Man pleads guilty in East Side homicide

October 1, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A man charged with a murder on the East Side last September pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter just before opening statements in his trial were to get underway Tuesday.

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 15 years for Randall Miller, 38, who is charged in the death of 36-year-old Frank James Brown on Sept. 27, 2013. Brown was found shot to death about 3:40 a.m. that morning on South Truesdale Avenue.

In exchange for his plea, Miller must cooperate with investigators against other people who may have been involved in Brown’s killing.

Jurors reported to the courtroom of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney on Monday to be picked to hear the case and they were set to hear opening statements Tuesday morning before Miller took his plea.

Also Monday, Miller’s wife, Megan Miller, 37, of Hazelwood Avenue, pleaded guilty to a charge of falsification for her role in Brown’s death. She was to testify against her husband.

Police said Brown was shot inside a 2002 Cadillac owned by Megan Miller, who was a cashier in the city finance department at the time of Brown’s slaying. When Brown’s body was found, he was lying amid shards of broken glass in the street.

Megan Miller had told police the car had not been recently cleaned, but when they served a search warrant at her home, they found that a window had been replaced and that efforts had been made to clean the car.

Investigators found shattered window-glass fragments and blood in the car and on its running board, along with glass fragments on the Millers’ garage floor and in the garage drain, police said.

Just last week, Randall Miller had turned down the offer of a plea to manslaughter.