"I Am Not Looking for Sympathy": The Zombie Hunter Speaks in Court, 2023

Name: "I Am Not Looking for Sympathy": The Zombie Hunter Speaks in Court, 2023
Uploaded: 2023-06-10
Duration: 26 min 11 s
Description: Facing a possible death sentence, Bryan Patrick Miller told the judge he accepted the court's decision, spoke of his childhood and his daughter, and said there was "so much I can say here, but I won't."

Facing a possible death sentence, Bryan Patrick Miller told the judge he accepted the court's decision, spoke of his childhood and his daughter, and said there was "so much I can say here, but I won't."

Subject: Bryan Patrick Miller
Recorded: about May 22, 2023
Runtime: 26:11

Content warning: Concerns the murders of a young woman and a 17-year-old girl; the hosts discuss other unsolved attacks and the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl.

The Statement

On May 22, 2023, near the end of the penalty phase of his trial for two murders committed thirty years earlier, Bryan Patrick Miller stood before Judge Suzanne Cohen and spoke in court for the first time. Reading from a prepared statement for about two minutes, he said he was not looking for sympathy, that he accepted the court's decision, and that he wished he could answer the families' questions. He spoke of being "scared", "lost" and "confused" as a child, of wanting help, and of missing his daughter. He ended: "There is so much I can say here, but I won't. This has gone on long enough."

Historical Context

Angela Brosso was killed on November 8, 1992, the eve of her 22nd birthday, while riding her bicycle along the Arizona Canal in north Phoenix. Melanie Bernas, 17, was killed in September 1993 and found in the canal not far away. The cases went unsolved for more than twenty years until DNA evidence led to Miller's arrest in January 2015. Miller, who had stabbed a woman in Phoenix as a teenager, had become known locally for dressing as a "Zombie Hunter".

Circumstances of the Statement

Miller waived a jury, so Judge Cohen decided both his guilt and his sentence. His defense did not dispute that he committed the killings but argued that he was insane. In April 2023 the judge found him guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault. In the penalty phase, Miller's lawyer told the court without warning that his client wished to address the judge. Arizona's Family had no camera crew in court that day; its chief investigative reporter, Morgan Loew, recorded the statement on his phone from the media room. The station played it in full in this podcast episode, recorded the same day.

What the Recording Covers

The video is a podcast episode. The two hosts explain how the statement came to be recorded, play it in full, and then discuss it: what they took as signs of remorse, the absence of a direct apology to the families, and his reference to his mother. They then discuss other cases in which Miller has been suspected but never charged, and their hope that he might have spoken about them. Miller's own words take up about two minutes of the 26.

What Makes the Recording Significant

Miller did not testify at his trial. Apart from his 2015 police interrogation (played in court in 2022), this is one of very few public recordings of his voice, and it was the first time he addressed the court. Two weeks later, on June 7, 2023, Judge Cohen sentenced him to death on both murder counts.

Archival Importance

The statement is a defendant's allocution: his last chance to speak before a capital sentence was decided. It shows what he chose to say, and what he chose not to say, after a trial in which his lawyers did not deny the killings but argued that he was insane.

Important Caveats

The hosts' opinions and their discussion of uncharged cases are their own; Miller has not been charged in any of those cases, and one ended in acquittal. The hosts call the statement "testimony"; it was an allocution, not sworn testimony. The page copy names only the two murder victims; other people named in the discussion (survivors of attacks, Miller's family members) are not named on the page.

Announcer: This is True Crime Arizona, an Arizona's Family Originals podcast.

Briana Whitney: Hi, everyone. It's Briana Whitney, host of the True Crime Arizona podcast. By now, you're pretty used to hearing me and our investigative reporter Morgan Loew break down what's been going on in the Zombie Hunter trial. And this might be one of the biggest things that could have happened during the scope of this. We had said months ago, we weren't sure if Bryan Patrick Miller, the Zombie Hunter, would take the stand himself, if he would ever testify. And here we are in this penalty phase of the trial, where they're deciding whether he's going to face death or be given life in prison. And today, Bryan Patrick Miller spoke to the court. He testified. And we have really never heard him talk, almost ever, until now. Morgan, you were in the courtroom, and this did not happen or go down how we expected it to at all. Can you describe how this played out?

