Suppression hearing held regarding second witness who says Parks confessed; Judge to rule Monday
Written by: Josh Dooley
“He told me that he did it,” Charles Enoch Miller testified Friday during the capital murder trial of Gary Wayne Parks.
Parks, 42, is accused of the June 17, 2006, murder of his stepfather, Dr. David Millstein, a Mountain Home urologist who was stabbed and cut 30 times at his Stephens Court residence in Mountain Home.
The friend and the 'confession'
Miller testified he was washing his boat outside his Little Rock home on June 22, 2006, when Parks drove up. Parks crossed his arms, put them on the boat, dropped his head to rest it on his arms, and broke down sobbing.That’s when Parks confessed to killing his stepfather, Miller told the jury.
“He told me that he did it. He told me that he killed him,” Miller told the silenced audience in the courtroom. “He told me he just went into a rage and just lost it. He just went crazy and stabbed him. Stabbed him multiple times.”
Miller said Parks told him Millstein was asleep in bed when he attacked him.
Miller asked Parks why he told him about the murder, and told Parks he didn’t want to know anything about the murder.
“He asked me what I would do if someone was hurting my mother,” said Miller. “The business was going downhill, his mother invested in it, and it just wasn’t doing as well as they thought.”
Before testifying about Parks’ reported confession, under questioning by Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Kincade, Miller described how he became friends with Parks.
Miller said he had a flat tire one day, and Parks stopped to help him. The two struck up a relationship from that point, doing typical “guy things” Miller told the jury.
For Parks and Miller, some of those typical things included drinking, doing drugs, and frequenting prostitutes, Miller said. They also went fishing and went to bars, Miller said.
Kincade asked Miller if he’d had multiple problems with the law, if he used drugs, if he had been an alcoholic. Miller said yes to all those questions. Miller also said when initially contacted by police, he did not reveal Parks’ reported sobbing confession because he was uncomfortable doing so.
“I wasn’t going to be a narc,” Miller said. “I wasn’t going to tell on someone, I wasn’t going to play God. I didn’t know if Gary was telling the truth.”
Later, Miller testified, he changed his mind. Kincade asked Miller what made him change his mind.
“I called my father. I called two people actually, my dad and a friend, an attorney,” said Miller. “I called my father and asked him simply what he would do. He said, ‘You’ll have to live with it.’”
Cross-examination
Defense attorney Danny Glover cross-examined Miller and immediately dove into Miller’s drug use.Miller testified he used three to seven grams of cocaine per week, and that he was using it daily.
Miller also testified he was also using Xanax, hydrocodone and oxycodone during the same time-frame, though he had prescriptions for those drugs.
Glover then aggressively questioned Miller about what — if any — help with legal and financial problems he got from law enforcement officers involved in the murder investigation.
Miller told the jury Lt. Nevin Barnes of the Mountain Home Police Department paid $100 towards a fine.
“You had a warrant out and you were facing going to jail in Flippin, is that right?” Glover asked Miller. “There was a warrant out for you for not showing up because you couldn’t pay your fine, right?”
Miller agreed there was a warrant out for him.
“And Mr. Barnes out of his own pocket gave you money so you could pay that fine, right?” Glover asked. “And he called over there to negotiate the reduction of some other fines, right?”
Miller said he could not remember.
Glover asked Miller if he only started helping helping police after police helped him pay fines. Miller said that was not the case.
Glover asked Miller if he was currently facing charges of burglary, theft and forgery in the Little Rock area, and if he was scheduled to be in court next week regarding those charges. Miller said he was due in court, but had not been charged yet.
Under redirect by Kincade, Miller responded indignantly when Kincade asked him if he was testifying because Barnes paid a fine for him.
“For $200, I wouldn’t sell out my best friend,” Miller said heatedly. “I did it for my daughter. It backfired on me. I know it, and he knows it.”
Suppression hearing
The jury was excused from the courtroom Friday shortly before 4 p.m. With just one spectator and a few court personnel in the room, a suppression hearing was held.Defense attorneys Glover and Joe Perry filed a verbal motion to exclude the testimony of former
Baxter County jailer Linda Henryk.
During the hearing, Henryk told Baxter County Circuit Court Judge John Putman she was a corporal at the jail in the spring of 2010 when Parks asked to see her regarding his medications.
Henryk testified she was alone with Parks in the jail’s multipurpose room during the discussion.
Henryk said Parks told her he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he was prone to being violent and angry if he did not have his medications.
“He said he was not a bad person,” Henryk testified. “I told him Gary, you’re facing some serious charges. He said, “I know, I did it. I wasn’t on my medications, I wasn’t responsible for my actions.’
Perry cross-examined Henryk during the hearing and asked her if she knew whether Parks had an attorney. Henryk said yes. Perry then asked if she read Parks his Miranda rights during their conversation. Henryk said no.
Perry then asked if Henryk knew Parks had invoked his Miranda rights prior to their conversation.
Henryk again said no she did not know.
Perry asked Henryk if she made a notation, on paper, electronic or otherwise, of the conversation.
“No,” Henryk replied. “I told my supervisor Lt. Randy Weaver about the conversation.”
Judge Putman told the attorneys he would issue a ruling Monday whether the jury would be allowed to hear Henryk’s testimony.
The party and the timeline
Two witnesses, Andrea Harris and Chris Ponder testified Friday that they saw Parks at a birthday party in Little Rock on the night of Friday, June 16, 2006. Both testified they did not know exactly when he left that party.Ponder, Andrea Harris and Randy Harris all testified that on Sunday, June 18, 2006, Parks said his stepfather had been murdered. None could recall exactly when Parks told them, but Ponder said it was still daylight when Parks told him. Matt Nelson testified Parks told him of Millstein’s death before 10 p.m.
MHPD officer Sam Seamans told the jury in earlier testimony that he did not inform Parks of Millstein’s murder until late Sunday night.
The probable cause affidavit
The probable cause affidavit for Parks’ arrest has been sealed since it became part of the official record on December 18, 2009, after Kincade requested Putman seal the document from public view. Kincade argued that if the affidavit remained a public document, it could hamper the ongoing investigation.Putman noted the document would become public once officials felt it would no longer harm the investigation to reveal the information contained in the affidavit.
The document describes what evidence police had gathered to implicate Parks in the murder of his stepfather.
The Bulletin requested Friday that the affidavit be unsealed. That request was granted, and The Bulletin will publish a story in Monday’s edition describing what was contained in the affidavit.
