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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993                   TAG: 9307270243
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SLAYER BLAMES `LOOK IN HIS EYE'

"He just had that look in his eye, like he was going to try something," Miller, 18, told police. "So I shot him first."

Miller's taped statement was played Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court after he pleaded guilty in front of Judge Kenneth Covington to the second-degree murder of Percy Johnson.

Johnson was shot seven times - with two semiautomatic handguns - in a burst of 14 gunshots on Bridge Street the night of Jan. 23.

Miller admitted to police that he shot Johnson, but could not offer a clear reason why. The best he could say was that one of his friends had been feuding with Johnson over the theft of a leather jacket.

"I wasn't even in it," Miller told police Detective M.S. Rubeiz. "I didn't have nothing to do with it at first."

But Miller was drawn into the fight when he and several friends, after running out of gas, were walking to a gas station in the Norwich area of Southwest Roanoke when a car pulled up. Johnson stepped out and began to walk toward him.

"And then I just shot him," Miller told police. " 'Cause I figured, you know, that he was going to try something."

About that time, Charles Morris was driving home from a Roanoke tavern. As he approached the bridge over the Roanoke River, he saw flashes, then someone with a gun standing over a man lying in the street.

The gunman was methodically shooting the fallen man, moving in a half circle around the body as he shot, Morris testified Monday.

Johnson was hit in the torso, legs and forehead. Yet prosecutors offered to reduce the charge against Miller to second-degree murder - expecting a hard time gaining a conviction for first-degree murder from Roanoke juries accustomed to the ways of gun-battling teens.

Since 1990, 16 Roanoke teen-agers have been killed or charged with murder. In many of the trials, juries have recommended light sentences on charges of manslaughter or second-degree murder.

Mac Doubles, assistant commonwealth's attorney, said a plea agreement was struck because Johnson initiated the conflict and was apparently armed at the time.

After the hearing, Miller was sent to jail to await a September sentencing date. He faces a maximum of 22 years in prison.

Marian Kelley, assistant public defender, said Johnson "was prepared to fight - not only with fists, but in any way he could - and Dwayne Miller took that threat seriously."

Keywords:
ROMUR