Issue date: December 09, 1998
By RENEE MOILANEN
The convicted killer of two local men was a would-be extortionist, and a sexually abusive partner of the woman he was married to for four months in 1992, the jury in the Charles Joseph Miller case was told Monday during the penalty phase of Mr. Miller's trial.
The jury last week found Mr. Miller, a former Menlo-Atherton student, guilty of murdering the two 71-year-old men. Jury members deliberated only three hours before reaching their verdict.
Jurors must now decide whether Mr. Miller, 25, will receive the death penalty for his crimes.
Mr. Miller was convicted December 1 in San Mateo County Superior Court on two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Vincent Damante, found shot and stabbed in his West Menlo Park home on January 11, 1996, and Edward Colley, found beaten and burned in Atherton on August 19, 1996. Mr. Miller was also found guilty of robbery and burglary and one count of arson.
On Monday, prosecutor Mark Boessenecker of the San Mateo County District Attorney's office appealed to the jury to sentence Mr. Miller to death. He called several witnesses who knew Mr. Miller, and a number of relatives and friends of the victims.
"The aggravating factors in this case substantially outweigh the mitigating circumstances," Mr. Boessenecker said in his opening arguments. "The penalty of death is the only just verdict."
Mr. Miller's ex-wife, Dena Ridenour, testified that her husband of four months physically and sexually abused her, and on several occasions locked her in the bedroom of their mobile home.
Scott Duchin, formerly of Menlo Park, told the jury that Mr. Miller tried to extort money from him about a month after the killing of Mr. Damante. Mr. Miller was arrested and pleaded guilty to attempted extortion before being arrested for the two murders the following September.
The jury also heard testimony from Atherton resident Jean Tinsley, whose home Edward "Uncle Red" Colley lived in and was murdered in. Mrs. Tinsley said that Mr. Colley lived with her and her late husband, Bud, since 1965. He was like an uncle to the couple's children, and her best friend, she told the jury.
Marjorie Damante, Vincent Damante's widow, and their daughter, Kate, described Mr. Damante as a man with a big heart whom they miss very much. They said Mr. Damante developed Parkinson's disease, which left him greatly enfeebled, at the age of 52.
Mr. Miller's attorney, Gordon Rockhill, is scheduled to call witnesses on Tuesday, December 8. He said he will call to the stand a psychiatrist, and former teachers of Mr. Miller, who are expected to testify that Mr. Miller was an outcast who was excluded by other kids at school.
Mr. Boessenecker expects the penalty phase of the trial to take about a week.
During closing arguments, the prosecution painted the defendant as a man who looked for elderly victims -- "easy marks, easy prey," Mr. Boessenecker said. The jury found the defendant guilty of killing victims over the age of 60, a special circumstance which makes Mr. Miller eligible for the death penalty. Mr. Miller was also convicted of another special circumstance, killing someone in the course of a robbery or burglary.
The prosecution also detailed the months before each crime, during which the defendant apparently planned the murders. Mr. Boessenecker presented evidence that the defendant purchased a gun three months before the Damante murder and then reported the gun stolen six weeks before Mr. Damante was found dead -- an effort to conceal his involvement, Mr. Boessenecker said.
Days after the murder, the prosecution contended, Mr. Miller was in Palo Alto pawning a diamond allegedly stolen from Mr. Damante's ring at the time of the killing.
"Any way you look at the evidence, it points to only one logical, reasonable conclusion," Mr. Boessenecker told the jury. "No clearer intent to kill can be imagined."
The defense, however, questioned some of the prosecution's witnesses, including Mr. Miller's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Schultz. Defense attorney Rockhill said that Ms. Schultz's testimony to the court conflicted with earlier information she gave to police. Mr. Rockhill also attacked the prosecution's closing arguments, calling them "an attempt to appeal to bias and prejudice."
Though the jury will decide whether Mr. Miller should receive the death penalty, presiding Judge Marc Forcum can overturn the decision if he feels it is appropriate to do so.
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