The trial of David Lee Miller, the first defendant in Maryland's legal history to be accused of murder under the state's new fetal homicide law, is slated to begin on January 8, 2008.
Miller, 25, is facing two counts of first degree murder stemming from the June 11 shooting of Elizabeth Walters. Walters, a 24-year-old waitress at the Charles Village Pub on St. Paul St., was seven months pregnant at the time of her death. Miller is also accused of the homicide of her unborn child, of whom he was reportedly the father.
As reported by the Baltimore Sun last summer, Miller surrendered himself to police the day after the shooting.
A criminal motions hearing is scheduled for December 13, when the defense will have the opportunity to call for the suppression of any of Miller's statements to police or the exclusion of any evidence they consider unlawful.
The state's case against Miller is currently in the "discovery" phase, meaning that his defense is still examining the state's evidence and deciding what to do with it.
At present Miller's defense is "wading through everything we're turning over to them," said Baltimore County's State Attorney Scott Shellenberger. Shellenberger, along with another attorney, will be personally prosecuting the case. He said that he was unable to comment further until trial begins.
"I'm still getting evidence that the state intends to use against us," said Alvin Alston, one of two public defenders assigned to Miller's case. Miller switched from his original attorney due to inability to pay legal fees.
Maryland's fetal homicide law was enacted in October of 2005 in the wake of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act passed by Congress in 2004, a piece of federal legislation also known as Laci and Conner's Law after the well-publicized case of Laci Peterson. Scott Peterson, her husband, was convicted in March of 2005 of the homicides of both his wife and their unborn son, Conner.
Since the passing of the 2004 act, 34 states have passed laws stating that those who kill women carrying viable fetuses can be prosecuted for double homicides. A fetus is legally deemed viable if autopsy reports indicate it could have survived outside the womb at the time of its death.
The Sun reported in July that Maryland's chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler, provided facts in his autopsy report indicating Walters' fetus to be viable.
On the morning of June 11 Walters and her friend Heather Lowe, 24, were sitting in a Dodge Stratus parked outside the Parkway Crossing shopping mall in Parkville, Md., just outside the Baltimore city limits, when they were both shot, as reported by the Sun. Lowe suffered serious injuries to her face and identified Miller as the perpetrator to police. The event was also captured on surveillance cameras.
The prosecution is seeking three life sentences without possibility of parole. In addition to two homicide counts, Miller faces charges of attempted first degree murder, assault in the first degree and two handgun felonies. According to Alston, there are no plans to plea bargain (reduce Miller's sentence) yet.
