Tuesday, June 14, 2022

THE MURDER OF MALIK MILLER

 




On Thursday, February 21st, 2019, Malik Miller left campus at East Central Community College and headed home to Louisville, like he did most Thursdays after classes were over.  

After arriving home, when that Saturday and Sunday, February 23rd and 24th, rolled around, Malik Miller, and Jared Hannah, drove to someone's house on Highway 25 by the bypass going toward Jackson. 

Malik's friends, Kelsey Ingraham and Kolby Woods, were there, and Malik, Kolby, Kelsey, and Jared settled down for a few nights of routine fun; competing and gambling against each other on PlayStation games. 

Malik came out ton top, after winning $700- $800 off of Jared and another $600-700 off of Kelsey.  

However, Jared was a sore loser and got really upset over losing his money to Malik, so Malik offered to give it back to him, but Jared said he didn't want it back."

This was not Jared's first time to get out of sorts over a game.  

"In 2018, Jared, Nicholas Johnson and Cat Dog, were at my sisters, playing games on the PlayStation, when Jarred got mad over losing his money and pulled a gun out and put it to Cat Dog's chest", says Malik's mother, Lakeshia Miller.  

Jared had also pulled a gun out on another of Malik's friends, Sosa, and tried to rob him.

My sister told him, "Get out of my house, and don't ever come back." 

Cat Dog's mom went to the jail to file charges on him, but Jared's mom talked her out of it.  

After Malik offered Jared his money back, everything seemed to be fine between them.

Sunday, February 24th, everyone got into Malik's car and Malik went to take everyone to their respective homes, including Jared.  They first stopped by McDonald's on Highway 25, and the car died and would not crank so Malik called his mother to bring him some jumper cables, because he had left them in the yard.

After he called his mother, Malik saw Kolby Woods, and Kolby jumped the car off for him. 

Kolby told Malik, "Put Jared in the back, Kelsey in the front, and drop Jared off first because he is not to be trusted.  (Kolby said he would testify to that, because no one trusted Jared.) 

When Malik made it home that Sunday night, his 2016 Dodge Charger was making a funny- ticking noise so I kept it to get it checked out and gave him my mother's 1996 Pontiac G6 to drive, and he headed back to campus at ECCC.

"This was the last time I would see my son alive", says a heartbroken, Keshia Miller.

That following Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, Malik's welding instructor was giving a welding test that Malik had already taken in high school.  Since Malik was ahead of the rest of the class he asked if he could leave, and the instructor gave him permission to do so.  

Malik always sold PlayStation games and such and Jared Hannah said he wanted to buy a PlayStation from Malik so Malik asked Denerius if he would ride with him to Louisville to meet Jared. 

Denerius said, "No."

Nobody wanted anything to do with Jared, but my son always saw the good in other people, and Jared was no exception.

When my brother would not ride with him, Malik made several phone calls to various friends to find someone to ride with him, because he was a little afraid of Jared.  

Unable to get anyone on the phone, Malik rode by my uncle, Douglas Lynch's house in Noxapater, and ran into a couple of friends there: Brandon Leech and Austin Edinburg, and they agreed to go with him.  

Malik left his car at my uncle's house and he, Austin, and Brandon climbed into Austin's black SUV and headed up Highway 15 to Young Crossing Road, in Center Ridge, located between Noxapater and Louisville.

With Austin driving, Brandon in the front passenger seat and Malik in the backseat on the passenger side. they pulled into the driveway of Jared's uncle's house. Jared approached the SUV on foot,and climbed into the back driver's side door. It seemed everything was fine, but when Jared got out, he started demanding money.  Malik again offered to give him his money back, but Jared said, "No, I want all of it, meaning Malik's money, Jared's money, and the money Malik won off of Kelsey. 

When Jared pointed his gun, Malik hollered, "No, Jared", and covered his face, but it was too late, Jared pulled the trigger, and the bullet went through his arm and penetrated his chest cavity on the left side.  

"Then LT and Jared just started shooting, and the only thing that saved Austin, the driver, was he was sitting up closer to the steering wheel trying to get service on his phone, and the bullet went behind his back and got stuck in the arm rest. 

