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| Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. |
The man who admitted killing 3 people at 2 suburban Kansas City Jewish sites gave jurors a Nazi salute Monday after they convicted him of murder and other charges for the shootings, which he said would allow him to "die a martyr."
It took the jury of 7 men and 5 women just over 2 hours to find Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. guilty of 1 count of capital murder, 3 counts of attempted murder and assault and weapons charges.
After the verdict was announced, Miller, 74, of Aurora, Missouri, said: "The fat lady just sang" and he raised his right arm in the Nazi salute. As jurors were filing out of the courtroom later, he told them: "You probably won't sleep tonight."
The judge reminded Miller that the same jury will decide his sentence. He could get the death penalty. The sentencing proceedings were expected to begin Tuesday.
During the prosecution's closing, District Attorney Steve Howe cited a "mountain of evidence" against Miller, who is charged with capital murder in the April 2014 shootings at 2 Jewish sites in Overland Park, Kansas. Although he has admitted to killing the three people, he has pleaded not guilty, saying it was his duty to stop genocide against the white race. None of the victims was Jewish.
"He wants to be the one who decides who lives and dies," Howe said of Miller.
The Passover eve shootings killed William Corporon, 69, and Corporon's 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, and Terri LaManno, 53, at the nearby Village Shalom retirement center.
During his closing, Miller said he had been "floating on a cloud" since the killings. Earlier, he objected when Howe alleged he wanted to kill as many people as possible. Miller interjected: "I wanted to kill Jews, not people."
Miller, who also was known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., urged jurors to "show great courage" and find him not guilty.
"You have the power in your hands to inspire the world," he said. "You can become a man or woman your forefathers will be proud of for your bravery."
The proceedings were marked with frequent outbursts from Miller, who objected repeatedly while jurors were out of the courtroom during discussions about what instructions should guide deliberations. At one point, he said, "I object to everything on the grounds of George Washington, our founding father."
The objections became so heated that Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan temporarily ejected Miller from the courtroom when Miller said he didn't respect the process and used an anti-Semitic comment to criticize the court system. Ryan told Miller that if there were further outbursts, he would permanently eject him or declare a mistrial.
Miller groused before finally agreeing, "I will take it under advisement and try to improve."
Miller is a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party. He also ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missouri, each time espousing a white-power platform.
Source: Associated Press, Sept. 1, 2015
