Miller's siblings testify

Last week, Daniel Shockley Miller's parents testified against their son athis capital murder trial.

On Monday, it was his brother's and sister's turn.

"I can overlook a lot of things that Daniel has done, but murder is notone of them," the defendant's younger brother, Danny G. Miller Jr., toldjurors when a prosecutor asked why he was testifying.

Daniel Shockley Miller is on trial in state District Judge Wayne Salvant'scourt, charged with the July 21, 1996, kidnapping and fatal shooting ofGina Dykman, 27. Officials have said the defendant and two others believedthat Dykman, a young mother, was a police informant who planned to talkabout their methamphetamine-dealing business.

Her remains were discovered Aug. 22, 1996, in a Johnson County cemetery.

Daniel Shockley Miller's girlfriend, Beverly J. Cropp, and friend KirkAlan Cantrell, have also been charged with capital murder and remain inthe Tarrant County Jail awaiting trial.

If Daniel Shockley Miller, 33, is convicted of capital murder, prosecutorsCamille Sparks and Alan Levy will seek the death penalty.

The defendant's brother said he was present at a 1997 meeting when hisolder brother agreed to relinquish his rights to a house they owned inDallas in exchange for some quick cash. During that meeting, the defendanttold him, his mother and father that he needed the money to flee thecountry, Danny G. Miller Jr. testified.

"He pretty much stood there and told us all he had killed somebody," DannyG. Miller Jr. said, crying. "... It's hard. He is still my brother and Ilove him, but I know he did something terrible."

Miller's sister, Jackie Miller, was not present at that meeting, but shetold jurors that her older brother had implicated himself in the slayingon another occasion.

Jackie Miller said she lived with her brother for a time, but eventuallymoved after she grew tired of his drug-dealing business and feared for hersafety. She said she began to suspect that her brother was involved insomething bad in late 1996 when Daniel Shockley Miller, Cantrell and Croppbegan to act paranoid and secretive around each other.

Jackie Miller said she began badgering her older brother with questions.

"I basically just asked, 'What have you done? What are you all involvedin?'" Jackie Miller testified."He said there was a problem and it had beentaken care of."

Jackie Miller said her instincts told her that her brother had killedsomeone, and she asked him how he could be so stupid, especially with theadvance in forensics and DNA testing. In response, her brother told herthat they had been careful and that he had disassembled the murder weaponand thrown it into the Trinity River, Jackie Miller testified.

"He said he could trust Beverly, but he couldn't trust Kirk," JackieMiller said. "He made a comment that you keep your friends close and yourenemies closer.

"He said he felt if he couldn't trust Kirk, he would get a hotel room and

shoot him up, make him O.D., and no one would ever notice because no onewould miss him."

After the lunch recess Monday, outside the presence of the jury, defenseattorney Wes Ball, who is working with Terry Barlow, stated for the recordthat prosecutors attempted to settle Miller's and Cropp's case during thebreak with plea agreements.

Miller was offered a capital life sentence -- meaning he would have toserve 40 years before being eligible for parole -- in exchange forpleading guilty to killing Dykman.

Cropp was offered 27 years in prison if she would plead guilty to thelesser charge of aggravated kidnapping, Ball said.

The judge allowed Cropp and Miller to discuss the offers, alone, inadjoining hold-over cells. Both declined the offers, which means Millercould be sentenced to death if he is convicted.

Afterward, the state continued its presentation of evidence, whichincluded testimony by William Bailey, a fingerprint examiner for theTarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

Bailey testified that, while examining a pocket knife discovered in thecemetery where Dykman was found, he discovered the defendant's middlename, "Shockley," crudely engraved on the knife handle.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)