Dangerous Reunion

(CBS News)  Produced By Ian Paisley and Jenna Jackson

This story originally aired March 10, 2007. It was updated on Aug. 10, 2007.

In River Oaks, Texas, in 1982, the only thing more shocking than Retha Stratton's murder was the fact that Wesley Wayne Miller did it. "He's not the kind of person that if you see him walking down the street, you're gonna cross to the other side of the road for your safety," explains prosecutor Joey Robertson.

But as correspondent Susan Spencer reports, Robertson will try to convince a jury at a hearing that if he's simply freed, Miller will kill again. It's a fear that has driven Retha's sister Rona and her best friend Lisa Gabbert to fight for two decades to keep Miller locked up.

It all began when Rona and Lisa were just two small-town girls. In 1981, Lisa was a senior at Castleberry High; Wesley Wayne Miller was a pal and captain of the football team, voted best all around during his senior year.

As always in high school, the cheerleaders were at the center of everything; Lisa and her good friend, Retha Stratton were both on the squad.

Like Wesley Miller, Retha Stratton is all over the yearbook, beaming in the cheerleaders' official picture, a picture that over the next year would take on a grim significance.

On January 23, 1981, a girl seen just below Retha in that very yearbook photo, Susan Davis, was sexually assaulted.

"I'm standing there, and he walks in and with a stocking over his head, his face, no shirt on, jeans, with you know, his zipper open. And at that point I realized that something really bad was about to happen," Susan remembers.

She was 16 at the time and home alone. "My instincts took over and I just ran. And he caught me. And at that point, he began to threaten me," Susan recalls.

Her attacker, Susan says, told her to shut up and be quiet. "Don't scream or I'm going to hit you. It became physical, hitting me in the face, ripping my panties off…going at that point it was sexual. I prayed to God, you know, 'Watch over me.' And then at that point, he got up and walked away," Susan remembers of the ordeal.

Having failed to actually rape her, the attacker fled. At the time, Susan says she didn't know who had attacked her.

The man was probably someone she knew, police said, but with no physical evidence or suspects, the case stalled. For them, that was that, but not for Susan. "I had to go back into cheerleading. And I was paranoid all the time about, 'Is this person in the stands watching me?'" she wondered.

At Castleberry High, life went on. Lisa and Retha graduated that May, and then that November, a man raped another young woman in the nearby town of Saginaw. Again, the victim was alone, and like in the Davis case, the rapist wore a mask. He left a fingerprint but police couldn't identify it. In River Oaks, the case got little attention.

"It's just very much that teenage mentality that 'It doesn't affect my world. That can't happen to me,'" Lisa explains.

But on Dec. 7, 1981, it did, and the attack is as vivid when she visits the vacant house today, as it was back then. Lisa, who was just 18 years old at the time, was awakened when someone opened her bedroom door.

"And when I looked over I saw that someone was standing in the doorway with a mask and a red ski mask and panty hose over the mask," she remembers. "And he leapt on me. And we struggled. There was some choking. And then he tore back the covers. Opened my robe. And we struggled some more. And so he proceeded to rape me."

Lisa was sure her attacker knew her, because he didn't give a second thought to walking right past her ailing mother, who was an invalid.

"And you've always thought that was important, that the person who did this to you knew that your mother who was sitting here a few feet away couldn't move?" Spencer asks.

"Absolutely, because anyone else would have seen her as a witness," Lisa explains.

Still, she had no idea who the attacker was. Robert Lynn Hicks, then a rookie patrolman, interviewed Lisa that day. He distinctly remembers one telling detail. "She stated, 'If you'll find someone that looks similar to Wesley Miller, it would be, you know, a good place to start as far as looking for a suspect,'" Hicks recalls.

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[djs1215]

I am commenting on all the other messages that are for castration. Rape isn't about sex! It is about power and control over a victim. I live in Tx.and I say kill them all. There is NO OTHER CURE for these sickos.

[Brwnsgr115]

this article below its in some way similar... what do you think about it?

BRIDGEPORT -- On a list of truly evil people Darryl Whitaker ranks near the top. So why can't they keep him in prison?

At 22 years old, Whitaker had already raped at knifepoint a 20-year-old Trumbull woman and a 13-year-old Bridgeport girl.

Then on Feb. 8, 1983, while free on bond for the other two crimes, he committed one of the most horrendous acts in the city's history.

An 18-year-old girl was waiting for a bus to take her to the Trumbull mall so she could buy a birthday present for her mother at 2:30 in the afternoon when she was confronted by Whitaker.

He showed her the butt of a handgun sticking out of his waistband and told her he would "blow her gut out" if she didn't go with him.

He told her he only intended to rob her and then would set her free. But instead he forced her onto the rocky ground beneath the bleachers in Kennedy Stadium and raped her. He then pulled a piece of wire from his pocket, wrapped it around her throat and choked her until she passed out.

Concerned that she was still alive, Whitaker began bashing her repeatedly in the face with a rock. He then left her for dead.

But the young woman didn't die. Blind from the blows and the blood that caked her face, she began to crawl from under the bleachers, breaking off her fingernails on the frozen ground. She finally made it to the parking lot where she collapsed by a car.

One of the first police officers to get to the scene would later testify that it looked like a deer had been slaughtered beneath the bleachers.

The girl lost an eye in the attack, but doctors were able to reconstruct her face.

Two years later, a Superior Court jury would deliberate only two hours before finding Whitaker guilty of attempted murder, kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault.

