Metropolitan Police Department: United States v. Anthony Miller & Kimberly Miller

In the early evening hours of December 19, 1998, defendants Anthony Miller and Kimberly Miller, who were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, went on a robbing spree through upper Northwest, Washington. In just over one hour, the Millers robbed at gunpoint five victims in three separate incidents at 28th & Woodley Road, the 3500 block of S Street, and the 3600 block Porter Street. The victims were all young women, and two of them were foreign. Although the victims were able to describe the assailants, none of them had seen or could describe the car the Millers were driving. Detectives Partman and Caine responded to the three incidents, and although the victims were extremely distraught, and at times uncooperative, they were able to elicit detailed descriptions from each of the five victims. Moreover, after the second robbery Detectives Partman and Caine successfully tracked down a neighborhood witness who did not observe the robbery but who recalled seeing a car driving away from the area at high speed. Suspecting that the car was the one driven by the robbers, Partman and Caine elicited a description of the car -- an older model four-door, white Dodge Diplomat, similar to a police car, with tinted windows. The detectives not only broadcast the description over the radio, but believing that the robbers' modus operandi indicated that they would strike again soon, they ensured that the car description was given to officers at roll call the next day. The next day, on December 20, 1998, Officer Robert Bryant spotted a car in Georgetown that matched the lookout. The car was driven by defendant Anthony Miller, and Kimberly Miller was with him. Although they attempted to elude him by weaving in and out of traffic, Bryant successfully stopped the car. Although they lacked probable cause to arrest at the time, Bryant's stop enabled the police to learn the identities of the assailants and to obtain photographs, which were subsequently used in photograph spread identifications conducted by Detectives Caine and Partman. Thereafter, although several of the victims were too afraid to participate in any identifications, Detectives Caine and Partman tenaciously worked to locate the witnesses and to convince them to participate in the identification procedures. Through the diligence of the detectives and the patrol officer, defendants Anthony Miller and Kimberly Miller were identified by several of the witnesses, and evidence recovered from the car was identified by one victim as property taken from her in the course of the robbery.

Faced with mounting evidence, Kimberly Miller entered a plea of guilty on March 11, 1999, to two counts of robbery and was ultimately sentenced to a term of five years incarceration under the Youth Act. Although his gun was never recovered, Anthony Miller entered a plea of guilty on May 14, 1999, to two counts of robbery and to Carrying a Pistol Without a License, and although he was eligible for a Youth Act sentence, Anthony Miller was sentenced as an adult to a term of five to fifteen years incarceration.