Testimony reveals defendant’s description of Myers murder

December 6, 2012

A preliminary hearing Wednesday in the Dystiny Myers murder case revealed statements by one of the defendants explaining his role in the killing of the 15-year-old Santa Maria girl. [KCOY]

Cody Miller told San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters that the other participants in the September 26, 2010 killing of Myers coerced him into partaking in the gruesome murder.

“He told us that he participated because if he didn’t he would be injured or something bad would happen to him basically,” Sheriff’s Detective Eric Twisselman testified.

Deputy John McKenney testified that Miller “also stated it was like killing a fly with a bazooka.”

McKenney said that Miller, who had the task of keeping Myers quiet, beating her, carrying her in a bag and dropping her in a hole, worried that the other defendants would kill him too.

“He found himself lying in the hole after she had been dumped in there, he stood up, he got knocked back into the hole, he got up and started running,” McKenney said. “He was chased by Jacob [York], and said he didn’t believe Jacob tried very hard to catch him.

Earlier testimony revealed that Miller had told first responders that Hill, the lone defendant facing the death penalty, had raped him.

Once Miller arrived at a hospital, he feared Hill would find him.

“Numerous times he had been looking around the emergency room tying to look through the windows trying to see if Ty Hill was going to come in and get him,” McKenney said.

McKenney had the assignment of guarding Miller while he was in the hospital, the deputy testified.

Wednesday’s hearing completed three days of testimony from law enforcement and firefighters on their interactions with Miller following the murder. Hill’s attorneys do not want the evidence admitted for trial and have questioned the coherence of Miller when he made the statements to first responders.

A later hearing will determine whether the testimony from this week’s preliminaries will be admitted for trial.

The Myers murder trial is scheduled to begin February 4 and will consist of five defendants and two juries.