Prosecutors have painted a picture of a very disturbed teen girl. Now a Pennsylvania court will have to decide whether the 16-year-old should be tried as an adult on charges related to the stabbing death of her big sister last year.
As we reported, Claire Miller was just 14 when her sister, Helen Miller, was killed in her sleep in the early morning hours of February 22, 2021. The 19-year-old, who had cerebral palsy, was stabbed seven times — twice in the chest, twice in the jaw, and three times in the neck — at their family’s Manheim Township home.
Officials arrived at the scene to find Claire outside, covered in blood and standing barefoot in the snow. According to testimony, the knife that killed Helen was still lodged in her neck when police arrived.
Claire was charged as an adult with one count of homicide. Officials claimed she admitted killing her sister to responding police, as well as officers at the police station later that same morning.
According to testimony provided by Manheim Township Police Det. Jonathan Martin, Claire allegedly told cops:
“I Michael Myers’ed my sister.”
For those who don’t know, Michael Myers is the villain from the slasher film franchise Halloween. The original film opens with him as a small child stabbing his older sister to death with a kitchen knife.
Officials allege Miller continued to make disturbing comments while in custody. When the teen received breakfast that morning at the police station, she said:
“I’d have killed someone sooner if I knew I’d get McDonald’s.”
Chilling.
Prosecutors argued Miller should be tried as an adult, noting that she wanted to commit murder for months and should spend time in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Amy Muller told the judge Miller was “a kid who had it all but was obsessed with homicide,” citing thousands of texts Miller sent a friend confessing a desire to hurt someone. Muller said Claire loved her sister, “but she was an easy target. She couldn’t fight back.”
Meanwhile, the defense insisted she should be tried as a juvenile, with defense attorney Bob Beyer countering that Claire “suffered a psychotic first break” and didn’t mean to hurt the sister she loved. He told the judge:
“Even our best and brightest children have demons. We need to deal with them.”
Claire’s parents also argued their child shouldn’t be tried as an adult, testifying that the teen has struggled with gender identity, lives with mental illness, and had been cutting herself for a period of time.
On the stand, Marie Miller, Claire’s mother, said her daughter used to be a straight-A student who put too much pressure on herself to succeed. She said:
“I know Claire did not want to do this. We lost Helen and I don’t want to lose Claire, too.”
Although the doctors called to the stand testified that Miller could be rehabilitated, prosecutors claimed she would still be a danger to society if she was released from the juvenile rehabilitation system in five years.
Judge David Workman is expected to announce his decision July 18. What do U think his ruling will be?
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