Due to the subplot here, I didn't quite think it Concourse material... but nonetheless:
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/03/i_hope_shes_going_through_her.html#incart_related_stories
Kelly Lynn Miller, was captured in Thailand this week after fleeing Alabama in 2009 to avoid going to prison for the fatal 2004 DUI crash that killed 57-year-old Donnie Goodwin, right.
The capture of fugitive Kelly Lynn Miller in Thailand was a long time coming and now that it has happened, her victim's family members said they are relieved.
"The family has been more or less holding our breath wondering if she was ever going to pay for this,'' said Brenda Bagwell from her Florida home. Bagwell's brother, 57-year-old Donald Goodwin, was killed in 2004 DUI crash when Miller struck him on a roadside while he was checking his tractor-trailer tires.
Miller, a 1996 Pelham High School graduate and "self-employed entertainer" who reported a $4,000 monthly income before she fled the U.S. years ago, was captured Tuesday in Thailand after fleeing the U.S. in 2009 to avoid a five-year prison sentence in Goodwin's death.
"A sentence of only five years was a slap in the face and then when she ran it was unbelievable,'' Bagwell told AL.com.
Reached by telephone at her Hoover home Thursday, Miller's mother declined to comment on her daughter's flight or capture.
Miller, now 36, was taken into custody Tuesday by Phuket Tourist Police, who had been watching her for a month, according to Thailand publication Phuketwan.com. She had a two-month-old son with her at the time of her arrest. U.S. Marshals, who led the probe to track down the fugitive, will escort her back to Alabama, said Bill Veitch, chief deputy district attorney in the Bessemer Cutoff. Authorities don't know yet when Miller will be returned to the states.
"I wish she had just stayed here and done her time,'' Veitch told AL.com Thursday. "The collateral damage is her 2-month-old."
Police in Thailand said they watched Miller for a month before capturing her. She was forced to sit in front of the police during the press conference, and reportedly applied lipstick during the event. Bagwell said that doesn't surprise her. "Her attitude just shows so clearly she doesn't care,'' she said. "In court she would priss around. There was no remorse whatsoever that we could see."
Kelly DUI.jpgPhoto by phuketwan.com
Authorities said Miller spent years island hopping to avoid detection, and gave birth to her son in a small clinic where the birth apparently went unregistered.
Authorities believe her family and friends in Alabama helped finance her time on the lam.
Miller, then 26, was charged with drunken driving in the Goodwin's death on Interstate 459 in Hoover in 2004. Goodwin had parked his truck in the right emergency lane near Parkwood Road bridge and was checking his tires when he was struck and killed.
Hoover and Bessemer police responded to the scene, which happened about 12:15 a.m. that Tuesday. Police believe Miller sideswiped the truck with her car and then hit Goodwin. She paid a $1,000 bond and was released later that day.
A Jefferson County grand jury in 2006 indicted Miller on vehicular homicide, according to Alabama court records. She was arrested again, and then released on $10,000 bond. The case was set for a jury trial on Jan. 22, 2007 but Miller pleaded guilty.
Her lawyer, Ralph "Buddy" Armstrong, who has since passed away, applied for probation. On that probation report, Miller said she had worked as a nanny making $10 an hour before she left to start her own business as a "self-employed entertainer" making $4,000 a month. The definition of "self-employed entertainer" wasn't immediately clear.
Instead of granting probation, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Teresa Petelos sentenced Miller to five years in prison. The judge set a $50,000 appeal bond. Miller eventually made bond, and then fled to Thailand. She was official declared a fugitive in 2010.
The U.S. Marshal's Service spearheaded the search for Miller, though it wasn't immediately clear when or where that started. U.S. Marshal Marty Keely, who commands the northern Alabama district, said he couldn't comment on the Miller case.
"Paperwork is being prepared and she will be delivered back to our state,'' Veitch said. "I do not think it will be a lengthy process."
Vietch said he found out about the capture and immediately called Bagwell in Florida. "She was really happy. I got really close to the victim's family and they are really good people,'' Veitch said. "Brenda was active in coming here often. She's a remarkable person in that she drove back and forth (from Florida) I can't tell you how many times."
Veitch praised the U.S. Marshal's Service and its fugitive task force. "They have morphed into the go-to agency when you need to find somebody, and local law enforcement wears them out. I don't know how they do it but they do,'' Veitch said. "I didn't think their reach would extend that far but it does. You don't want them looking for you if you're a bad person."
The veteran prosecutor said the USMS has the governor's warrant and the paperwork is being completed to extradite Miller. He doesn't know when that will be.
"We won't know it until she's got her feet in America,'' Veitch said. "They are likely going to send her directly to prison. Whether or not there will be other charges, I don't know yet."
Bagwell said she hopes her family can begin to heal. "There's not a day that has gone by that I have not thought about that person,'' she said of Miller. "She took away a brother I was very close to. My mother is 87 years old and she was very close to him. It's been a tough few years. He was a good brother and son and we miss him really bad."
"I would like to say she's not worth my thoughts anymore and I don't know I'll ever be able to forgive her,'' Bagwell said, "but I hope she's going through her own hell right now."
Until I reached the line about her employment, I was only half interested in this story. It was only after reading that and scanning back to her picture that I began to recall, as a college freshman/sophomore many moons ago, that young Catphish had actually been at a house party where Ms. Miller happened to be "entertaining" a group of fellow Auburn undergrads, on a living room coffee table.
As any self employed entrepreneur is want to do, she eventually took a break from her labors for a smoke and it was there in conversation that ole CT and a few others were nonchalantly told, by her, of her involvement in an accident a few months prior, for which she was still paying court costs on. Being naive as we were, no one thought much of it. Plus they were all busy investing heavy cash capital into her business, at the time.
Turns out there was a little more to things than just a fender bender.
Here's what she looks like now. Taiwan was good to her. A lot better than prison will be, I'm sure.
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/american-fugitive-nabbed-run-thailand-newborn-son-22021/
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