Morgan Loew: Yeah, I was in court today to try to figure out what the schedule was going to be for the rest of the week. So I was not there to listen to testimony, because it was a psychologist testifying, and we've heard psychologists testify in this. I wanted to find out if Miller was going to speak. We assumed it was going to be tomorrow, which, this is Monday when we're recording this, tomorrow is Tuesday. We had been told that if he was going to speak, it was going to be Tuesday. So I wanted to find out, and I just stayed and I stayed, and the psychologist finished testifying, and all of a sudden R.J. Parker, Bryan Miller's attorney, stands up and he says, "Your Honor, my client would like to exercise his right to allocute."

Morgan Loew: And allocute, that's a big word, and that is a portion of a sentencing phase where the defendant is allowed to stand up and speak directly to the judge. And so Judge Suzanne Cohen says, "Okay, does he want to do it today or tomorrow?" And Parker says he wants to do it right now.

Briana Whitney: And there were no cameras in the court?

Morgan Loew: No, we didn't have a photographer in. And so we had scheduled photographers to be in court the next three days, just in case. We didn't have one there today. So luckily the judge says, well, let's take a few minutes here, because we'd been sitting through testimony, and I was able to get the bailiff over and say, "Look, I know it's weird, but can I use my cell phone, sit in the media room, through the window, so we don't bother anybody?" And the judge agreed to that. So we were able to videotape and get audio. It doesn't look as good as it normally does with one of our big expensive cameras. But we were like, holy cow, he's going to talk right now, and we don't have any way to capture it.

Briana Whitney: I mean, had you not been there, we may not have heard this ever.

Morgan Loew: It was very lucky that I was there.

Briana Whitney: Wow. So I mean, huge, huge that we're hearing from him. I mean, going through months and months of testimony, from hearing about him through everybody else, this is finally him in his own words. Why don't we play it in full? He only talked for a couple minutes. It's not super long. But for everybody who's been following along this case, this is probably the moment you're going to want to hear, when Bryan Patrick Miller testifies in front of the judge himself.

Bryan Patrick Miller: I am not looking for sympathy today. This time is for the family and the friends of the victims. I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these years. I want to just say a few words, and I am really hoping my words do not cause any more hurt than what the families are already suffering. I accept the court's decision, and I am hoping this trial and my convictions have provided some measure of relief for the families. I know this has been a long and painful process for everyone. I wish I could provide answers to the questions you have. I have learned new things about myself in this process, and while I don't have all the answers, I hope to find some.

Bryan Patrick Miller: I know I am different. I didn't understand completely why. I thought [unclear: "it had to do with" / "I had to do this" / "I had to do with"] what my mother did to me. Growing up, I was scared. I was lost. I was confused. I was not allowed to express myself. I want to get help in trying to open up the parts of me I know I have shut out. While I cannot change the past, I can work to have a positive impact on others in the future.

Bryan Patrick Miller: I want to do whatever I can to help my daughter. [unclear: "She means the world to me" / "change the world to me"], and if there is anything I can do to make this part of her life easier, I will do it. I was not a perfect father, but I tried my best. I am sorry for the damage [unclear: "these experiences caused her" / "this experience has caused her"]. I miss her. I want to learn more about myself. I hope as I do, what I learn will help others. There is so much I can say here, but I won't. This has gone on long enough. I hope everyone can find some [unclear: "extra" / "measure of"] peace going forward. Thank you.

Morgan Loew: And that was it. We heard his voice. We heard what he had to say. We heard what he talked about. What he did not talk about was probably as remarkable as what he did say. So, Briana, you've heard him. We've read the transcript to make sure we didn't miss anything. What stands out to you?

Briana Whitney: So we heard that part when he sounded like he got a little bit choked up, or at least took a moment to collect himself. And I thought that moment was interesting based on what he was saying at that time, which was "While I cannot change the past". I mean, I took that as acknowledging the fact that he knows he did this, he knows he was convicted of it, and is maybe for the first time ever showing some remorse to the victims' families and the victims.

Morgan Loew: Yeah, we couldn't see his face because of where I was standing to get that shot. The media room is in the back of the courtroom. So he was facing the judge, and Judge Cohen was staring at him. He was probably four feet away from the judge, and she was, like, eagle eye, locked on him as he was talking. But it did sound like he broke up a little bit there. That was the first time we've heard any sort of emotion. And it is interesting, when he said it, "I know I can't change the past", and then he transitions and starts talking about his daughter. We'll get to that part in a minute.

