Accused murderer repeats innocent pleas
The man accused of the Christmas Day shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her teenage daughter pleaded innocent to two counts of deliberate homicide Thursday in Flathead District Court.
Tyler Miller, 34, was arraigned for a second time after the Flathead County Attorney Office filed notice March 9 that it would seek the death penalty due to the premeditated and violent nature of the murders.
Miller, who had his last name legally changed from Cheetham in 2009, first pleaded innocent Jan. 13.
Miller’s attorney, Noel Larrivee, provided the not-guilty pleas and generally denied all aggravating factors on behalf of Miller on Thursday.
Asked by District Judge Stewart Stadler if he understood the charges, Miller leaned forward and nodded.
“Yes sir, I understand,” he said.
Larrivee also said he has filed notice that he will argue that Miller suffers from a mental disease and that he did not have the ability to understand the criminality of his actions.
Montana abolished the affirmative insanity defense in 1979 but still allows juries to return verdicts of “guilty, but insane.”
Larrivee also asked that prosecutors be barred from talking to media outlets about the case as it proceeds to trial.
He said any undue “publicity would jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial.”
Miller was arrested Dec. 25, 2010, after allegedly shooting 35-year-old Jaimi Hurlbert and her 15-year-old daughter Alyssa Burkett with a .45 caliber handgun in the driveway of his mother’s home west of Kalispell.
County Attorney Ed Corrigan wrote in an affidavit supporting the death penalty that Miller admitted to planning and carrying out the shootings and that he showed no remorse during numerous interviews with Flathead County Sheriff’s Office detectives.
Miller allegedly said he felt like he had “accomplished something” and accused Hurlbert and one of her friends of attempting to have him put back in prison, according to court documents.
Miller is tentatively scheduled to go to trial July 11. An omnibus hearing has been scheduled for May 11.
He is being held in the Flathead Detention Center without bail.