Parks faces up to life in prison without parole
Written by: Josh Dooley
Prosecutors hammered home the brutal nature of the Dr. David Millstein slaying Tuesday during the first day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Gary Parks.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism introduced more than four dozen crime scene photographs, including a dozen of the slain Millstein, a 62-year-old Mountain Home urologist.
Parks, 42, is accused in the June 17, 2006, stabbing death of Millstein, his stepfather.
Sgt. Eddie Griffin, a criminal investigator with the Mountain Home Police Department, was on the stand when Chism asked him to identify several photographs of Millstein’s body after it was discovered on the night of June 18, 2006.
As Chism handed Griffin different photographs of Millstein’s body, Griffin told the jury about the wounds depicted in the photographs. Griffin said Millstein had nine stab or cutting wounds to his back and at least one wound to the back of his left leg, and that Millstein’s throat had been cut almost from ear-to-ear.
Millstein also had cuts to his right hand, wounds Griffin told the jury were defensive in nature, as Millstein attempted to fight off his attacker.
After Griffin identified each photograph, Chism handed the photographs to jurors, who could be seen studying the photographs.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Joe Perry, Griffin told jurors a desktop computer had been removed from the home, and an accompanying modem and router were still plugged in. Griffin also testified he did not know if anything was missing from the home.
Perry also asked Griffin about a note investigators found on a table in Millstein’s home. The entire note was not legible, but one portion read “Anger at LJP,” according to Griffin. Perry then asked if those were the initials of Parks’ mother, Lois Jane Parks Millstein, Millstein’s wife.
Defense attorneys Perry and Danny Glover previously told the jury police had ignored Lois Jane Parks Millstein as a suspect and concentrated on her son.
Other witnesses
The first witness to appear before the jury and Baxter County Circuit Court Judge John Putman Tuesday morning was Tina Baker, who was serving as a dispatcher for Baxter Regional Medical Center at the time Millstein was murdered.Baker testified Gary Parks called the hospital late in the night on June 18, 2006, the day after authorities say Millstein was stabbed. During that conversation, Baker said Parks asked for someone to go check on his stepfather because he was supposed to have met Parks and his mother in Little Rock on the night of June 17.
“I just thought it was odd, he sounded very anxious,” Baker said. “It was odd that he was adamant that there was a meeting between him, his stepdad and his mother when Dr. Millstein was on call. Dr. Millstein would never plan to go out of town when he was on call.”
Baker testified Millstein was on call during the weekend in question, and that doctors on call, by hospital policy, had to remain in the local area to respond if they were needed. Millstein’s biological son, Richard Millstein, also called Baker trying to find his father.
After Parks called, Baker said she contacted MHPD and asked that they go to Millstein’s 1707 Stephens Court home and check on his welfare.
Police dispatcher Dennis Cantrell then testified, saying he took Baker’s call. Cantrell said he called former MHPD officer Wade Robson, who went to Millstein’s home. Cantrell said Robson discovered Millstein’s body, touching off the investigation.
Cantrell told the jury that records indicate Baker called to ask for an officer to check on Millstein. Some 37 minutes later, Cantrell said Parks called police, asking they check on his stepfather.
Chism played a recording of the conversation between Cantrell and Parks.
“My name is Gary Parks, and I’m trying to ... my stepfather has disappeared,” Parks can be heard to say. “He was supposed to have been here yesterday, and he usually calls by 10 o’clock, and we haven’t seen or heard from him since Friday night.”
By that point, according to testimony, Millstein’s body had already been discovered by Robson, who testified next.
Robson testified he was dispatched to Millstein’s home, went there, knocked on the door, and rang the doorbell. Robson said there was a light on in the house. When Robson tried the front door, he told the jury he found it unlocked.
Robson announced himself as he entered the home. He searched the home, and discovered Millstein’s body in the master bedroom, face down in a pool of blood with a burnt area on the floor nearby.
Robson said when his supervisor Sgt. Kevin Litty arrived, they discovered the gas line feeding the fireplace was turned off, and that there appeared to be ash in the fireplace like someone attempted to burn something.
Under questioning, Robson told the jury it was a hot June night. Litty then testified, essentially corroborating Robson’s account of how they checked to make certain Millstein was dead, there were no other victims in the house, and that no suspect was still in the home.
Next to arrive at the scene was former MHPD criminal investigator Robert Hardin, who told the jury when he arrived at the scene, he sketched the home and took more than 230 photographs in and around the home, including several items marked as evidence.
Some items investigators took into evidence included a Home Depot receipt, a note, an oral hygiene product found on Millstein’s bed, a cigarette butt, and numerous bedding items.
During cross-examination, Glover asked Hardin if he would expect the person who killed Millstein to have blood on their clothes and person.
“I don’t know for certain,” Hardin replied. “But I assume so.”
Hardin said he could not be certain if a robbery had or had not occurred at Millstein’s home as the home was extremely cluttered, and Hardin was uncertain what was in the home prior to Millstein’s murder.
The last three witnesses to appear in court Tuesday were employees of the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
Their testimony revealed all the blood collected from Millstein’s home was Millstein’s, that the DNA on a cigarette butt found in the driveway of the home was, to a scientific certainty, that of Parks. In addition, according to expert testimony, blood found on a shoe that was recovered in a vehicle driven by Parks, was not human blood.
Two items and three fingerprint cards collected from the scene and turned into the crime lab did not have enough information for experts to match the prints to an individual, according to a crime lab expert.
The trial is expected to last into early next week.
If found guilty, Parks faces up to life in prison without parole.
