Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995                   TAG: 9504200063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WIFE NOT LINKED TO ONE HOLDUP

General District Judge George W. Harris did send charges against the husband, Boyd Oliver Miller Jr., to the grand jury following a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

The crimes began soon after Miller and his wife, Angela Dalton Miller, moved into a Salem apartment complex. Janet Wells, a neighbor of the Millers, testified that a few days after the Millers' arrival, things turned up missing.

Wells said that when she went looking for her drill, vise, battery charger and other tools in her basement storage room March26, they were gone. Police recovered them at a Vinton pawn shop, where they had been exchanged for cash, according to the pawn shop's manager.

But one of the items - an old, rusted handgun that had belonged to Wells' husband - Boyd Miller kept, Salem police Detective R.D. Clark said in his testimony.

Miller used that gun to rob a West Main Street Hardee's on March 23, and again a few hours later at a West Main Street Orange Market holdup, Clark said Angela Miller told him.

Salem Commonwealth's Attorney Fred King had a few blurry pictures from the Orange Market's security camera that appeared to support Clark's account.

Boyd Miller was arrested at the Roanoke City Jail, where he was attempting to free his wife on bond. Angela Miller had been arrested for failing to appear in court in a child-support case.

Harris sentenced both Millers to 12 months in jail on misdemeanor petty larceny charges for the theft of Wells' belongings. The couple pleaded guilty to those charges.

The couple faced felony charges for their involvement in the store robberies.

"Every time `Clyde' went into the bank, `Bonnie' was out there in the car," King said in describing Angela Miller's role. In both crimes, she drove the getaway car, King said.

Angela Miller's attorney, however, argued that she had no knowledge of what her husband had planned. That argument got a felony charge linking her to the Orange Market robbery dropped, despite an earlier statement to police.

Clark said Angela Miller told him in a statement about a week after the incident occurred that her husband had said he "might rob the Orange Market" when she dropped him off in front of the store.

"She spent some of the loot for [the Hardee's] job earlier. ... In the context of that evening, she knew what was going to happen" at the Orange Market, King said.

However, Harris did not agree.

A misdemeanor charge against Angela Miller in connection with the Hardee's holdup also was dismissed, as was a felony charge against Boyd Miller of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. King said he still will seek indictments on both felony charges.

Two felony counts of robbery, two counts of using a firearm in a felony and a statutory burglary charge against Boyd Miller were certified to the May grand jury. Angela Miller had one felony charge of statutory burglary - in the break-in at Wells' storage area - certified.