Kansas Judge Rules Frazier Glenn Miller Fit To Stand Trial
After two days of often chilling testimony, a district court judge in Kansas ruled this week that white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller should stand trial for the murder last spring of three people at two Jewish facilities in suburban Kansas City.
Judge Kelly Ryan, the Associated Press reports, decided Tuesday on the second day of a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence for the 74-year-old Miller, who has been in custody since the deadly shooting spree on April 13, to go to trial.
Miller told the Kansas City Star from jail in November that he drove from his home in Aurora, Mo., to Overland Park, Ks., where the murders took place, with one thing on his mind: killing Jews.
“I wanted to make damned sure I killed some Jews or attacked the Jews before I died,” he said.
As he was taken into custody that bloody Sunday, Miller allegedly asked the police, “How many f...... Jews did I kill?”
None of the three victims — Dr. William Corporon, 69, his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, and Terri LaManno, 53 — was Jewish.
Miller’s arraignment is scheduled for March 27, and Kansas state prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
At the time of the killings, Miller later told the Star he believed he was dying from lung disease.
On Monday, according to Courthouse News Service, Miller was rolled into court in a wheelchair, hooked to an oxygen tank. The news service also reported that during the two days of testimony, Miller made several loud outbursts, including shouting racial and anti-Semitic epithets “aimed at those he believed to be his victims’ families in the courtroom.” At one point, he raised a hand-cuffed hand a few inches from his thigh in what the News Service said, “appeared to be a shackled ‘Heil Hitler’ gesture.”
On the last day of the hearing, the news service said, Miller angrily told the judge that he did not want to participate in the trial if he was not allowed to speak about his request for Internet access.
“You just want to protect the Jews,” he said. “You don’t want me to tell the truth about the Jews.”
At one point, according to the AP, Miller turned the family of Terri LaManno, apparently thinking they were relatives of the 14-year-old, who died shortly after being shot in the head in the parking lot the Jewish Community Center, crowded with teenagers, auditioning for a singing competition.
“I very much regret the little boy,” Miller told the family.
The family said they did not accept Miller’s apology.
