Second Degree Murder Case Summary

The scene starts on a 50 degree spring day, March 31, before 6:00 P.M. It involves Mr Muldoon (the police chief), Mr Ernie Miller, (the suspect), Mrs Miller, (the victim and the suspect’s wife), and me, the detective to the scene. The incident happened at the Miller residence. Mrs Miller is dead, and we need to find the reason why. There is substantial evidence that proves that the defendant needs to be convicted of second degree murder. According to Findlaw, second degree murder is defined as being in the heat of the moment. (criminal.findlaw.com) There are many blatant holes in Mr Miller’s argument. Let’s start at the beginning. We greeted Mr Miller at his back porch, where we heard him unlocking his back door to come out. He stated that

These injuries are paired with signs of a fight. An organic substance was found under the decedent's fingernails, while the defendant had on bandaids during the questioning. I feel as though a DNA test on the organic substance versus Mr Miller’s DNA would be a crucial piece of evidence for this case. Mr Miller additionally stated that his wife was a heavy drinker. The defendant said this was why his wife had fallen, yet when Mrs Miller was examined, the coroner’s report stated that the victim had a 0 Blood Alcohol Content, or

Both of her wrists had been ripped out of the sockets. There were miniscule cuts and scrapes along her calves. When investigating the substance,there was limestone in these scrapes, (which is coincidentally what the gravel in the Miller’s driveway is made of.) The decedent had bruises on the back of her head, and on her back and chest. How could the back of Mrs Miller’s head been bruised if she had fallen face first off the porch, as Mr Miller had originally stated. A final note that the medical examiner made was that the victim’s body was showing obvious signs of livor mortis. According to author Stephen Thompson, livor mortis is skin discoloration where the skin changes color after a body is moved. (98) This indicates clearly that Mrs Miller had been moved from the time of her death, and the only person who could have been there to move her was her husband.

When we were looking for any possible clues, we noticed that Mrs Miller had on a coat that would be fitting for the spring weather had she been planning on going somewhere, but would be overdoing it from “going outside for a drink” as the defendant had stated. When we looked in her coat, we found that there was a letter addressed to Ernie “Lubby Dubby” Miller with a return address from a female. We can assume with reasonable suspicion that Mr Miller was having an affair with the female on the envelope, a Mary “Sweetums” Eckhart. In the envelope was a letter