Morgan Loew: It's interesting that he starts out by saying he's not looking for sympathy. That's actually the reason you allocute. This is called an allocution: you speak to the judge. That's the reason you are, basically, you know, you are throwing yourself on the sword, you are asking for mercy. He never really asks for mercy. He also doesn't really say, in no place in here does he say "I am sorry" to the victims' families.

Briana Whitney: It's interesting the way he worded this. And he was reading from a script, so he wrote this.

Morgan Loew: Yes, this wasn't just him speaking sort of off the top of his head.

Briana Whitney: I think the fact that he said he accepts the court's decision, too, I mean, that's interesting. The reason I took away that, you know, was there a show of remorse there, was because I know when we talked about the victim impact statements from the Bernas family and the Brosso family, you heard Melanie Bernas's sister saying, "We were looking for any signs of remorse, and we didn't get it. We did not hear it." So do you think he took that, listened to what they had to say? And do you think this was his attempt at remorse, too?

Morgan Loew: Whatever ability of remorse he has, it might have been his attempt. But he spends most of the time here talking about himself.

Briana Whitney: Yeah, what he's been through, and he thought that it was because of his mom.

Morgan Loew: It was Bryan, Bryan, Bryan. So I certainly am not claiming to speak for the victims' family members, but I would be very surprised if they heard this and they were satisfied.

Briana Whitney: Right, because like you said, there was no "I'm sorry". And I do think it was interesting that he brought up the abuse from his mom, called himself scared and lost, as if that was some sort of rationale for what he did.

Morgan Loew: Well, that's been the defense the whole time, and we've talked about this before. I mean, what could he say? Could he say, "I'm sorry that I did this. If I could go back, I would undo it"? Maybe he could have said that. But if he sort of admits that he remembers any of it, it sort of destroys the defense. And we don't know if he remembers it. What we do know is that the judge didn't buy it, because he was found guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Briana Whitney: Yeah. Do you think that this was effective? I mean, this was kind of the Hail Mary, the last attempt for the defense to try to get him life in prison versus a death penalty. Do you think this changes the scope of what the judge has heard so far in this phase of the trial?

Morgan Loew: You know, it is a Hail Mary. You summed it up perfectly. And it is always a risk to have a defendant speak. Now, this was a very calculated risk, because technically Bryan Miller wasn't testifying. When you testify, you open yourself up to direct and cross-examination. You open yourself up to cross-examination. This was the allocution. I think that the judge was allowed to ask him questions, but I don't think, and I'm not a lawyer in Arizona, I don't think that they are allowed to cross-examine him. He stands in front of the judge and he speaks.

Morgan Loew: I am of the opinion that when you can talk to somebody, when you hear somebody speak, it reminds you that this may be, this person may have done monstrous things, but this person is a human being. And I think that if anything, this reminded the judge that Bryan Miller may be a flawed human being, but he is a human being. So in that respect, I do think that it was successful, and I do think that it was a successful gamble on the defense attorney's part, on allowing him to do this. That being said, is it going to make a difference? I don't know about that. You have an eight-month trial, and now we have two minutes of somebody saying he's sorry for all this stuff that happened, but not saying, "I'm sorry to the victims' families, I'm sorry that I did this." It's like he stopped short of what everybody was maybe looking for.

Briana Whitney: Yeah. And will we, and maybe we can't answer this now, but will we know if something like this played a part? Will the judge explain her decision as to why she sentences him the way that she does when that comes up, giving some sort of explanation as to whether she chooses death or whether she chooses life in prison?

Morgan Loew: That's a great question, and I have no idea.

Briana Whitney: Yeah. I mean, I can see the judge explaining her reasoning. I could also see it just being matter-of-fact. I'm not sure.

Morgan Loew: There's one other thing in here that stands out to me, because we have covered this case long before the trial. Years. And we know there's a lot more to his story. And there's a line that he put in here. He says, "I wish I could provide answers to the questions you have", which is basically him saying, I'm not going to explain myself. And it's also saying, I'm not going to talk about any of the other potential and actual victims that I'm not on trial for.

