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Wife pleads, husband opts for trial in murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The wife of a man charged with a murder last September on the East Side agreed to testify against him, just before jury selection in his trial began Monday.
Megan Miller, 37, of Hazelwood Avenue, entered a plea of guilty to a charge of falsification before Judge Maureen Sweeney in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court just before her trial was to begin as well. She agreed to testify against her husband, Randall Miller, 38, who is charged in the Sept. 28, 2013, murder of 36-year-old Frank James Brown.
Brown was found shot to death on South Truesdale Avenue amid shards of glass.
Megan Miller originally was charged with tampering with evidence. Prosecutors are recommending probation if she testifies truthfully 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.
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.
Her husband had turned down an offer of manslaughter and a 13-year prison sentence last week in exchange for his testimony against another person who was purportedly involved in Brown’s death.
Prosecutors also told Judge Sweeney they were concerned because Randall Miller’s lawyer, Jeffrey Limbian, at one time also represented Megan Miller in the case. They said they were afraid a conflict of interest would arise should Limbian have to cross-examine Megan Miller.
Judge Sweeney asked Randall Miller if he had a problem with Limbian at one time representing his wife, and he said no. Limbian also said Megan Miller’s lawyer did not have a problem, and Limbian said he did not anticipate his previous representation of Megan Miller to be a problem, either.
Jury selection still was going on late Monday afternoon.