[1]Weston G. Miller hangs his head after hearing a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Murder defendant Weston G. Miller blinked once and finally lowered his head after he was found guilty as charged today in Lewis County Superior Court.
A jury took a little more than three hours today to convict the 30-year-old Centralia resident of first-degree murder in the shooting death last year of a house guest, 43-year-old David Wayne Carson.
He’ll be back in court next Thursday morning when attorneys will set a sentencing date.
In the trial that began on Monday, jurors and spectators heard that Carson died from two gunshots to his chest, that it occurred at a fairly close range and that Miller claimed self defense.
It happened March 13, 2012 inside Miller’s house on B Street.
What they didn’t hear from witnesses or prosecutors was any explanation for why it happened.
Carson’s girlfriend Sara DeSalvo – has described how she and Carson were inside a bedroom that day and Miller kept coming to the door to tell them to stop arguing.
DeSalvo told jurors Miller knocked on the door and asked her boyfriend to come out for a minute, and as soon as the door closed she heard three shots. Miller told police during an interview he opened the door and Carson charged at him with a rusty kitchen knife so he shot him.
DeSalvo and Carson who were off and on homeless were staying with Miller for a few days in exchange for her doing some house cleaning.
The case has dragged on over a year in part because of questions about Miller’s competency and sanity.
One friend of Miller’s was sitting in the benches behind him when the verdict was read this afternoon.
Carson’s brother, two grown children and other family members have attended most of the trial.
DeSalvo, who said Carson proposed to her the night before he was killed, sat behind his family and cried when the verdict was read.
She said she still doesn’t know why Miller shot her boyfriend.
“I have no idea,” she said.
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For background, read “Centralia murder trial: In the defendant’s own words” from Friday May 10, 2013 at 10:13 a.m., here [2]