Morgan Loew: And we know that he stabbed, he was put on trial for stabbing somebody in Washington. He is accused, and police believe he stabbed Victoria Michaelson in Washington. There's Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez in Washington; he was found not guilty at trial, he said it was self-defense. We have Victoria Michaelson, who Phoenix police believe that he was the one who attacked her. We know Celeste Bentley here in Phoenix: she was attacked by him, and he was convicted when he was a minor. And then there's Brandy Myers, 13-year-old who disappeared in Phoenix, and detectives forwarded that case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for charges, and that was rejected, but police believe that he was the one who murdered her. And there's the possibility that he is the person responsible for Adrienne Salinas's death.

Briana Whitney: Shannon Aumock.

Morgan Loew: Another young, 12, 12 or 13 years old.

Briana Whitney: Yeah, a young, young girl.

Morgan Loew: They found, similar to Brandy's age, yeah, and they found her remains when they were looking for Brandy Myers. And then there's another case where a woman said that she was attacked along the Arizona Canal; she jumped in the canal to get away. And so there are these other cases, and there's this uncertainty about whether he's responsible. And some detectives that both of us have spoken to, as well as parents and family members of some of these other girls, were hoping that maybe he would admit what he did to other victims, in order to show some goodwill to the court, to get a more lenient sentence. And I don't know that this is the only opportunity for him to do that, but this certainly was the big opportunity for him to do that, and he did not do that.

Briana Whitney: And the line near the end that also struck me, just exactly based on what you said: "There is so much I could say here, but I won't." Why not? This is your opportunity to do so, right? I mean, take the opportunity.

Morgan Loew: Take the opportunity, right?

Briana Whitney: Right. I don't necessarily understand that. And I know multiple detectives that we've talked to were hoping, are still hoping, that he does come forward with more information, because it is astounding when you just listen right there to the names you listed. That's a long list of unsolved cases that could be linked to Bryan Patrick Miller. And do we think, even after sentencing, that we've heard the last of him, and the last of potential crimes he was involved in?

Morgan Loew: I don't know.

Briana Whitney: Does this open the door for more?

Morgan Loew: Yeah, I mean, these are the two cases that investigators and prosecutors had the strongest evidence. They had DNA evidence. Those other cases, there's no DNA. The other cases, there is circumstantial evidence.

Briana Whitney: Circumstantial at best. The MO.

Morgan Loew: Victoria Michaelson picked him out, saw his picture and said, yeah, that's the guy who attacked me. Miller's wife said that he admitted to her that he attacked Brandy Myers and Victoria Michaelson. We know he was in the area of where Adrienne Salinas was, the, later in the morning after she disappeared. We know he was in that area because he went to help a friend move, and then he went to a party in that area. So there are links to these other cases, but no evidence strong enough to support a prosecution. So unless he admits something, I don't know that those cases are going to go anywhere.

Briana Whitney: Wow. Unless they were to find magically more evidence that linked him.

Morgan Loew: Yeah, maybe something, DNA, or somebody saw something, or came forward with something new. I'll tell you one of the things that I heard in the courtroom the last couple of days is kind of interesting. Two different people testified, and this came out in psychologist interviews, that, one of them was Amy, and then another one was the psychologist today, saying that Bryan Miller often left his daughter Sarah alone at home. And one of the big reasons that we heard from detectives in the Adrienne Salinas case that they didn't think that it was Miller who did it was that they believed that Miller was really adamant about always being there with his daughter and not leaving his daughter home alone.

Morgan Loew: And now we've heard testimony over and over again that he often left her home alone, and they couldn't find any evidence that he found a babysitter for her the night that Adrienne Salinas disappeared. I'm going off on a tangent here, but it just really struck me today that this was the opportunity. If he was going to fess up to other crimes, this was the opportunity to do it, and he didn't do it. And maybe in the Salinas case there isn't, you know, concrete evidence that he was the guy, but he told his wife that he killed Brandy Myers. He told his wife that he attacked Victoria Michaelson. And so there is some evidence there.

Briana Whitney: And can you explain to our listeners the Adrienne Salinas case, too, in case they haven't listened to UnResolved, your other podcast series about that whole case, just so people know why Miller is even brought up in that case?

Morgan Loew: Yeah. Adrienne Salinas was a year out of high school, living with some friends in Tempe. At four o'clock in the morning she goes from her apartment on Hardy near University to meet a cab at University and Hardy, walks maybe four blocks, and in those four blocks she disappears. And the police look for her, the family members look for her. Two to three months later her remains were found in a wash in Apache Junction. And so it's this mystery that happened over ten years ago. I believe it was 2013 that she disappeared. And so they found her remains, but they had been sort of weathered and they were out in the desert, so there wasn't any real evidence that they found.

