Slain man’s dad lauds suspect’s drug conviction

Every year on May 1, Mike Megrath is reminded of the day in 1999 when his 18-year-old son, Nicholas, was brutally murdered while working a night manager shift at a Chick-fil-A in West Palm Beach.

But on the anniversary this Tuesday,

Megrath says his heartache will be easier since a man long accused in the killing at the old Palm Beach Mall — and ultimately acquitted — will be serving a prison sentence for other crimes.

Megrath spoke this week from his home in North Carolina about the recent punishment for Jesse Lee Miller Jr. — five years in a Florida prison for heroin dealing charges from 2016.

“It’s not going to bring Nicholas back, but I’m glad they got [Miller] on something that will keep him locked up for a while,” Megrath told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Miller, 36, pleaded guilty this month, rather than risk a trial on counts punishable by up to 75 years. With credit for 500 days already spent in jail, Miller likely will be free in about three years. Then he’ll have 20 years to pay off a $52,500 fine.

By taking the plea deal, Miller dropped a claim that he had been entrapped by West Palm Beach police. Miller’s lawyer believes the agency retaliated against him soon after a jury cleared Miller in his third murder trial four years ago.

“I have no doubt police targeted him — none,” said Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey, who represented Miller in his last trial and the heroin case.

Miller had no history of illegal drug use or drug arrests until this case, she said.

Under the plea terms negotiated with Assistant State Attorney John Parnofiello, Miller was convicted of one count of trafficking in heroin and one count of possession of heroin with intent to sell.

As part of the plea agreement, Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo on April 11 approved a furlough requested by the defense.

Miller got permission to leave Palm Beach County Jail for nine days and spend time with his family and friends before surrendering for the prison term.

In approving this special break, the judge said Miller would automatically get hit with a 20-year prison sentence if he failed to turn himself in.

Ramsey said Miller, now a convicted felon, should qualify for a work release program that would let him provide financially for his wife and children.

The West Palm Beach police narcotics investigation of Miller began at the end of 2014, court records show. That’s when the cops said they got a tip from an informant that Miller was dealing under the street name “Red.”

Ramsey claims that although police reports say the informant first tipped off the cops about Miller, she believes the police decided to go after Miller and sought the informant’s help.

Police arranged for the informant to make heroin buys from Miller in January and February 2015, but follow-up attempts to have Miller deal with an undercover cop failed when Miller didn’t play ball.

The investigation of Miller resumed in February 2016 with another tip, records show.

Police arranged to have an officer pose as a heroin addict looking to buy narcotics from Miller, which led to a series of phone calls and transactions that summer, at locations in West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach, records show.

Miller sold the heroin in capsules, exchanging the pills for cash payments of $300 and $600, with Miller delivering the drugs in his Chevy van, according to reports.

Miller was arrested in September 2016 inside the Palm Beach County Courthouse. The cops intercepted him just ahead of a planned speech to local defense attorneys. The topic was his experience of serving seven years in prison until he was cleared in the Chick-fil-A robbery-murder case.

Miller, a former employee, emerged as a suspect early in the investigation. The store’s evening manager was bound to a chair with duct tape in an employee bathroom and shot once in the back of the head after the restaurant closed for the night.

Miller was arrested in 2000, but the charges were dropped a year later after prosecutors said they couldn’t support an initial claim of a DNA match to Miller from a ski mask discarded near a mall trash bin.

In 2003, a jury convicted Otto Wright, now 37, in the murder, based on a confession that he was the lookout for the crimes pulled off with two accomplices. He did not name Miller as an associate. Wright, who later recanted, is serving a life sentence.

Miller was re-arrested in 2007, after more DNA testing, and new evidence allegedly linking Miller to a note left at the scene. Miller had two trials in 2009: the first ended in a hung jury and the second resulted in a guilty verdict and life sentence.

A successful appeal led to a third trial, when Miller testified, “I didn’t have anything to do with this.” The jury took less than three hours to find him not guilty.

But Mike Megrath says he’s certain Miller is responsible for the slaying of his son. And he’s confident Miller will have future runins with the law.

“He’s a career criminal,” Megrath said. “He’ll get out and he’ll do something again.”