Brandon is a hunter, and a registered gun owner so he carries his gun everywhere he goes. When they started shooting, he pulled his gun and fired back in self-defense. (His gun was ruled out by the crime lab as the murder weapon.)

Bullet holes are still in the stop sign, by the gas tank and the front door and console of the SUV. "

"Austin filed charges against Jared for attempted murder, but nothing ever happened with that. I don't' know why", says Ms. Miller.

Malik still had $1,200 in his pocket when he died.  In addition to gambling winnings, he worked at Little Ceasar part-time and had his refund money.

"Malik was not a violent person, and was terrified of guns so he would never carry one, even though one had been offered to him before.

Although the police found a little marijuana in the car, Malik, nor Brandon nor Austin had ever been in any trouble before.  They were good boys, and non-violent.

If a young black boy gets killed by gun fire, everyone assumes they were in a gang, or drug dealers, but they all grew up in church, for the most part, and were not those kinds of people.

Malik graduated from Noxapater High School in 2018.

He was an Allstar athlete, and was enrolled in a welding class at ECCC.  He was set to graduate in May of 2019, just two months away from this date, and already had a job lined up at Taylor Machine Works, in Louisville.

Full of life, he would talk to anyone, and loved to make everyone laugh.  

When the news that Malik was shot went out, all of the school coaches and teachers who knew him rushed to the hospital to wait by myside. He was well loved by everyone.

"Malik was just 18, my 1st love, best friend, protector, a person that I looked up to as the most precious value, but most important , my heart. 

After the murder, Jared was found wrapped up in a blanket, hiding in the top of someone's closet, and arrested and charged with murder.

Somehow, Jared was found not guilty by a jury, and LT was never charged although he was shooting too. 

"It won't bring my son back, but I still want justice for Malik. Jared was someone we had taken into our home and tried to help so he was almost like family, and that makes Malik's death hurt even more." 

UPDATE: 6/14/2022
    Jared has been picked up for Armed Robbery, (He pulled out a gun once again.)  theft, Marijuana possession, trying to take contraband in a correctional facility, and stolen vehicle.  

Next, the trial......


5 comments:

  1. He needs to be retried for MURDER and the family should pursue it along with a wrongful death case.

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  2. That’s absolutely awful!! I am so sorry for your loss! It was senseless and angers me to read this! There was no justice! He didn’t even give your son time to give him his money in exchange for his life. But I have a feeling this killer already had this planned and had your son been alone you would probably never had found him. It is a disgrace that punks like this are allowed to walk the streets! How do the jurors not convict him? It would be different if he killed their son! What a slap in the face to his family! He will see justice when he meets God I assure you. He may get away with murder on this earth but he will never see Heaven! I hope you know your son is in the most beautiful place ever and that is Heaven where there is no more pain and none of the worries of this awful world and you will see him again one day for eternity, the same as I will see my 15 year old son who died in a barn fire in Philadelphia, Ms while spending the night with friends! You are in my prayers always! No parent should be made to live life without their child. It is a difficult journey to maneuver through!

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  3. Clearly this story was told by a bias individual who was close to Malik. I even knew the two manager at little Caesar at the time and he was not working there at the time because he had been taken off the schedule due to no call no show. He had been pulled over and held up for having weed in his charger.

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  4. Most of this information is inaccurate because everything written here is not true. This is a one side story of a mother grieving the death of her son. She was in court and heard the testimony and that young man was cleared by the jury. The witnesses could not keep their lies straight because the story they told about the incidence was not true. She failed to say Jared and Malik (her son) was together prior to the shooting. If he didn’t trust the young man, why we’re they always together when the young came home from school. She failed to say it was a drug deal gone bad as the attorney pointed out in court. She failed to say a lot of things except what she thought was appropriate for her article. Her son was not perfect but she’s not disclosing his short comings and unorthodox behaviors. I’m sorry and I feel her pain about the death of a love one due to gun violence. I’m just saying don’t get caught up in one side of the story. There is the truth, a lie, and what we want others to believe.

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  5. This article is from the perspective of a grieving mother, not an unbiased position. Unfortunately, the article leaves many facts of the case out, and ignores the discrepancies that were apparent during the trial.

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