Judge sentences molester — (Tulsa World)

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Tulsa World

August 2, 2001

Author: BILL BRAUN; World Staff Writer

A Tulsan with a record of weapon assaults received a 20-year prison sentence — to be followed by a lifetime probation — for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl.

David Wayne Miller, 35, pleaded guilty June 18 to a sex-abuse charge involving a child whose mother lived with the defendant.

Tulsa County District Judge Jefferson Sellers on Tuesday imposed a life term but suspended all but 20 years of that punishment. Miller will take part in a sex offender treatment program conducted by the Department of Corrections.

The girl indicated that on one occasion Miller ordered her to perform a sex act that involved the use of pancake syrup, police were told.

A Tulsa psychologist who evaluated Miller in jail in March determined that he was competent to be prosecuted.

Miller has a history of mental health treatment, and he said that prior to his arrest he was getting outpatient treatment at Parkside and taking medication for depression, Dr. William Cooper reported.

Miller was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1988 for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He got a two-year sentence in 1997 for the same offense, records show.

He was charged seven years ago with murdering a man, but that case was later dismissed at the request of the District Attorney’s Office.

A prosecutor said in 1994 that he didn’t think he could successfully proceed with that murder case because evidence showed that Miller and Jimmy Wayne Marlin had an altercation — in which Marlin was the aggressor — about 10 minutes before the deadly fight in which Marlin was fatally stabbed while on Miller’s front porch. Bill Braun, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8455 or via e-mail at bill.braun@tulsaworld.com.

Record Number:  TLW0802054