Family of murdered San Francisco girl make last-ditch plea to Governor on eve of killer’s release
The family of a San Francisco schoolgirl strangled-to-death in 2004 have issued a last-ditch plea to Governor Gavin Newsom, asking that he halt the imminent release of her “cold, calculated [and] dangerous” killer.
Lincoln High School senior Maxina Danner was murdered by Royce Miller, an acquaintance who lured her to his Bayview-district home on the pretense he would help her recover stolen jewelry. He later dumped her badly-beaten body by the side of the road in a city park.
Newsom must decide in the next two weeks whether to reverse the decision of the state Board of Parole Hearings to free Miller. As mayor of San Francisco at the time of Maxina’s death he played a key role in assuaging public concern about the crime and visited her school to console her bereft classmates.
Miller secured release after San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins sent a representative to the October 2023 parole hearing to face-off against the murdered girl’s family. Parole commissioners said it was “very unique” to have a district attorney’s representative not oppose a grant of parole at a hearing.
“I believe the circumstances of this crime, and his subsequent actions, clearly show that Mr Miller is cold, calculated, dangerous and has not changed,” said Maxina’s sister Andrea in a letter to Newsom.
“Mr Miller killed my sister slowly and purposefully over the course of many long minutes – each minute giving him a chance to reverse course and make the right decision.”
“In the face of a petty insult or feeling provoked, he responded with cold-blooded, sustained rage. Mr Miller has not shown that he has resolved what made him have such a hair trigger and be capable of such shocking brutality.”
Convicted of second degree murder by a San Francisco jury, Miller was sentenced to the legally-mandated punishment of incarceration for a term of 15-years-to-life.
Unless Newsom intervenes Miller will walk free from San Quentin state prison in early March. In 2023 he reversed parole board decisions to free convicted murderers on eight occasions.
“In the face of a petty insult or feeling provoked, he responded with cold-blooded, sustained rage. Mr Miller has not shown that he has resolved what made him have such a hair trigger and be capable of such shocking brutality.”
ANDREA WELTMAN
Maxina, a popular senior at Lincoln High School, died in the early hours of September 27, 2004. She had accompanied Miller to his home in an attempt to secure his help retrieving a ring which she believed had been stolen by one of his associates.
They argued. And then Miller beat her about the face, tasered her, and choked her to death with a belt for what a forensic pathologist considered was a four-minute period.
He dragged the girl’s body to his garage, left to buy cocaine and marijuana and then went to work. Later two friends helped him dump the corpse by the side of a road running through McLaren Park in San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood.
At the October 12 parole hearing Miller, 40, admits responsibility for the notorious 2004 murder and to having lied at his trial and at his appeal as he tried to frame a friend for the crime. Family members of the victim accused him of still being dishonest about Maxina’s death and expressed their concern he would offend again.
At the conclusion of the four hour session Commissioner Lawrence Nwajei and Deputy Commissioner Patrick Reardon announced their decision to grant Miller parole.
“If parole is granted today, the system will inflict its final injury,” said Maxina’s sister Andrea Weltman. “I will have lost not only my sister, but also my sense of peace and security.”
“He beat her. He tasered her. He chased her down, and he strangled to death a scared little girl in pajamas. And he did so for no reason at all…And then he called his friends to stuff her into a trunk and throw her on the side of the road like trash.”
A representative of San Francisco district attorney’s office supported Miller’s release.
“I’ve reviewed the file and I’ve sat and listened to Mr Miller,” said Assistant District Attorney Alex Bernstein during the hearing. “He shows a good deal of having been chastened by what he’s done and shows contrition. We cannot know how sincere he is, but I believe that he is.”
Described by Nwajei as “a somewhat different narrative of the truth than the last panel heard” in 2018, Miller laid out his new version of how the events of September 27 2004 unfolded.
