December 1989 – a 4 y.o. boy was killed in a desert area north-east of Phoenix: Christopher Milke. Within one day Phoenix police presented three suspects, claiming that they conspired to have the 4 y.o. killed. Conspired? Was it the president of the United States, or the pope, some famous rock star, or a big banker who was going to be the victim? No, it was a four year old child. And according to this incredible story of the State of Arizona the actual triggerman supposedly needed a driver. While 95% of the world would laugh about such an unbelievable story the government of Arizona managed to get the killed boy’s mother indicted and even convicted on the claim that she was the mastermind behind the homicide. She, her room mate, and a friend of the room mate were sentenced to die.
But what happened really? On December 2nd, 1989 police interrogated a suspect, who would get caught in a web of contradicting falsehoods, and pointed the finger at his buddy JAMES STYERS, who was at the same time the room mate of the boy’s mother, DEBRA MILKE. After STYERS was arrested he refused to talk to police, requested an attorney, and that caused a problem to the case lead detective. After SCOTT led police to the murdered boy’s corpse in the desert two Phoenix police detectives were sent in a car to interview the boy’s mother DEBRA MILKE, who had gone with her step-mother and step-sister to be with her father’s family and wait to hear about her missing boy. Upon STYERS’ refusal to talk to police the case lead detective halted his fellow detectives; they were ordered via radio ‘not to talk to the mother’ but to guard her and make sure she would not leave. The case lead detective ARMANDO SALDATE then rushed to Florence himself using a helicopter, created a situation where he was alone with her in a room, without a witness or a tape-recorder present. Upon emerging from that room after a 25 minute interrogation the mother was neither handcuffed, nor was she supposed to talk to anyone. None of SALDATE’s fellow detectives mention a voluntary confession of Debra in their respective police reports. SALDATE placed Debra in a car and brought her back to Phoenix.
Three days later he claimed that she confessed to a conspiracy to have the little boy killed, and the motive supposedly was to cash in on a life insurance policy. Is this what really happened?
The claim of the state was that the two men, SCOTT and STYERS, took the boy to a pizza parlor where he had his ‘last meal’ and was then taken to the desert where he was killed. This happened – supposedly – between 1 and 2.45 p.m. Interestingly various police reports contradict this claim: SCOTT’S was seen by three independent witnesses within 45 minutes and a three-miles distance only. Reconstructing the timeline of the day that CHRISTOPHER MILKE died we can see that he must have been killed at 11 a.m. Four local witnesses testified that they heard five to seven shots around that time, which were fired in two series, with a few minutes break in between. This story is totally conflicting with the claim that the boy’s murder was premeditated. What were the two series of shots about?
STYERS had purchased two guns on the weekend preceding to the homicide; one for himself, one for his high school buddy ROGER SCOTT. Phoenix police never investigated this true scenario, no tests for power burns were ever taken, and so we can only reach a conclusion using our common sense: Can we imagine a scenario where the first series killed the boy, and the two men then continued ‘target practicing’? Hardly… It was obviously the second series of shots which killed CHRISTOPHER. But what was the first series about? Without MILKE’s knowledge STYERS drove over to SCOTT’s apartment on that morning in order to give him the gun. That gun was later found in SCOTT’s apartment. Interestingly a fellow inmate of SCOTT, ROBERT E. JOHNSON, told the prosecution’s investigator that SCOTT had confessed this scenario to him, and that he had killed CHRISTOPHER MILKE.
After SCOTT had shot Christopher, STYERS and SCOTT eventually went to the pizza restaurant where they obviously concocted a plan to claim that Christopher was missing from a public restroom in the Metro Center mall. This was also a promising occasion for STYERS to distance himself from the murder as far as possible, but also to cover his irresponsibility toward DEBRA (whom he had promised never to subject the little boy to the presence of a gun). How else could he explain to her why Christopher was there in that desert area? Therefore STYERS dropped SCOTT off at an Osco Drugs store and then drove to the Metro Center himself. Only two hours later (~ 4 p.m.) SCOTT showed up at the shopping mall, presumably in order to confirm STYERS’ story, that he had seen JIM STYERS together with the child there. STYERS confessed to this in one of his letters to DEBRA, already in prison.
But why the alleged confession? Only by alleging the uncorroborated confession of MILKE (not signed, not tape-recorded, not witnessed), and claiming that STYERS was the actual culprit, the state managed to get all three individuals on death row. In fact, all documents clearly show that any other scenario but STYERS being the actual triggerman was excluded by the county prosecution from day #1. County prosecutor NOEL LEVY offered ROGER SCOTT a plea deal which would have allowed him to avoid the death penalty, but SCOTT refused the offer. STYERS was never offered such a plea deal. His substantial role was to be assumed the actual killer. This, plus allowing the fabricated confession of MILKE into evidence, is the ultimate error in this DP case. There is not a single indication in the file that STYERS would want CHRISTOPHER dead.
If we allow such tactics to turn out successful then we all should be scared.
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