Chilliwack man found mentally unfit for murder trial
Posted April 16, 2012 4:41 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHILLIWACK (NEWS1130) – A Chilliwack man who suffers from Huntington’s Disease has been found mentally unfit to stand trial for the murder of his wife.
The Crown and defense agree David George Miller came home on a hospital day pass, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his wife on Boxing Day, 2006.
He then told his daughter to call the police and sat out on the porch and waited to be arrested.
The issue is whether Miller’s condition prevents him from having a basic understanding of the legal process and give simple instructions to his lawyer.
Dr. M. Hediger completed a psychiatric assessment and says Miller is acutely psychotic and often insists his wife is still alive.
“Mr. Miller at times reports that he is the Prime Minister of the United States of America and that he is the Prime Minister of Canada,” Hediger writes in a psychiatric assessment. “Mr. Miller at times has reported that he owns the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital and that he and his company that he owns built the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.”
In his ruling, BC Supreme Court Justice Brian Joyce says Miller’s mental health has deteriorated since September, 2011 when he ruled Miller still had basic comprehensive skills.
“With regard to Mr. Miller’s capacity to instruct counsel, the portions of Dr. Hediger’s report quoted above satisfy me that Mr. Miller is, at this time, incapable of engaging in any meaningful communications with his counsel,” Joyce says. “Due to his mental disorder, Mr. Miller does not believe he needs a lawyer because his wife is not dead so he cannot be charged with her murder; and, in any event, he does not need a lawyer since he controls the Courts.”
An inquiry will be held in February, 2014 to determine whether to proceed with the legal process.
Miller will continue to be held in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam.
