Miller goes before jury in three criminal cases

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Photo: Joshua Michael Miller

A man facing a number of charges in three criminal cases, including the theft of documents from Arkansas State University-Mountain Home (ASUMH), went on trial in Baxter County Circuit Court Tuesday.

It took less than two hours to seat a jury to hear the case of 40-year-old Joshua Michael Miller, whose last listed address was in Midway. The cases are expected to go to the jury Wednesday.

In his opening statement, 14th Judicial District Deputy Prosecutor Kerry Chism said Miller’s case was not a “who-done-it.” He said Miller was guilty as the evidence would show. He told the jury, “This is not about guilt or innocence. It is a sentencing question, deciding on his punishment.”

Miller’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Sam Pasthing, told jurors “this is not as cut and dried” as prosecutors painted it. He said the jurors would find some of the evidence will point to Miller, but some won’t.

Miller made a final circuit court appearance last week prior to his trial. He made an emotional plea to the court to put him in an addiction treatment center. He said he had been in prison 10 times during his life, and it had not helped his “problem,” which he said he had been battling for 26 years.

It was difficult for Pasthing to turn off his client’s torrent of words.

Miller had cases set up against him in April 2018, twice this April and once in October. The October case will be tried later. He has been an inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center since early October.

In the two cases filed this April, Miller is accused of stealing papers from ASUMH containing personal information supplied to the school by four people, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and tax return data.

The second case was a situation where one-crime-led-to-another. Officers came to the home where Miller lived searching for the purloined ASUMH papers. They found the papers. They also reported locating drugs and drug paraphernalia.

When Miller was taken to the Baxter County Detention Center, he is alleged to have made things even worse for himself by trying to sneak drugs into the jail hidden in his rectum.

In a taped interview with investigators related to the stolen papers, Miller said he was facing prison time and wanted ASUMH letterhead to fake a letter saying he was in the process of applying for admission. He told the investigator he felt he would receive a lighter sentence if he showed he “was trying to better myself.” He said he had not used the information in the files he had taken from ASUMH to steal identities. He said all he wanted was the letterhead.

When he took the files from ASUMH, video surveillance cameras picked him up going into a building on the campus with nothing in his hands and leaving with the files in a large green hanging folder tucked under his left arm. Miller got into a car driven by 31-year-old Raye Lynn Sutterfield who was then in a relationship with Miller.

All of that has apparently changed. On Sept. 30, Sutterfield filed for a protective order to keep Miller away from her. In the affidavit, Sutterfield describes in detail a heated argument the couple recently had. Sutterfield alleges during the altercation, as they sat in a vehicle, Miller grabbed her face and slammed it into the passenger side window.

Miller is also being charged as a habitual offender. According to court records, he has a number of felony convictions in several Arkansas counties, and Department of Correction records show he has spent time in prison on convictions from Craighead, Greene and Marion counties. He has listed addresses in Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Cherokee Village, Gassville, Midway and Clarkridge on various court records.

The last of the three Baxter County cases involve drug charges brought against him as the result of a traffic stop April 7 last year. The vehicle in which Miller was a passenger was initially pulled over for having expired registration. It was found during the stop Miller was a parolee with an active warrant for absconding.

As Miller was being arrested, he was found to have a crystalline substance, which he was alleged to have admitted was methamphetamine, and a plastic bag containing Suboxone strips on his person.

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