Source: 2 arrests to come in murder-for-hire plot
Daniel Miller, already in jail on charges of sexually abusing a 17-year-old male employee, was charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill the teen to prevent him from testifying. (July 12, 2012) Credit: Howard Schnapp
An 80-year-old high school secretary and her daughter will be arrested next week on charges that they helped a family member hire a hit man to kill the key witness in a criminal case against him, a law enforcement source said Friday.
The source would not specify what charges will be filed against Mary Miller and her daughter Ann Miller, 59, both of Inwood. But prosecutors said Thursday that Mary Miller used her position at Lawrence High School in Cedarhurst to steal the file of her son's intended victim, who is a student at the school. Ann Miller broke the law when she gave the intended victim's personal information to her brother, Daniel Miller, 45, the law enforcement source said.
Lawyers for Mary and Ann Miller would not confirm that their clients have been asked to surrender next week, but they asserted their clients' innocence.
"We disagree with any assessment of the facts that would lead to criminal charges against Ann Miller," said Brian Griffin of Garden City. A lawyer for Mary Miller agreed. "She denies her guilt," said Edward Mandery of Mineola.
Mary Miller's son, Daniel, the owner of a Santeria religious supply store in Inwood, first asked a relative to stick pins and knives into a voodoo doll of the 17-year-old boy he is charged with sexually abusing in April, prosecutors said. When that didn't work, Miller offered to pay a would-be hit man $15,000 to kill the boy, prosecutors and police said.
Daniel Miller pleaded not guilty Thursday in Nassau County Court in Mineola to charges of second-degree conspiracy and second-degree criminal solicitation. His lawyer, Joseph Conway of Mineola, maintained his client's innocence.
Prosecutors said Thursday that Daniel Miller asked the would-be hit man, during a visit at the Nassau jail, to arrange to have the boy killed. Daniel Miller was being held on the sexual abuse charges.
The hit man then went to the Millers' home, where prosecutors said family members gave him documents containing the teen's personal information. The man then contacted police, and met with Daniel Miller a second time at the jail, at which time Daniel Miller agreed to pay him $15,000 to kill the boy, prosecutors said.
In a brief phone interview Thursday, Mary Miller said she had taken the teen's picture out of his file to give to a private investigator she hired to look into her son's criminal case.
But Ann Miller said it was the would-be hit man who brought up the idea of killing the witness, not her brother.
"I flipped," Ann Miller said. "We're law-abiding citizens."
With Kevin Deutsch
