JP Miller's Demons Meet Six Federal Trial Delays

Tony Brueski (0:00)

This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski.

Tony Brueski (0:20)

Back in October at 23, John Paul Miller, he stood in front of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach and also on video and told his congregation the past four weeks have been the worst of his life. Said he was seeing a psychiatrist every week and taking 900 milligrams of lithium. He said he was going to deliverance three times a week with pastors in the area.

And that he had, quote, demons coming out of me.

He's facing federal cyber-stalking and statement charges with a trial in Florence now set for January of 27 after six continuances. He's pled not guilty. The question his audience is asking is, is John Paul Miller going to, going to try to say that word in the courtroom? Deliverance, possession. It was demons.

Now, I'm not saying he is. I don't know. This is, this is speculation.

Because it's like, why, why are we, why is there another continuance on this federal case here? What's going on? What, what kind of, what kind of case is JP going to be bringing to his defense when he does get into that courtroom? Every person who's tried this argument, the I've possessed argument, it's been done, believe it or not, it's been done, has pretty much walked out convicted. And looking at what the government says he did, some people might agree with his word. Just not the same way he means it.

Deliverance is a real practice in charismatic churches. And for a lot of people, a lot of sincere people, it's a serious spiritual experience. A person believes a demon is behind their sin or their struggle and a pastor prays over them and casts it out. When a man claims demonic attack the same month his wife catches him in an affair, kind of stops being a spiritual exercise.

Michael Honeycutt is Mica Miller's stepfather, and he helped raise her from about the age of 12 In his first interview since her death with Robbie Harvey, he described a lunch with Mica and John Paul after her October 23rd mission trip to Africa. John Paul ate and left to run errands. When he came back and everybody walked to the cars, Honeycutt prayed over him the way he prays over all his kids. The word that came out was deliverance. Ten minutes up the road, his phone rang. Honeycutt said it was Mica with John Paul upset and asking whether he was saying John Paul was possessed by a demon.

Not long after, he says Mica called him to tell him John Paul was seeing another pastor and getting delivered.

Someone seemingly put the idea in JP's mind, you might be possessed by a demon. And he ran with it, it seems. I mean, according to the story.

Bruna Faban was one of Mica's oldest friends, and she told Robbie Harvey that in September 23 is when Mica found out about John Paul and Susie Skinner as well. Same month that the demon talk comes up. You're having an affair? Demons! Bishop Charles Randall, his spiritual advisor and the man who would later put him on leave, told a reporter, he's been real close to them since September. The deliverance sessions, the psychiatrist, the lithium, all of it tracks to the month the affair was discovered. The demon didn't attack him on a random Wednesday. It showed up when he got caught.

One American defendant has formerly tried a demonic possession defense in court. Happened in 1981 in Connecticut. A 19-year-old named Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his landlord, Alan Bono, to death with a pocket knife. His attorney told the court that a demon had entered Johnson during an exorcism performed on his girlfriend's younger brother and that the demon, not Johnson, was responsible for the killing. Judge Robert Callahan threw out the defense before the jury even heard it. He called it irrelative and unscientific and ruled that no such defense could exist in his courtroom. Johnson was convicted on first degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 20 years. He served five. With the possession defense thrown out, his attorney pivoted to self-defense. The jury rejected that too. That case set the template for every attempt that followed. The court says no and the defendant goes to prison.

A court needs evidence. A jury can wait. Testimony it can test. Documents it can read. Physical proof it can examine. A claim that a spirit entered someone's body and directed their actions produces none of that. No witnesses can testify to a demon's present and survive cross-examination on it. In England in 1974, Michael Taylor killed his wife after an all-night exorcism. A clergy who performed it said they'd cast out 40 demons, but believe three were still left inside. Come on, guys. Insanity, murder and violence. The court didn't accept possession as a defense. It reclassified the claim as a mental health issue and committed him to a psychiatric facility. David Berkowitz, the son of Sam, told police demons ordered him to kill six people in New York. Psychiatrists evaluated him, found competent to stand trial and he pled guilty. Sean Sellers killed his parents in a convenience store clerk in Oklahoma and claimed satanic possession drove him to do it. He was executed in 99 Berkowitz later admitted in prison he'd invented the demon story to confuse investigators and the press. In 2016, Jason Dalton killed six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Between Uber rides, he told investigators a demonic symbol in the app took control of him. He pled guilty and was sentenced to life. The record is perfect. Basically every defendant who's ever blamed a demon in the American courtroom either had the defense thrown out, reclassified as something the court could evaluate or ignored entirely. No American court has ever accepted demonic possession as a defense to anything. John Paul Miller didn't wait for the courtroom to try it. He road tested the demon defense from the one place where he couldn't be cross-examined. In March of 24 on video, he told the Solid Rock Congregation he had read Mica's text messages and counted 18 people who had promised to keep her secrets if she ever needed to talk about them. The 18 people his wife turned to for help had the name in his sermon. His words, if somebody wants to call you and say bad things about somebody else, that's a demon talking to you.