Edward J. Miller Jr., a person of interest in a 2011 Pottsville homicide, faces time in prison after being convicted Wednesday in Schuylkill County Court of five charges stemming from separate incidents on consecutive days last November in the city.
Miller, 51, of Pottsville, bowed his head, but later smiled, after the jury found him guilty of receiving stolen property and simple assault, but not guilty of robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle and theft, in the one case, and guilty of escape, institutional vandalism and criminal mischief in the other.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated slightly more than two hours before reaching its verdict.
President Judge William E. Baldwin, who presided over the one-day trial, ordered preparation of a presentence investigation but did not set a date for sentencing. He did not change Miller's $250,000 straight cash bail, which includes $200,000 in the receiving stolen property case and $50,000 in the escape one, and the defendant returned to prison after the verdict.
Pottsville police had charged Miller with assaulting William Kline, and then stealing his car, about 4 p.m. Nov. 13, 2011, in the 100 block of East Norwegian Street.
Patrolman Charles B. Webber testified that police traced the vehicle to 400 Laurel Blvd.
They also had charged him with kicking the window out of a city police car and fleeing on Nov. 14, 2011.
"I turned around. Mr. Miller was laying down. He kicked the window once," an undercover police officer testified. "Mr. Miller kicked the window again. It shattered and broke."
Although Miller was wearing leg shackles, handcuffs and a belt, that did not deter him, the officer said.
"He went out in one blur," the officer testified. "As fast as you could move ... that's what he was doing."
However, he was caught within seconds, according to police.
The damage will cost $1,257 to repair, according to Travis Frantz, a motor vehicle damage appraiser with Bob Weaver Chevrolet, Pottsville.
"The glass was smashed out. Everything was sort of concave outward," Frantz testified. "It was more than just the window damaged."
District Attorney Karen Byrnes-Noon and Assistant Public Defender Andrea L. Thompson, Miller's lawyer, each declined to comment on either of the cases after the verdict.
When he tried to escape, Miller was being brought back from Montgomery County, where he had been charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, careless driving, disregarding traffic lane and driving under suspension-DUI related in connection with what state police at Skippack said was an accident earlier that day. Those charges are pending in Montgomery County Court.
When involved in that accident, according to police, Miller was driving a truck belonging to John Tranquillo, 66, of Pottsville. Police said that when they went to Tranquillo's home on Nov. 14, they found his body on the floor in a hallway between the kitchen and the living room.
Miller has not been charged in connection with Tranquillo's death, and Byrnes-Noon declined to comment on the status of that investigation. Edward Miller Jr.
Age: 51
Residence: Pottsville
Verdict: Guilty of receiving stolen property, simple assault, escape, institutional vandalism and criminal mischief, not guilty of robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle and theft