According to Miller, he had known Maxina for just over six months but their friendship was not intimate. He and a friend picked her up in a stolen car and drove around Hunters Point before ending up at his house. It was the first time the teen had visited the home.
He said he had earlier been drinking and taking powdered cocaine.
Maxina was trying to get him to help her get some jewelry back – her grandfather’s ring – which had apparently been stolen by one of Miller’s friends.
He didn’t know who had it, he told the hearing, but falsely led her to believe he did and could help.
They arrived at his home and they began to argue, he said, as Maxina realized that he was “shining her on” and was not going to assist.
“I had no intention whatsoever of helping her with the jewelry,” Miller said.
The argument, he said, got worse to the point they were yelling at each other at which point, according to Miller, “it got physical”.
“She pushed me, she hit me first and I pushed her back.”
Miller said Maxina hit him, probably with her open hand, and he pushed her back. Argument and insults ensued – “I said things that I wish I hadn’t said” – and Maxina hit him again.
Miller then struck her in the mouth and choked her to death with a martial arts belt.
“It was beyond anger,” Miller said. “It was, it was, it was rage.”
“[I] knew that I wanted to cause her as much pain as I possibly could in that moment. And that’s what I set out to do.”
Miller said he dragged Maxina’s body to the garage, left the home in order to procure cocaine and marijuana, and then went to work. Later he enlisted the help of two associates to dispose of the body.
“[We] drove to where I felt like we can dispose of Maxina’s dead body, which was McLaren Park, ‘cause growing up, I used to always hear about how there were bodies found there.”
“I put her in the middle of the road,” he told the Board.
Miller was not arrested for the murder for five months.
“In those five months, you must have thought you got away with murder?” asked Nwajei.
“Yes, sir, I did,” Miller replied.
By his own admission Miller lied to everyone about his involvement in the crime.
“My mother, my grandmother, my father, Patrick Thomas’s mother. Everybody that heard about it and cared about me, yes, I lied to them. My community. Yes. Lied to everyone.”
Before the victim family members were afforded the opportunity to speak, San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Alex Bernstein weighed-in: reminding commissioners that decisions on release were based on public safety considerations.
“[P]arole suitability is to be determined on whether or not Mr Miller would pose an unreasonable danger to the community, not what is fair,” he said.
“In 19 years of the time he’s been in custody, he does not appear to be the person he was at the time of his life crime. He has expressed responsibility and remorse. He has not committed violence while he’s been in custody.”
“I’ve reviewed the ‘C’ file and I’ve sat and listened to Mr Miller. He shows a good deal of having been chastened by what he’s done and shows contrition. We cannot know how sincere he is, but I believe he is.”
“I have some understanding of the pain this causes to victim and victim’s next of kin. This is in no way intended to minimize their pain, their loss, or to say that what occurred is now deemed to be okay.”
Bernstein went on to say that if, as it appears, Miller’s post-incarceration plans include living in Sonoma County (“a place away from San Francisco”) then he would not be a danger to the community, presumably referring to that part of the community living in San Francisco.
Toward the end of the hearing, the Board heard from the family of the victim who were of one mind that Miller was not telling the truth, still, and had not been rehabilitated.
“He has tried to rationalize his violence by claiming that she threatened him and hit him,” Maxina’s sister Andrea Weltman told the hearing. “But the reality is that she was a terrified little girl.”
“She had tried to get away as evidenced by the two grab marks that were found on her body, and it simply defies belief that Mr Miller felt threatened by her. He beat her. He tasered her. He chased her down, and he strangled to death a scared little girl in pajamas. And he did so for no reason at all.”
“And then he called his friends to stuff her into a trunk and throw her on the side of the road like trash.”
“If parole is granted today, the system will inflict its final injury, and I will have lost not only my sister, but also my sense of peace and security.”
Weltman pointed out that during his trial and throughout his appeal Miller had accused his associate, Maurice Powell, of the murder.