Morgan Loew: But later we have come to find that Bryan Miller was in the area later in the morning when she disappeared. And so you have now a convicted serial killer in the area of a notorious girl who vanished, a case where she vanished and then her remains were found, and so you have to look at him as a possibility. And Tempe PD, they never closed the case, but they have a detective who's been on it now for a couple of years, a new detective, and he's following up clues and leads. But they just, you know, they say, is it possible that it's Miller? Yes. They just don't have the evidence that links him to her death. And we've interviewed her family members, and I will tell you, there is nothing more that I would like for them to have than some closure, at least to know who did it.

Briana Whitney: Yeah. And they don't have that. And as we know, Bryan did not come forward with anything else today on any other case. Before we wrap this up, I also want to ask you, just being in the courtroom: we haven't gotten to see Bryan, you know, get up or do a whole lot, right? Usually we're staring at the back of his head the entire time. And while we still were looking at the back of his head while he was talking to the judge directly, did you notice anything as he was coming back to his attorneys to sit down? Was there any, could you tell, was there any visible emotion? Was his demeanor a certain way? And did he say anything with his attorneys when he sat down that looked like, you know, some sort of "okay, I did it", or this was a resolution?

Morgan Loew: Yeah, he turned around and he talked to one of the investigators, one of the other attorneys. He did look, I don't know if I'm just adding more to this, but he did look a little more relaxed, or relieved, than he has before. Definitely more relaxed. He wears a mask and glasses, so you really can't tell his expression, so it's, you know, it was really tough to tell. But I did note that afterwards he sat down, he turned around, he was talking to this person, and I hadn't seen him sort of be as animated like that. Not like freaked-out animated, but more sort of relaxed; you could see it. So I don't know, maybe, maybe that was it. I will tell you that he got a haircut. He had not had a haircut the entire trial. You could see, I'm sitting behind him, so I see him the whole time. Got a haircut.

Morgan Loew: And coming up Thursday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we have closing arguments from the defense and the prosecutors, a second set of closing arguments for the penalty phase. And then we expect the verdict, not the verdict, we expect the sentencing to come down at some point about a week into June.

Briana Whitney: Okay, so early June, just so our listeners know when to expect us. I know we've kind of been saying, we don't know, we don't know when this, how long this is going to go, but it does seem like we are going to go into June. Are they taking a week off?

Morgan Loew: The judge is going to take some time to look over everything. I don't know all of the details of why they're scheduling it for that point, but the judge was talking about having a lot of information to go over.

Briana Whitney: Months, months of everything, and even on just this back end, too. It's been weeks and weeks of more. I can't imagine just what she's going to have to sift through. And I mean, that's a big decision: life in prison versus sentencing somebody to death.

Morgan Loew: Yeah. For one person to decide.

Briana Whitney: Yeah, that's a lot of responsibility. It will be interesting to hear the closing arguments from the defense and the prosecutors, their final push in this trial, this eight-month trial. We'll definitely do a podcast with the highlights from the closings, because that is going to be interesting for people who follow this case.

Morgan Loew: Yes.

Briana Whitney: So expect to hear from us again after we have the closing arguments, probably later this week. And then of course, once we get that final decision on the sentencing, we'll of course bring you that, what the judge says with it, if anything at all, and wrap this entire trial up. We appreciate everybody sticking with us. We know it's for the long haul here, but wow, this is a big, a big day in a months-long trial.

Briana Whitney: And also, Morgan and I are on social media. If you're listening to this and you want to weigh in on what you think about what Bryan Miller said today, we'd love to hear it. We like getting feedback. I've gotten a lot of messages and emails and social media comments, all of the above, about this, and I really enjoy hearing what everybody in the community thinks about this case. And with such a pivotal moment today, Morgan and I would love to hear from you. So if anybody wants to weigh in, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, you name it, we'd love to hear what you think, and your takeaway from today. Thanks, everybody, for listening, and we'll see you back here in about a week. True Crime Arizona, the podcast, is hosted by me, Briana Whitney.

Morgan Loew: And me, Morgan Loew.

Briana Whitney: It is a production of 3TV, CBS 5 and azfamily.com in Phoenix, Arizona.

Announcer: This is True Crime Arizona, an Arizona's Family Originals podcast. ---