Suspected prowler was decades-long Navy deserter

Antonio D. Miller was at a residence when someone suspected him to be a prowler. Law enforcement were contacted and they responded. When the officers asked Miller what he was doing, he informed them that he was seeing if his former employer was home at the time. When the officers asked for his identification, Miller provided them with his deceased brother’s name. However, it was later discovered that Miller was someone else and not the deceased brother.

From the Navy Times:

But desert Miller did, on April 14, 1978, giving the slip to his Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, command and remaining on the lam until May of last year, when the long arm of Navy law finally caught up with him, more than 44 years later.

Miller was court-martialed in Norfolk on Aug. 5 on a charge of desertion, according to Navy court records.

Navy officials did not provide his age, but the Tennessee man was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, reduction in rank to E-1 and two months of confinement, although he was credited with 79 days of pre-trial confinement.

A chunk of his pre-trial time in jail occurred in Hamilton County, Tennessee, the state where his run from the law came to an abrupt stop.

Miller’s decades of desertion ended May 19, when he was arrested by police in the small Tennessee town of Soddy-Daisy, according to police records obtained by Navy Times.

Officers responded to a residence that day on reports of a “prowler,” according to the Soddy-Daisy Police Department.

They found Miller, who said he was seeing if his former employer, who lived at the address, was home.

Questioned by officers, he provided an ID card for his brother, Curtis Miller, but police soon confirmed that Curtis Miller had actually passed away in 2010, according to records.

“The male constantly stated he was Curtis and had to go to Nashville to get the issue resolved,” the responding officer wrote.

Police called another Miller brother, William Miller, who confirmed that Curtis Miller had passed away, and that the man using his ID was actually another brother, the wanted junior sailor, Antonio Devasco Miller.

“William stated ‘he was not f—- lying’ … and that his brother’s real name was ‘Antonio Devasco Miller,'” the responding officer wrote. “I then asked William where the Spanish name came to be when his other brothers were Winston, Earl, Curtis and William. He stated ‘a Mexican was his father’s f—– best friend and he was named after him.’ I ended the phone call due to William being irate.”

The Navy Times has additional information.

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