to strangle someone or seriously hurt them.

Speaker 27 Immediately, Defense Attorney Bengstein attempts to cast doubt that the shoelace could have been a weapon.

Speaker 7 Would you have the jury believe that because the shoelace was tied, that it wasn't authorized anymore?

Speaker 40 It was an altered state, which no longer makes it a shoelace.

Speaker 27 Prosecutors then call on an expert to demonstrate the shoelace's lethal capacity.

Speaker 9 I've made a loop and I'm pulling each side away from one another.

Speaker 27 Bengston fires back with an expert of his own.

Speaker 21 Is the object depicted in these photographs a weapon?

Speaker 24 No, sir, it is not.

Speaker 39 Something of this length, trying to wrap it around a second time would lose all elements of surprise.

Speaker 27 Not surprisingly, the jury never hears from the one person who knows exactly what the shoelace was to be used for.

Speaker 29 Donald Miller.

Speaker 21 It's got to be a weapon

Speaker 21 or other implement. I mean, I got a belt.
I got a tie. I got all kinds of things.
That doesn't translate to it being a weapon. Because if you made that conclusion, then we got the prison store

Speaker 21 selling weapons to inmates. That's crazy.
That's not going on.

Speaker 25 This is a bootlace. This is a weapon.
Remember the testimony and use your common sense.

Speaker 27 The jury's decision might be obvious if it knew Donald Miller's violent past, but it doesn't. And all the uncertainty is taking its toll.

Speaker 13 We're just a bundle of mirrors.

Speaker 36 We'll all stand for the jury.

Speaker 28 The jury's verdict coming up next.

Speaker 11 It's scary.

Speaker 23 It's really scary.

Speaker 9 The jury is out on Donald Miller.

Speaker 13 It's kind of hard to go through all this.

Speaker 27 Could the confessed serial killer soon leave prison a free man?

Speaker 23 It's scary. It's really scary.

Speaker 30 Just trying to hold on until we get that verdict.

Speaker 25 All rise, please.

Speaker 27 After two hours of deliberation, the moment finally arrives.

Speaker 25 Members of the jury, have you agreed upon a verdict?

Speaker 46 We, the jury find guilty

Speaker 45 members of the jury listen to your verdict as recorded

Speaker 45 so do say upon your oaths that you find the defendant guilty say you all members of this jury just wanted to hug the whole jury

Speaker 8 he just was not aware that they could take a shoelace and make this big of an issue out of it But for the jury, do you feel that this was a shoelace or a weapon?

Speaker 15 A weapon.

Speaker 27 It was clearly more than just an innocent shoelace.

Speaker 46 Could it be used as a weapon? Yes, it could be used as a weapon.

Speaker 36 And that's what we went on.

Speaker 27 At this point, you still don't know what his record is.

Speaker 15 No, just a few pictures.

Speaker 8 The judge found out.

Speaker 27 So we filled in some of the details.

Speaker 12 He killed four people? Yes. I almost feel offended.

Speaker 33 We could have set him free without the necessary knowledge to make an informed decision.

Speaker 9 If you had known, wouldn't you have been immediately prejudiced?

Speaker 8 I suppose.

Speaker 8 I suppose.

Speaker 33 But what if he would have

Speaker 33 received his parole in February and in March strangled somebody else?

Speaker 25 This case should have never even came to this point because that man should have been in prison for life anyways.

Speaker 8 But I found this fight.

Speaker 27 A life sentence is exactly what Randy Gilbert and his sister Lisa hoped Donald Miller could finally be facing.

Speaker 17 He does not deserve to be out.

Speaker 27 Now living with her boyfriend in another state, Lisa has stayed away from the courtroom.

Speaker 17 I still have the fear.

Speaker 17 I'm still scared to see him face to face.

Speaker 27 So, six weeks later, she waits by the phone as both sides return for the sentencing.

Speaker 16 This is the day, I think, of

Speaker 16 the past 10, 11 years that I've been living for.

Speaker 27 Judge Nicholas Lambrose can sentence Miller to anything from a slap on the wrist to life in prison.

Speaker 25 The 50th Circuit Court's now in session.

Speaker 21 We're going to ask the judge to consider somewhere in the area of two to five years.

Speaker 27 Miller's attorney, Tom Bengston, asked the judge not to focus on Miller's past.

Speaker 21 I mean they absolutely, Your Honor, ignore the super job that Don Miller's done for the last 20 years while incarcerated. He's tutored his fellow inmates.
He's caused no problems.

Speaker 21 So he's trying to make right of a terrible, terrible situation that he created while he was mentally ill.

Speaker 27 Then, as Bengston goes on to talk about Miller's family, he has the loyal support of his mother and father. It evokes a rare show of emotion.

Speaker 21 And when the time comes for Don's release, the family has resolved to participate further with psychologists who might be able to help Don as he makes the adjustment back to society.

Speaker 36 Thank you very much, Mr. Bankston.

Speaker 9 Prosecutor Jeff Sauter.

Speaker 25 I'm going to ask for at least 40 to 60 years.

Speaker 9 Makes the case for a tough sentence.

Speaker 24 He took their life without mercy. He left their bodies to decompose in remote fields.

Speaker 9 And he reads a letter from Lisa Gilbert.

Speaker 24 Your Honor, we were two innocent teenagers going about their everyday life enjoying their summer.

Speaker 24 Then on August 16th, 1978, at the age of 14, I was sexually assaulted, strangled, and left for dead by Don Miller. My brother Randy at 13 was stabbed, strangled, and left for dead by him.

Speaker 24 My life for the past 20 years has been a roller coaster ride. I don't want Donald Miller to ever get out of of prison because I'm scared he will find me and try to kill me again.

Speaker 24 I don't want to live my life in fear or have him hurt or murder others.

Speaker 36 And finally, Mr. Miller, is there anything you'd like to say to you?

Speaker 27 The last appeal.

Speaker 35 Yes, Your Honor.

Speaker 31 What I did 20 years plus ago,

Speaker 31 I wish I could undo. And I apologize to the families.
I apologize to the surviving victims. I apologize to my parents that are here.
I've been trying to get my life together in a very meaningful way.

Speaker 31 I never knew it would be construed as a weapon. With my education in criminal justice, I would not place something dangerous in my own footlocker.

Speaker 12 Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker 13 Miller. Thank you.

Speaker 27 Now, Judge Lambrose must make his decision.

Speaker 36 There is nothing in your history, Mr. Miller, which gives this court any confidence to expect you are truly reformed and that the public has no more to fear from you.

Speaker 36 Indeed, your latest conviction compels the opposite conclusion. It will be the sentence and judgment of the court, Mr.

Speaker 36 Miller, that you be delivered into the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections, the maximum of which the court in its discretion will now set at 40 years, and the minimum which will be set by this court in its discretion at 20 years.

Speaker 27 It is 20 to 40 years, at least 20 more years, before Donald Miller can even dream of leaving prison.

Speaker 13 We would be in our 80s at the time he got out.

Speaker 27 And with a parole board in control for 20 years after that, there's a chance Donald Miller will not live to see his freedom.

Speaker 18 He's going to be in there for a long, long time.

Speaker 16 Would you be happy if you never have to worry about him again?

Speaker 18 Yes, I would.

Speaker 16 Well, you'd never have to worry about him again.

Speaker 15 You just sit back and you relax the rest of your life.

Speaker 17 20 to 40.

Speaker 17 Life without parole sounds much better, but I'm thankful he got what he got.