Charged with murder
Three Schenectady men are accused in the June 9 fatal shooting in Pittstown.
State Police have charged three Schenectady men with the June 9 murder of 19-year-old Nathaniel M. Miller, who was shot to death in his rural Rensselaer County home in what investigators characterize as a drug-related home invasion.
Devin N. Van Patten, 19, Carlos M. Lewis, 24, and Kyle A. Hutchinson, 21, were arrested Monday and charged with second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and attempted first-degree robbery in the killing of Miller, a former Hoosick Falls high school football star who lived at 151 Jay Herrington Road in Buskirk, part of the town of Pittstown.
Van Patten also was charged with weapon possession, a felony, State Police said at a news conference in Troop G headquarters in Latham.
The murder charges alone carry maximum sentences of 25 years to life in prison.
“We believe at this time that this was a potential robbery and drug-related,” State Police Capt. Robert Appleton of Troop G told reporters.
He said there was “a relationship” between the defendants and Miller but he would not elaborate. He said the case was
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still active and that leads still need to be followed. Other people were inside the home at the time of the killing, he said, but he said he did not believe there was any additional threat to the community in the case.
Appleton was joined by Maj. Christopher West, several other State Police members, Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly, her top assistant, Matthew Hauf, and Schenectady police.
Asked if the defendants targeted the home in an attempt to rob people they believed were drug dealers, Donnelly said: “We don’t have anybody saying that specifically but certainly the facts that we have in front of us and the charges that have been brought would suggest that.”
All three defendants, who were arraigned in Brunswick Town Court, are being held in the Rensselaer County jail without bail, Appleton said.
In June, State Police asked for the public’s help in identifying a black sweatshirt found in Miller’s home that investigators believed belonged to one of the defendants, who ran into the woods following the slaying. On Tuesday, when asked if the shirt played a part in police apprehending the three defendants, Appleton said: “It’s evidence in the crime. As to its validity and weight in the crime, I’m not at liberty to say at this time.”
Asked if there was a big break in the case, Appleton said there was no “smoking gun,” just solid police work.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the effort that they did,” Appleton said. “If it wasn’t for their due diligence in following every little lead, we would not be here today.”
He declined to answer when asked if the defendants had criminal records. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Friday in Brunswick town court. It is unclear if the three men have lawyers.