The evidence against Whitaker had been extensive. The victim had identified him in three separate photo arrays, specks of her blood were found on his jacket and police found a spool of wire in his home that matched the piece wound around her throat.

On Feb. 26, 1985, Judge Hugh Curran, a former mayor of the city, sentenced Whitaker to 75 years in prison, calling it the most horrendous crime he had ever heard.

The sentence didn't sit well with Whitaker. "You did everything in your power to see I would be convicted," he yelled at the judge. Turning toward a judicial marshal he stated: "OK man, let's go."

But it didn't end there.

Two years later, in February 1987, the state Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered Whitaker a new trial.

During the trial, Whitaker's lawyers had produced a woman who had testified she saw Whitaker on a city bus at the time of the crime.

Curran found out the woman had given a statement to the defense lawyers. He ordered them to turn over that statement -- in which the woman said she hadn't seen Whitaker on the bus -- over to the prosecutor who was required to give his witnesses' statements to the defense.

The state's high court ruled it was improper to make the defense turn over the statement. Defense lawyers are now required to do so.

But Whitaker was granted a new trial. He later agreed to a plea bargain and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

It's not over yet because the state Appellate Court later reduced the sentence to 20 years, ruling Whitaker was entitled to "good time" for the amount of time he waited in prison for the case to finally be resolved.

When Whitaker was released from prison in August 2007, he was required under the state's new Megan Law to register as a sex offender.

Whitaker reluctantly agreed to register, but as soon as he was out the prison gate he thumbed his nose at state officials failing to inform State Police of even the basic requirement that he provide them with a current address.

While on probation, he was cited 13 times for having marijuana in his system.

On Jan. 24, Whitaker's wife, who he met when he got out of prison, went to Stratford police. Officers described how she shook with fear as she described how Whitaker, in a rage, threatened to "go West Haven," on her, a reference to the incident six days earlier where a West Haven man, arrested for beating his wife, allegedly killed her the day he got out of prison.

"He told her if she sends him to jail he will kill her when he gets out," police said.

The wife has since claimed she exaggerated her claims, angrily telling this reporter that Whitaker is "A good man who just has some problems in his past."

For now, Whitaker, 46, is being held for failing to register as a sex offender, but his public defenders say they expect to argue that should be dismissed because the registration law wasn't in effect at the time of the initial crime.

[abbiejo]

Rona and Lisa are hero's. I thank god every day for strong determined women like them who fight for themselves and others despite how painful it must have been for them to do so.

[bighdelight]

I know it''s difficult to let things go sometimes. I have had 2, yes 2 brothers murdered as well as my mother was murdered by my stepfather. I can tell you unbelieveable stories of crimes you couldn''t imagine possible.
But that is not why I post my comment. I understand Wesley Miller''s sentence might have been light, but that''s the way justice works sometimes. I know a man that killed another totally in self defense and received a 12 year sentence. I know another man that killed a man by stabbing him in the neck 26 times...he was out of prison in 18 months. Is this fair?? of course not, but it is the way the justice system is designed to work.
By backing up the system causes more problems, more money from taxpayers, etc. When your prison term is up, then it is up. I believe this "civil commitmentment" rules he needs to abide by is a violation of his civil rights. Naturally, a prisoner loses many rights, but no one, NO ONE loses there civil rights, unless mandated by a couple of women who think they deserved to make his sentence, not the jury of his peers.

[sal567]

Wesley Miller should have gotten the death penalty. Monsters like him should not be allowed to waste the taxpayers' money that should have been put to better use than keeping them alive only to continue menacing society.

[nothappyatall]

" I prayed to God, you know, 'Watch over me.' "

Yeah, really worked didn't it kids! just pray, too bad it didn't work BEFORE the attack thereby preventing it.


"and then that November, a man raped another young woman in the nearby town of Saginaw. "

I guess SHE didn't PRAY, or she didn't grovel enough maybe!

www.zeitgeist.com
evilbible.com

[boston1954]

To all you women out there,get training in hand guns and martial arts and learn to change your comings and goings routes to places you frequent the most. You will be a lot safer in this world.
Posted by Beadazzle at 01:51 AM : Aug 12, 2007
*

Nice thought, but that could not help me when I was nine and raped by my brothers in my own bed.

[dzfromsc]

I'm surprised a state like Texas with the death penalty has such lax laws on murders/*** offenders.
I hope nobody in River Oaks was trying to cover for Wesley, being a small town probably very proud of their football team and thier star player...seems very strange that they didn't show the composite to the victims or question him until it was obvious that he was involved...

Why can't we deport our criminals to China? That would free up prison space...
Seriously, I'm so happy for these women for doing what they did. Still, I wouldn't want him within 1,000 miles of me much less 25.
It's injustice like this that makes me people take matters into their own hands when they have been assualted, raped, etc.

God help us all...

[bamababydoll]

Congratulations on the victory in court, Rona and Lisa! You never gave up, you never backed down, and you didnt let anything waiver your mission! You did Reetha, and the women of the United States, a great justice here!

[lydiasings]

WESLEY MILLER HAS MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES!!! When he apologized he said "PLEASE FORGIVE US!, NOT PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!! That is why he doesn't believe he did anything wrong, because he probably had another personality that kicked in and did the crimes. Remember Sybil, get the psychoanalysis team to see just how many personalities he has, and hope it is only two. Maybe you can get the other one into *** offender therapy. Maybe the rage and frustration of his father's accident came out as rape and murder.