Murder trial for Texas man accused of killing neighbor over mattress set for August
A murder trial for an Abilene man accused of killing a neighbor in 2018 over a mattress has been scheduled for this summer, Taylor County officials said Friday.
Michael Miller, 34, is set to go trial at 9 a.m. Aug. 23 in the 350th District Court in Abilene.
A trial date is still pending for Miller’s father, 70-year-old Johnnie Miller, who also is charged with murder in the fatal shooting.
Taylor County court officials had postponed the trials of Johnnie Miller and Michael Miller in the spring of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The two are free on $100,000 bond each.
The Millers are accused of shooting to death their neighbor, Aaron Howard, 37, on Sept. 1, 2018, in an alley behind their homes in the 4300 block of Don Juan Street in south Abilene. Abilene is about 150 miles west of Fort Worth.
The case drew national attention after Howard’s common-law wife, Kara Box, released a two-minute video showing the confrontation and the shooting. She took the video with her cellphone as she stood by Howard.
Fort Worth attorney Justin Sparks has said the shooting was justified because the Millers were defending themselves.
“We are justified to use force in self-defense,” Sparks said in a 2019 telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is one of two defense attorneys for the Millers. “Texas is a ‘stand your ground’ state. You do not have a legal duty to retreat when you’re threatened.”
But Box has told the Star-Telegram she disagrees with the self-defense claim.
“It wasn’t self-defense,” Box said in a 2019 telephone interview with the Star-Telegram. “You can’t provoke someone and call it self-defense.”
Box said she and her husband moved to their Abilene home in April 2018, but they had never talked to the Millers until the morning of Sept. 1, 2018. The Millers were their next-door neighbors.
“We had thrown out a twin mattress in a dumpster in our alley a few days before the shooting,” Box told the Star-Telegram in a September 2018 interview. “You have to have the mattress in the dumpster or they will not haul it away.”
On the morning of Sept. 1, 2018, Box and Howard were in the back yard when they saw the mattress was on their property. Howard tossed it back in the dumpster.
Box said that’s when Johnnie Miller came to the alley, pulled the mattress out of the dumpster and tossed it back on Howard’s property.
Howard told Miller to put it back in the dumpster. Miller cursed at Howard and told him he wasn’t going to do that, Box said.
“That’s when John (Miller) pulled a pistol out of his shorts,” she said. Box noted that Howard’s nieces and nephews had been with them in the back yard.
“Aaron goes into papa bear mode,” Box said. “A man has just pulled a gun on his wife, his brother, his nieces and nephews.”
A tense conversation ensued between Howard, who was not armed, and Johnnie and Michael Miller, who arrived on the scene armed with a shotgun.
Howard threatened to kill the Millers, and the Millers repeatedly cursed at Howard, according to the video.
As tempers flared, Box stepped in between her husband and Johnnie Miller. Howard’s brother had handed him a baseball bat by that time, but he never swung it, his wife said.
“If you come within three feet of me, I’m going to kill you,” Johnnie Miller tells Howard. Seconds later, two gunshots are heard. The video also shows Michael Miller firing the shotgun after the first two shots are fired.
Box starts screaming, “No, no, Aaron!” after her husband is shot in the chest and head.