Brother gets 5 years in fatal stabbing of sister's fiance

By Peter H. Milliken

‘I cannot forgive him,’ the victim’s mother says of the defendant.

YOUNGSTOWN — A man who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in a fatal stabbing last year at Lake Milton is going to prison for five years and must pay a $1,000 fine.

Edward A. Miller Jr., 22, of Roselawn Drive, Lake Milton, drew the sentence Friday from Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The prosecution recommended that sentence as part of a plea agreement in which it dropped a murder charge against the defendant. Miller fatally stabbed Eric E. Showalter, 28, of Diamond, once in the chest at Lake Shore Plaza on Feb. 7, 2008.

Miller and Showalter had agreed to fight at the plaza near El Carlos Mexican Restaurant on Mahoning Avenue after the end of Miller’s shift as a cook at the restaurant, police said.

Showalter arrived with a 2-foot club, apparently made from a wooden hatchet handle, and Miller emerged from the restaurant kitchen with a restaurant-owned knife he wasn’t authorized to take, police said.

Miller stabbed Showalter with the knife before throwing it into a trash bin, police said.

Miller and Showalter had a long-standing dislike for each other, in part because of an incident in fall 2007 in which Showalter injured his fianc e, who is Miller’s sister, police said.

The victim’s mother, Hazel Showalter, told the judge she didn’t believe Miller planned to kill her son, but she believed Miller intended to harm him.

“He took Eric from us. We miss him every day, every hour. ... I cannot forgive him for taking Eric from me,” the victim’s mother said.

“Every day, I live with what I’ve done, and I rarely ever sleep at night,” Miller told the judge. “It hurts me so bad. If I could bring him back, I would. My intentions weren’t to kill him, your honor. I was just trying to get him away from me,” Miller said. “I feel more sorry than anybody.”

“The law requires you to turn your back and walk away” from such a confrontation, Judge Evans told Miller before sentencing him.

Judge Evans fined Miller $20,000 for the manslaughter, suspending $19,000 of it and making the remaining $1,000 payable during Miller’s parole. The judge also fined Miller $10,000 on the evidence tampering charge, all of it suspended.

Miller must serve the full five-year prison term, and he’ll be on parole for five years after he completes it.

milliken@vindy.com