Jurors hear police interview with murder suspect

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By Dustin Lemmon | Thursday, September 28, 2006 9:39 PM CDT | () comments

BREAKING NEWS: (Updated: 9:36 p.m.) Jurors in the Ryan Miller murder trial watched a videotaped interview Thursday in which two East Moline police detectives often cursed and yelled at the suspect in an effort to obtain a confession.

Miller, 23, is on trial in Rock Island County Circuit Court for the Nov. 7 death of 17-month-old Aalliyah Andrews. Prosecutors say Miller battered the girl while baby-sitting for her.

Chad Brodersen, an East Moline detective who questioned Miller, told jurors he became emotional during the interview because he has a child who was then the same age as the victim.

“When I witnessed (the body of) Aalliyah, she was the exact same age as my own son at the time and I was pretty emotional,” Brodersen testified, adding that those circumstances probably led him to curse on occasion during the interview.

The session, which lasted more than 90 minutes, ended with Miller admitting that he punished the girl for breaking a television antenna by spanking, shaking and pushing her onto a sofa. Brodersen testified that he did not think Miller had given them a full account of what happened.

Miller first told Brodersen and detective Jeff Ramsey that he and the girl were sitting together on the sofa and watching television when she began choking. Miller said he tried to hold the girl’s nose and blow air into her mouth as he had seen her mother, Ashley Andrews, do on a previous occasion. When that did not work, he called Andrews on a neighbor’s phone and then another neighbor came over and called 911.

On the video, Brodersen could be heard telling Miller his story was not accurate because the girl’s temperature was 91.9 degrees when she was checked at the hospital. Brodersen said it would take at least 90 minutes for a person’s temperature to drop that far after death and that only 20 to 30 minutes had passed from the time paramedics arrived until the girl was treated at the local hospital.

Miller stuck to his story, but Brodersen and Ramsey kept pressing him for more answers and asked whether he wanted to lie and be a cold-blooded baby killer or tell the truth. Brodersen told Miller he had pictures of bruises to the girl’s face and body and said, “I can prove that you killed her.”

When he saw photos of the girl taken at the hospital that showed heavy bruising, Miller said the injuries had already been present. The detectives told Miller they did not believe him and that the bruises were new.

Eventually, Miller changed his story and told detectives he was in the upstairs bathroom when he heard something downstairs. He said the girl then broke the TV antenna and that he spanked her bottom before shaking and pressing her into the couch in an attempt to get her to sleep.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I was like ‘Lay down, Aalliyah, lay down.’ ”

Ashley Andrews watched the videotape in the courtroom and shook her head when she heard Miller admit that he had spanked the girl, something he had said he had never done before.

Brodersen told Miller he had killed the girl, to which Miller asked how.

“I don’t know what I did to her to make her die,” Miller added.

Andrews, who was still watching the tape at that point, held her folded hands over her mouth and pressed her knuckles to her upper lip. Miller, who is not the girl’s father, said during the interview that he and Andrews planned to get married. Andrews testified Wednesday that she has not talked to Miller since the day her daughter died.

Miller acknowledged on the videotape that if he had killed the girl, he deserved to go to the electric chair and if the antenna had not broken that Aalliyah likely would be alive. He added that he was sorry and asked to speak to Andrews.

“I didn’t think I killed her, I really didn’t,” he said toward the end of the interview. “I love that baby, I love Ashley. They’re the only family I have in my life.”

During cross-examination by defense attorneys, Brodersen said he expected more remorse from Miller and did not see him cry or show any outward emotion. Assistant Rock Island County Public Defender Baron Heintz described the interview as an interrogation.

Jurors also heard testimony from a deputy coroner called by the defense who said it was her opinion that Miller might have struck the girl with the antenna, causing a large bruise to her abdomen and a liver laceration that killed the child.

The defense presented several witnesses Thursday afternoon after the prosecution rested its case, but Miller elected not to testify. The jury began deliberations Thursday evening and later were excused for the evening. Deliberations will resume this morning.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.