Amish Mother Ruth Miller Pleads Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity (UPDATE: Attorney Speaks, Citing “Mental Defect”)
Holmes County, Ohio Amish mother Ruth Miller had her arraignment this afternoon in Tuscarawas Common Pleas Court. Miller is charged with aggravated murder, among other charges, in the death of her four-year-old son Vincen Miller at Atwood Lake.
There are a couple of pieces of news emerging from the events of the day – the main one being that, as expected, Miller has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
There are few reported details on that at this point, other than that Miller’s attorney Ian N. Friedman submitted the plea.
UPDATE: Friedman elaborated after the hearing, citing a “mental defect”: After the hearing, Miller’s attorney, Ian Friedman, spoke to reporters.
“We entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity today because based upon the facts of this case, it’s very evident that it is fitting. This case would not have happened but for a mental defect that would have prevented Ms. Miller from appreciating the wrongfulness of her conduct,” he explained.
Friedman was asked if Miller has shared her feelings about what happened at Atwood Lake.
“Well, you know, she’s obviously devastated by what occurred. This is not something by any stretch of the imagination where we could think that someone would wake up and destroyed not just their life, but the life of their child,” he said. “I mean something is wrong and that’s what we’re getting to the bottom of now, but obviously she’s devastated with what’s happened. She is, her family is, everyone is.”
In a nine-minute clip of him speaking with reporters, among other things he says that, regarding Miller’s family and community members, “what happened on August 23rd, that person is not the person they know. That’s the person that they all believe was the victim of a mental health episode.”
You can listen to Friedman’s comments in full here:
My impression after watching and listening to his comments is that Friedman seems to be a very effective communicator.
Will Miller be released on bail?
Another piece from today – the matter of bail. Miller remains behind bars, and one of the next matters to be resolved is whether she’ll have the possibility of release before her trial. On that, we learned the following (via Canton Repository):
Tuscarawas County Prosecutor Ryan Styer wants Miller to continue to be held in jail without bond while she awaits trial. Miller’s defense wants to see her released on bond.
Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Ernest set a hearing for 1 p.m. Sept. 25 to hear both sides on the bond issue as well as a no-contact order with the alleged victims, Miller’s other children.
So that matter looks to be resolved one way or another here in a little over two weeks.
UPDATE: Friedman said this in his comments to reporters (see video above) about the hearing:
“what you should expect at that hearing is going to be not just your typical argument of why someone should be out, but evidence that addresses the factors that the court’s going to consider.
So I would expect at that hearing as evidenced by the motion that will be filed here momentarily that evidence will be put on certainly by the defense, we’ll be calling family members of Ruth Miller’s, we’ll be calling members of the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Department, and also mental health professionals from the Cleveland Clinic.”
Complicating things is the fact that not only was Miller’s youngest son Vincen an alleged victim, but so were her three teenage children – due to the golf cart incident, which is what ended up getting deputies out to Atwood Lake on August 23.
Miller faces charges of domestic violence and child endangering in relation to that incident, which may prevent her from having contact with her surviving immediate family.
Miller’s husband Marcus also perished at Atwood Lake, allegedly as a result of his decision to swim out into deeper waters of the lake as a test of faith.
There is not really any new information here, but the Canton Repository report also contains a summary of what happened on August 23. This would be according to what the Tuscarawas County Sheriff says that Ruth Miller told investigators:
The Millers very early the morning of Aug. 23 went to a dock on the western shore of Atwood Lake. The western part of the lake is in Tuscarawas County, and the eastern part is in Carroll County.
The couple jumped into the water “to prove their worthiness to God.”
But after they returned to their recreational vehicle, the husband chose to return to the lake to swim to the sand bar as a further test of his faith. He ended up drowning.
Ruth later erratically drove her 4-year-old son in a golf cart back to the dock and threw him into the water “as an offering to God,” and the child died.
Ruth Miller then returned to the RV and got her 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old sons to jump into the lake. They survived uninjured.
Ruth Miller had turned 40 the day before the drownings.
WKYC has a brief report below, with some footage from Miller’s arraignment, but no new details outside of what I’ve posted above:
Update: Full Video of Proceedings
A video of the full proceedings has been released which you can view here:
I hope that the surviving children get the love and support they need to get through this difficult time. I also hope that Ruth gets the help she needs to deal with her mental health issues. That being said I think the not guilty by reason of insanity argument might be hard for them to win. The not guilty by reason of insanity argument is only successful about 25% of the time. It will be the responsibility of the defense team to prove that Miller didn’t understand the consequences of her actions at the time. I think it’s clear from the body camera video that Miller was going through some kind of mental episode at the time however she did say that she threw her son in the lake to give him to god. Despite the fact that she was going through something, if she still understood that throwing her son in the lake would result in his death then she could be found guilty.