Don Walters says what convicted murderer David Miller did to his daughter and unborn granddaughter was the ultimate act of cowardice.
“There?s no place in our society for a guy to commit an act as cowardly as this guy did,” the father said Wednesday while standing outside Baltimore County Circuit Court, where minutes earlier a jury convicted Miller, 25, of the first-degree murder of his daughter, Elizabeth Walters, 24, and his unborn granddaughter, Olivia. Miller also was convicted of shooting Walters? friend, Heather Lowe, in the face.
Miller faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced July 7.
His case was the first time in Maryland history that a person has been convicted of murdering an unborn child. A 2005 fetal-homicide law allows the criminal count if the state medical examiner rules that the fetus was “viable.”
Walters and Lowe were shot around 10:20 a.m. June 11, 2007, while sitting in a Dodge Stratus in the parking lot of the Parkway Crossing Shopping Center on Cleanleigh Road. The two women had come to meet Miller, who ? unknown to Walters ? was married, to ask what role he would play in raising his child, prosecutors said.
His response was chilling.
“He said, ?You?re not going to ruin my life,? ” Baltimore County State?s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said.
Police did not initially charge Miller with the unborn child?s death. Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler said his office generally determines viability based on whether the fetus is at least 28 weeks old and weighs at least 500 grams.
“That baby has hair,” prosecutor Allan Webster told the jury in closing arguments.
“That baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes. That picture will tell you that baby was viable.”
The evidence against Miller was overwhelming ? so much so that his attorney, Alvin Alston, asked the state?s witnesses only a few questions.
In court Tuesday, Lowe identified Miller as the man who shot her and Walters.
Baltimore County Police Officer Jason Birchfield testified several of Miller?s fingerprints were found on the Dodge. And Miller?s cousin, Jerome Gray, 22, said Miller confessed and asked him to hide the gun.
For his closing argument Wednesday, Alston briefly recounted the history of jury trials then asked jurors for a fair verdict.
But the testimony from Heather Lowe and Walters? other friends were too much for Miller to overcome.
“We?ve raised strong and independent women, and they came through,” Francine Lowe said of her daughter.
