By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Perkins man convicted of domestic violence in South Carolina in 2001 has been jailed on $10,000 bail on a Payne County charge of felony domestic violence on an ex-girlfriend in Perkins on July 7.
Former Cushing resident John Edward Miller, 43, has been given a court-appointed attorney for an Aug. 3 appearance before a Payne County judge on the charge punishable by as much as a four-year prison term on conviction.
Miller was arrested by Perkins Police Officer Kyle Howard in the woods in the 200 block of S. Cimarron in Perkins on July 7 at 6:35 p.m., 11 minutes after being dispatched to the 100 block of N. Cimarron regarding a physical domestic in progress, according to an affidavit.
“I was driving south on SE 2nd Street and saw (Miller’s ex-girlfriend) walking north…She was visibly crying and covered in grass and dirt. I stopped and spoke with her. I immediately noticed her left eye was red, swelling, and also bruising…Her mouth had dirt in it, along with what appeared to be bright red blood.
“The grass and dirt was from head to toe, on her back, on her front, on her face, on her legs, and in her mouth. There was also a fresh cut on the top right of her head,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
The woman said Miller attacked her, the affidavit alleged. She said she “was trying to get property back from him at the place he was staying,” but he refused to give it to her and attacked her, the affidavit alleged.
“She stated he hit her in the face. I asked why she had dirt on her. She said she was crawling on the ground trying to get away,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
The woman did not want medical attention or a ride home, but wanted the officer “to go and pointed south towards the direction she came from, presumably to find John Miller,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.
After the reporting party and her neighbor said that Miller ran south, the officer began walking in the woods and “saw two feet poking out of brush and low trees,” his affidavit alleged. “After getting the handcuffs on, I grabbed his items from where he was and walked him out of the woods,” then gave Miller water as he requested, the officer wrote in his affidavit.
Miller claimed that the woman stayed with him the previous night and was acting crazy all morning by attacking him, the affidavit alleged.
“He also stated ‘supposedly she has a black eye, I guess I done that,"” the affidavit alleged. “He said the only way to get her off of him was to hit her,” the affidavit alleged.
“Due to the defensive wounds on John Miller from (the woman), her black eye, bloody mouth, and statements on trying to leave and my previous knowledge of her trying to leave, I believed John Miller to be an aggressor in domestic assault and battery,” and arrested him, the officer wrote in his affidavit.
“During transport (to jail), he struck his head many times on the glass…I counted on body camera he struck his head 21 times and kicked the glass two times. Also during the transport, he was cussing and yelling at me for most of the drive.
“He complained of having chest pains midway through the transport to the jail. For his safety, I decided to take him to Stillwater Medical Center,” where he cursed and yelled at an admitting nurse who tried to give him water and wipe sweat off his face at his request, the officer alleged in his affidavit.
“A nurse was trying to draw blood and he said, ‘You better take that f….. out of me right now,"” the affidavit alleged.
“I asked John if he had any illegal items on him before he went to the jail. He said he had some marijuana and showed me where it was. I seized the marijuana for destruction,” the officer alleged in his affidavit.
The reporting party gave a statement: “My daughter came to the back deck where I was and said ‘Mom, I feel like a lady needs help.’ She said a woman was yelling and within a minute, she was visible and was stumbling,” the affidavit said.
The victim, who obtained an emergency protective order against Miller two days later, wrote on a lethality assessment form for Perkins Police Officer Daryn Zanfardino, “…and keep me trapped and won’t let me leave. I’m scared he will kill me because I want to leave,” the affidavit alleged.
According to court records, in 2001 Miller was convicted of criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature in Lexington County, South Carolina, for which he was given a 10-year sentence.
***
