Volume 17 , Issue 31

(1911) Miller Given Life Term In Penitentiary

"The Wichita Daily Eagle," out of Wichita, Kansas, dated 14 September 1911, Thursday, page 2, the following headlines: "Miller Given Life Term In Penitentiary." N. L. Miller of Alva was found guilty in the death of Mabel Oakes, his stenographer. Miller faced his family with smile after sentence was pronounced.

Found on Newspapers.com

Woodward, Okla., Sept. 13 (1911) -- N. L. Miller of Alva was found guilty of causing the death of Mabel Oakes, the stenographer, who served him during the time he was justice of the peace. Miller was sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison.

When the jury retired any of those who had crowded into the little court room to hear the closing arguments of attorneys left, believing that no verdict would be reached for some hours.

About 3:30 o'clock in the afternoon there was a knock from the jury room, and when the bailiff unlocked the door the twelve men filed out, their faces solemn with the knowledge that, in doing what they believed to be their duty, they were taking away the liberty of a fellow man.

The report that a verdict had been reached spread like wildfire, and hundreds who had left the room tried to occupied the seats and lined the walls watched the face of the foreman, and the women watched the face of the man who had been tried for murder, and whose future depended on the words spoken by one of the twelve solemn men who stood waiting for quiet.

Not the slightest sign were there on the face of Miller to show that he even heard the verdict as the foreman read it to the judge. He sat silent and stolid in his chair, his brow slightly clouded by a frown. As the foreman, reading the jury's verdict, reached the word "guilty," Miller looked up with an interested expression, but immediately his face grew calm again and he made no sound while the reading was going on.

When the verdict had been read and the sheriff came to take him to his cell, he turned and smiled at his family and marched away, his step steady and his bearing erect.

The closing day of the case found the interest keyed to the highest pitch. Not within the history of Woodward county had any case excited so wide an interest. The morning was occupied by the closing plea of Judge wilson for the defense and Moman Pruiett of Oklahoma City for the state.

Never in the history of criminal trials had the Woodward county courthouse rung with such bitter denunciation as poured from the lips of Pruiett as he traced tot he jury the various steps along the path that finally led N. L. Miller to the bar charged with killing Mabel Oakes.

The jury delivered a verdict of guilty, fixing the punishment at life imprisonment. All through the trial Miller had proved and acted as the least interested of those present.
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