Confessed murderer to plead guilty to fraud

A court hearing has been delayed until Monday for a man who confessed to a quintuple murder in Mesa.

The man, William Miller, planned to plead guilty to the least serious charge against him this morning, but the hearing was delayed at the last minute for unknown reasons.

Miller’s plea of guilty to a fraud charge will allow him to transfer to state prison and out of county jail to await trial on the remaining 14 counts of first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder and arson.

Miller has said in previous interviews that he wants out of county jail where he is in solitary confinement and locked up 23 hours a day.

His court appearance is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Miller said in a Tribune interview in July that he shot and killed Steven Duffy, 30, during a break-in of Duffy’s Mesa home in Barrington Estates, near Baseline and Ellsworth roads, on Feb. 21, 2006.

Miller said an unidentified accomplice shot and killed Tammy Lovell, 32, her children Cassandra and Jacob, 15 and 10 respectively, and Duffy’s brother, Shane Duffy, 18.

Miller said he had planned to kill Steven Duffy at a later time, but the killings began when Duffy opened fire on him during a staged-burglary.

Authorities allege that Miller and a likely accomplice who is still at large killed the family to silence them as witnesses in an arson case against Miller.

When the killings happened, Miller was awaiting trial on arson and fraud charges in connection with a fire at his home in November 2005.