Written by: Josh Dooley
On Friday, Baxter County Circuit Court Judge John Putman unsealed the probable cause affidavit filed by police in December 2009 in order to obtain an arrest warrant for Gary Wayne Parks in connection with his stepfather’s murder.
Parks, 42, is currently on trial for the June 2006 murder of his stepfather, Dr. David Millstein, a Mountain Home urologist. The affidavit was prepared by Lt. Nevin Barnes of the Mountain Home Police Department.
While much of what is contained in the affidavit has been the subject of court testimony last week, some of the statements in the affidavit have not been testified to, and may never be put before the jury.
Other information contained in the affidavit may yet come before the jury as the trial, barring a plea agreement or other unexpected resolution, is scheduled to resume this morning.
No witnesses have described seeing Parks with anything that could potentially be the murder weapon.
However, in the affidavit, Barnes describes a witness who told investigators he did see Parks with a weapon following Millstein’s murder.
Alan Gwin testified on Friday and told the jury Parks came to his home after Millstein had been murdered.
“He came in and said something happened to his stepfather,” Gwin said in court.
Gwin also testified that in another conversation, Parks asked Gwin what God would think about killing someone for a large amount of money.
What the jury did not get to hear, and what the affidavit says Gwin told investigators, is that approximately a week after Millstein’s murder, Parks went to Gwin’s home, talked about his days as a Navy SEAL, and began talking about a knife.
“He stated Gary Parks was talking about his knife when he went out to his vehicle and came back with a knife,” Barnes wrote in the affidavit of what Gwin told investigators in February 2007. “He described the knife as a military looking knife with a six to seven inch single edge blade with a hilt. He said Gary Parks asked him to hold the knife and feel it. The witness stated that he got a really ‘eerie’ feeling about his behavior and the knife.”
Parks talks to police
It’s unknown if Parks will take the stand and testify. During voir dire (questioning potential jurors), defense attorney Danny Glover asked potential jurors if they understood Parks had the right not to testify and if they understood the law says if he does not testify, jurors cannot take that into account in deciding Parks’ innocence or guilt.Jurors have already heard Barnes testify as to some of the conversations he had with Parks during the course of the investigation.
Two days after police found Millstein’s body in the bedroom of his Stephens Court residence, police interviewed Parks.
“Gary Parks requested to know the details of the investigation and asked if someone came in and decapitated him,” Barnes wrote in the affidavit. “Gary Parks stated he could reach out into the ‘meth’ community and find out who it was. Gary Parks stated different groups have their own ways of homicide.”
During testimony last week, Barnes told jurors that Parks offered two other theories for who killed Millstein. Barnes told jurors that on one day Parks told him the KKK killed Millstein. The very next day, Barnes told the jury, Parks said it was a “homosexual killing.”
The timeline of Parks’ movements before and immediately after Millstein’s murder has been the subject of the testimony of several witnesses during the trial, though little has been definitive.
In the affidavit, Barnes said Parks told him on June 20, 2006, that he was at a Maumelle restaurant until 9 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. on Friday, June 16, 2006. After leaving the restaurant, Parks went to a birthday party until 1 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, 2006, Barnes said in the affidavit.
In an interview less than a month later, Parks told police he got home at 9 p.m. on Friday June 16, 2006, spent the night with his daughter, and never left the house again, according to the affidavit.
During a third interview, Parks reportedly told police he did attend the party, got home between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., and didn’t leave the house again until after 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
Parks' mother doesn't talk to police
One June 20, 2006, investigators called Lois Jane Parks Millstein to discuss her husband’s murder, and according to the affidavit, that was the first contact police had with her following her husband’s death.“During the telephone conversation Jane Millstein said she had not slept well and didn’t know when she would be available to make a statement,” Barnes wrote in the affidavit. “Jane Millstein told the investigator that they stayed with Millstein three to four days and left Friday afternoon. She stated Millstein was supposed to come to Maumelle that weekend, but he never showed up. Jane Millstein stopped and said she didn’t want to answer anymore questions without an attorney.”
The Charles Enoch Miller recordings
One of the prosecution’s most important witnesses, Charles Enoch Miller, testified on Friday last week that Parks broke down and confessed he killed his stepfather, stabbing him several times because Millstein was draining his mother’s money.Jurors heard an audio recording Friday of conversation between Parks and Miller obtained after police put a hidden recording device on Miller and sent him to attempt to get evidence against Parks. Jurors heard a 90-minute profanity-laced conversation during which Parks never openly admits to killing Millstein.
Other recordings were made, Barnes wrote in the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, more than one recording was made where Miller tells Parks police are going to charge Miller with being a conspirator in the murder. During those conversations, according to the affidavit, Parks made the following statements:
• “They wanna build a fake case and get you to tell them the story.”
• “You are the only person that they think I might confess something to, because they have nothing else.”
“I know what they don’t have, physical evidence. You know me, I will never admit (expletive deleted). Nobody, anywhere, anytime, ever.”
• “I guess being a sociopath is a blessing to somebody without a conscience.”
“They have no (expletive deleted) clothes with blood on it, they have no (expletive deleted) murder weapon, they can’t put me within a hundred miles of Mountain Home.”
Barnes wrote in the affidavit that during one of the recordings, Parks addresses the critical time period of late Friday night June 16 and the early morning hours of June 17, 2006.
“Gary Parks later tells the witness (Miller), ‘that he has every bit of time (accounted for), except for five (expletive deleted) hours Friday – Saturday early, early Saturday morning. They can put me in Little Rock ... that whole time except for five hours.’”
That time period is critical, as that’s when authorities allege Parks killed his stepfather. Many witnesses have testified Parks attended a birthday party on the Friday night prior to Millstein’s murder, though none of the witnesses agreed on exactly when Parks left.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism indicated to the judge Friday that prosecutors expect to play three more recordings for the jury.
Putman is expected to rule this morning if the jury will be allowed to hear the testimony of former Baxter County jailer Linda Henryk who testified during a suppression hearing Friday that while employed at the jail, Parks confessed to her that he killed Millstein.
If convicted, Parks faces up to life in prison without parole.
