‘I’m guilty’: William Miller’s jailhouse confession

Former Scottsdale businessman William Miller says he killed one person and an accomplice killed four others during a botched burglary at an east Mesa gated community last year.

Download William Miller's interview by Tribune Reporter Gary Grado (MP3 - 1.64MB)

Warning: Profanity and graphic content

Listen to the full interview (55 minutes)

VIDEO: Tribune reporter talks about his jailhouse interview

INTERACTIVE: Miller's Show & Tell - Iinside the house that night

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Miller, who has said he intends to plead guilty next month to 15 counts stemming from the killings and a separate arson, gave his version of the Feb. 21, 2006, shootings for the first time in an interview Wednesday with the Tribune. The Tribune published details of the interview on its Web site, along with an audio recording of the interview.

Miller said in the 55-minute jailhouse interview that one of the victims, Shane Duffy, the 18-year-old brother of victim Steven Duffy, 30, accepted a $10,000 offer to let Miller into the home at 2208 S. Barrington to commit a burglary. Shane was never paid the money, Miller said.

The Duffy brothers’ aunt, Shauna Duffy, from Utah, said her nephew was too mature to sell out his brother and the other victims.

“At this point anything William Craig Miller says is suspect — he’ll do and say anything to garner sympathy and his comments about being helped by one of the victims just don’t ring true,” Shauna wrote in an e-mail after reading the story on the Tribune’s Web site Wednesday.

Miller also said his accomplice, who he refused to name, was paid $20,000 and left town shortly after the killings.

Miller said he expects to be executed for the crime, but he decided to plead guilty to save his family and the victims’ families the grief of a prolonged trial.

“I believe in the death penalty,” Miller said. “I’ve got to pay for what I did.”

JAILHOUSE INTERVIEW

Miller has been in solitary confinement in Maricopa County’s Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix since his March 3, 2006, arrest.

His mattress is on the floor and his possessions include two filled, brown shopping bags and box of legal documents. On his metal writing desk is a Styrofoam cup filled with golf pencils.

He sported about three days of stubble on his face and he trembled as he began discussing the shootings which also claimed the lives of Steven Duffy’s girlfriend, Tammy Lovell, 32, and her children, Cassandra Lovell, 15, and Jacob Lovell, 10, along with Shane Duffy.

Mesa police declined to say whether the physical evidence at the crime scene matches Miller’s version of events, but prosecutors have said in court and court documents that he probably had an accomplice.

Prosecutors believe Miller went to the Barrington Estates home, near Ellsworth and Baseline roads, at 2:41 a.m. on that day, to eliminate Steven Duffy and Tammy Lovell as witnesses in an arson case that was brought against him after his Scottsdale home burned down in November 2005. The Duffy brothers and Tammy Lovell were former employees of Miller.

Steven Duffy was charged as a co-defendant in the Scottsdale arson after Tammy Lovell tipped off Scottsdale police that Duffy and Miller had burned the home.

Miller said he went to the family’s Mesa home to recover items that were taken during the arson that Steven Duffy hadn’t turned over to police or returned to him.

“Nobody was supposed to get shot,” Miller said.

Shane Duffy let them in by leaving a door open and helped stage the burglary by removing screens and leaving pry marks on the door, Miller said.

Miller made his offer to Shane about a month before the slayings when Shane came to him for a job reference.

“I said, ‘yeah. By the way, you want to make some extra money?’”

Here’s what happened at the home, according to Miller:

Miller stood in the loft of the home’s second floor, reading court documents from the arson case as his accomplice was downstairs.

The accomplice dropped a kitchen knife, causing Tammy Lovell to yell out.

Miller said Steven Duffy came out of the bedroom and opened fire on him, but Miller returned fire with his 9 mm revolver.

“I basically shot until I was out of ammo,” he said.

During the shooting, he said, the accomplice came upstairs and joined the gunfight.

Amid the gunfire, Steven had grabbed Tammy and tried to push her to safety as the bullets flew, so Miller believes he may have shot her, too.

Miller said as he stood in the hallway reloading his gun, his accomplice methodically killed the rest.

First, he shot Shane Duffy as he lay in bed. Cassandra Lovell, who shared the room with Shane, was next.

Then the accomplice shot Tammy again as she lay in her son Jacob’s bedroom and then he killed the boy.

An autopsy report says Jacob was shot in the forehead and that he received “blunt impacts to hips, elbow, knee and legs.”

Miller said there was “no good reason” to shoot Jacob. The accomplice “said (Jacob) was going for the gun,” Miller said.

The shooting lasted no more than a minute, Miller said.

Shauna Duffy doesn’t believe Miller’s version.

“Miller won’t name his accomplice because it’s easy to blame someone who hasn’t been caught,” Duffy wrote. “You can make up any story that suits your purposes.”

When asked how he escaped the house, Miller laughed.

“I ran my fat ass down the stairs,” he said.

Miller said he’d parked a van a few houses away and the pair made their get away without seeing any police.

Mesa police said officers arrived within two minutes of the first of 911 calls from neighbors.

Miller said they drove around to different locations and dumped their clothing and other items.

He chuckled, saying they drove home in their boxers and T-shirts.

The accomplice, who he said came specifically to help him with the burglary, flew back to the East Coast a few days after the shootings.

Miller shed no tears during the interview and never got emotional.

He spoke in a matter-of-fact tone even when he discussed his remorse.

“I feel terrible,” he said. “I didn’t intend for anybody but Steve to get killed.”

MURDER SCHEME

If Miller goes ahead with his guilty plea as scheduled on Aug. 15, he will have to admit to prosecutors’ accusations that he offered four different men money to kill Steven Duffy.

He said he never intended to kill Tammy Lovell, even though she tipped off Scottsdale police about the arson and persuaded Steven Duffy to cooperate with the investigation.

“The whole violence against women thing doesn’t do much for me,” Miller said.

Miller said he placed a GPS tracking device on Steven Duffy’s car, which is confirmed by police in court documents.

Miller’s secretary, Misty Cooper of Mesa, paid for the service for the tracker, a search warrant affidavit says.

Cooper also purchased the gun used to kill Steven Duffy and police investigated her, seizing her computer and putting her under surveillance.

Miller said she wasn’t intentionally involved.

“She just did what I told her to do. She didn’t ask any questions,” he said.

Miller said he learned Steven Duffy’s habits from the tracking device and knew exactly where he would be killed.

“He would have gotten shot at a stop sign,” he said.

Luhanna Chesley, Tammy Lovell’s sister, reacted Wednesday to Miller’s confession, saying he was responsible for the murders, even if he didn’t pull the trigger.

“You don’t have to be the triggerman,” she said. “He’s just as guilty. God will be his judge, just like he said in his interview. And that judgment is greater than man’s will ever be.”

- ABC15 News contributed to this report.