19-year-old arrested in homicide case
At about 1 p.m. Thursday, police arrested the 19-year-old man who is believed to have shot his 23-year-old neighbor in Oakland Township on Tuesday night.
Police wanted Alec D. Miller of Butler on a charge of general homicide in the shooting of Maximillian W. Halterman. Miller was arrested at a home in Franklin in Venango County.
Police said they arrested three other people in the home, who were charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution.
In a news conference later Thursday, State Trooper Dan Kesten could confirm only two of the three other arrests besides Miller made in the case. Those are Robbie Dunbar Jr. and Lamaria Franklin, 20, of New Kensington. Both are charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution.
Franklin is the daughter of the owner of the home where Miller was found, according to Kesten. The home is on Atlantic Avenue in Franklin.
“Upon arrival of police, a female answered the door,” Kesten said. “Descriptions were given of some of the occupants of the residence. One of those fit the description of Alec Miller, who was the actor in this incident. The police hailed him from the residence. He surrendered without incident. Lamaria was also hailed from the residence. She also surrendered without incident.”
Kesten said he could not release any information about the relationship between Miller and Halterman.
Police identified Franklin as Miller's girlfriend in a criminal complaint.
Dunbar is also named in the complaint. Miller texted Dunbar after police believe Halterman died.
“I went to Max house and smoked him,” the text read.
“what you mean smoked? He gone?” Dunbar replied.
Miller clarified: “yea I shot him in the neck and the head.” (sic)
The same complaint notes that Miller is known by the nickname “Shooter.”
When asked for mugshots of Franklin and Dunbar Jr., staff at the Butler County Prison reported that they had been directed to not release any such photos related to the case. They confirmed Thursday night that Dunbar, Miller and Franklin were being held in the prison, and Kesten said during the news conference that they're awaiting arraignment.
On how police were able to locate Miller, Kesten said only that “information developed” Thursday that Miller was in the area of the Atlantic Avenue home. State police and Franklin City police both investigated the scene.
Halterman was found dead at his log cabin rental unit on Davis Road in Oakland Township with two gunshot wounds in his neck and head region. The shooting wasn't reported to police until a 911 call Wednesday morning, but it was believed to have occurred Tuesday night.
Almost immediately after finding the body, police said, investigators began piecing together what happened, in part from interviews with family members and friends.
One of Halterman's sisters told police that she had earlier received a phone call from another woman, who claimed that a man named “Shooter” was the shooter, according to charging documents.
A friend of Halterman's recounted receiving a similar phone call from the same woman. The friend knew that Miller's nickname is “Shooter.”
Three houses away on Davis Road, investigators made their way to Miller's home. He lives there with his grandparents, authorities said.
Police spoke to the defendant's grandmother. She advised that Miller had taken her husband's pickup truck without her permission at about 7 p.m. Tuesday.
By 10 p.m., her grandson had not returned with the truck, so the woman called police to report it stolen, according to authorities.But about 1 a.m. Wednesday, the grandmother got a call from Miller's girlfriend, who told her the truck was at the Greenview Gardens apartment complex in Butler.The teen's grandfather went to the apartments to retrieve his truck. Inside, documents said, he noticed his grandson's cell phone, which he brought back to his home and placed in Miller's bedroom.Miller's younger brother told investigators that the defendant had taken the truck Tuesday. The sibling also acknowledged that Miller had taken his hunting rifle from the family's gun cabinet, documents said.Police during their investigation obtained a search warrant for Halterman's house and property. They were particularly interested in securing footage from any and all security cameras.Investigators reviewed the video from cameras on the detached garage, police said, which provided a key clue.The footage showed a truck — which matched the description of the pickup belonging to Miller's grandfather — arriving at Halterman's home at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday.“The video shows a male actor exit the truck with a long gun and enter the victim's residence,” documents said.The same man is later seen leaving and entering the home several times, police said. He also is seen going into and rummaging through Halterman's vehicles parked in the driveway.“The actor remains at the scene for approximately 24 minutes,” documents said, “and fled the scene in the same truck he arrived.”The grandfather's truck on Wednesday was towed to the barracks. Police got a warrant to search it and found in it a Savage 7 mm-08 rifle — the same make and model gun that Miller allegedly took from the family's gun cabinet.In the rifle's chamber, police said, was one spent casing.But prosecutor Ben Simon, a Butler County assistant district attorney, on Wednesday offered a theory for the shooting.“We have reason to believe it's a dual motive: drugs and disrespect toward one another,” he said. He would not elaborate.