“He did everything he could to get away with my sister’s murder, and then to get out of jail following his conviction, knowing he was guilty, he lied and manipulated over and over again claiming he was innocent. And now he is doing everything he can to get out of jail, claiming rehabilitation.”
“We are hearing for the first time, ever, about a relationship between them. But the truth is they barely knew each other. She didn’t even know his real name. There was nothing at stake that night. They had some trivial argument and he killed her.”
Of her efforts to advocate against Miller’s release she told the Board that “[…] I will continue to for as long as I have to, to prevent another family from feeling this pain.”
Addressing the Commissioners, Maxina’s brother-in-law Jeremy Weltman also highlighted the discrepancies between what Miller claims to have happened and the evidence presented at trial.
Mr Weltman said that Maxina wasn’t just hit once, as Miller had said. Her body had multiple injuries, there was blood over her t-shirt and blanket and grab marks on her wrist and calf.
“I didn’t hear any details of the crime…I didn’t hear anything about grabbing her as she tried to run away from him. I didn’t hear anything about tasing her. I heard a minimalist version of ‘I jabbed her in the mouth, that’s all I did, oh, and then I killed her.’ All I heard today, Mr Miller, is the regurgitation of the programming you’re taught in jail.”
“I find it a little bit curious that we are downplaying the fact that he had a risk assessment that came back as a moderate risk for violence. Is this the level we’re looking at now?”
He suggested that Miller gave his cellphone to his friend Maurice Powell in order to make him a “scapegoat” for the murder. Mr Weltman told the Board that he understood that the law in California requires giving ‘young offenders’ a meaningful chance at securing parole, but that it was not warranted in this instance.
“I do not believe Mr Miller has changed,” said Maxina’s mother Lori Shea. “He is putting on an act and Maxina would be turning over in her grave right now if she saw what he has put us through. No family should have to go through this.”
The Board also heard from Maxina’s aunt and grandfather who each opposed Miller’s release.
“The district attorney representative stood up and said he does not oppose a grant. It doesn’t happen often. And I commend him for that because he’s a lawyer…[a]nd he looked at the evidence and he saw we applied [the law] as we are sworn to.”
PAROLE COMMISSIONER LAWRENCE NWAJEI
Following a 40 minute recess the Board returned with their decision to grant parole.
“[B]ased on the legal standards and the evidence we considered,” said Nwajei, “we find that you do not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
Nwajei observed that at 2023 risk assessment made by Dr Lori Montgomery found that Miller posed a “lower moderate” risk of future violence. He said that Miller had completed sufficient programs in CDCR custody to provide him with the personal skills to himself manage the risks. He also mentioned his violence-free term of incarceration.
“The district attorney representative stood up and said he does not oppose a grant,” said Nwajei also noted. “It doesn’t happen often. And I commend him for that because he’s a lawyer…[a]nd he looked at the evidence and he saw we applied [the law] as we are sworn to.”
“In the face of a petty insult or feeling provoked, he responded with cold-blooded, sustained rage. Mr Miller has not shown that he has resolved what made him have such a hair trigger and be capable of such shocking brutality.”
ANDREA WELTMAN
In her letter to Newsom, Maxina’s sister Andrea Weltman asks the Governor to see through Miller’s “façade” and recognize that he is a danger to public safety.
“I believe the circumstances of this crime, and his subsequent actions, clearly show that Mr Miller is cold, calculated, dangerous and has not changed,” she wrote.
“Mr Miller killed my sister slowly and purposefully over the course of many long minutes – each minute giving him a chance to reverse course and make the right decision.”
“In the face of a petty insult or feeling provoked, he responded with cold-blooded, sustained rage. Mr Miller has not shown that he has resolved what made him have such a hair trigger and be capable of such shocking brutality.”
In 2023 Newsom reversed decisions made by the Board of Parole Hearings to release convicted murderers on eight occasions. In 2022 he did so on 21 occasions.
Absent his intervention, Miller will walk free from San Quentin prison in early March.
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