Cops: Man recruited pregnant teen daughter to help with murder
SHELTON, Wash. -- Sheriff's deputies say a woman shot dead when she opened the door of her home last week was killed by two teenagers in a plot orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend.
Mason County Chief Deputy Dean Byrd said all three people suspected in the murder of 30-year-old Barbara Giles were arrested Thursday afternoon.
Byrd said text messages sent between Giles' ex-boyfriend and his pregnant daughter helped crack the case.
"Those messages suggested that they were plotting this murder as early as November 15," he said.
Investigators said 37-year-old Anthony Miller had a child with Giles before the couple broke up, and he apparently wanted Giles dead as a result of their falling out and an ongoing custody dispute.
Giles was shot multiple times in the early hours of November 21 when she opened her front door.
Byrd said Miller's 16-year-old daughter, Asaria Miller, and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Jimmie Hartfield, were the ones who knocked on the door and killed Giles.
Miller allegedly planned the killing and provided the the gun used in the shooting.
"This is a really horrific case. Our victim here is a mother of four children," Byrd said.
The murder has left the victim's friends and family shaken.
"Barbie had four beautiful children. He took their mother away so early for no reason at all," said family member Marcus Kennedy.
Miller and his daughter allegedly sent coded text messages to each other as they plotted in the days leading up to the murder.
"There was some fairly detailed planning about where it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, how it was going to happen," said Mason County Prosecutor Mike Dorcy.
Byrd said it was not hard for detectives to figure out what the codes really meant, and their investigation confirmed the messages were related to the killing.
Byrd said investigators are confident they have everyone involved in custody, but "there's a lot of investigation that remains to be done."
All three suspects are being held on $1.5 million bail.
Asaria Miller is four months pregnant and is being held at the Mason County Juvenile Detention center, Byrd said.
Mason County Chief Deputy Dean Byrd said all three people suspected in the murder of 30-year-old Barbara Giles were arrested Thursday afternoon.
Byrd said text messages sent between Giles' ex-boyfriend and his pregnant daughter helped crack the case.
"Those messages suggested that they were plotting this murder as early as November 15," he said.
Investigators said 37-year-old Anthony Miller had a child with Giles before the couple broke up, and he apparently wanted Giles dead as a result of their falling out and an ongoing custody dispute.
Giles was shot multiple times in the early hours of November 21 when she opened her front door.
 Barbara Giles |
Miller allegedly planned the killing and provided the the gun used in the shooting.
"This is a really horrific case. Our victim here is a mother of four children," Byrd said.
The murder has left the victim's friends and family shaken.
"Barbie had four beautiful children. He took their mother away so early for no reason at all," said family member Marcus Kennedy.
Miller and his daughter allegedly sent coded text messages to each other as they plotted in the days leading up to the murder.
"There was some fairly detailed planning about where it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, how it was going to happen," said Mason County Prosecutor Mike Dorcy.
Byrd said it was not hard for detectives to figure out what the codes really meant, and their investigation confirmed the messages were related to the killing.
Byrd said investigators are confident they have everyone involved in custody, but "there's a lot of investigation that remains to be done."
All three suspects are being held on $1.5 million bail.
Asaria Miller is four months pregnant and is being held at the Mason County Juvenile Detention center, Byrd said.
Whatever happen to innocent until proven guilty people? Not all the "facts" are in a news report and no one has been convicted of anything yet, so lets let the judicial system do its job and save the judgement for when there's a verdict. Remember, what is being reported is one sided and there is always another side to a story and that side doesn't come out until proceedings begin.
The plan sounded solid. What could possibly go wrong?
When - if, these sleeze bags get out of prison they should be banned for life from receiving ANY Public Assistance.
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Do a crime- no more public dime. Especially murder.
 @Justice Do you go around posting this on every site? Did the story mention assistance? You can tell who is on assistance just by looking at them, Miss Cleo? Do you really sit at home at your computer every day, loathing the idea that there are people in need getting help? What is wrong with you really? What the hell is your effing problem? You are living in a country that has the means to be charitable and aid the less fortunate, kneel down and thank God! I mean, come the eff on! Save up and move to Haiti, then! You will no longer have to be assaulted by your government helping people!
 @HabsGirl  @Justice Thank you for pointing out Justice talks about public assistance on EVERy site....hmmmm. Those that protest the loudest.
so much for teaching your children right from wrong.
The daughter looks like a pit bull.
(sorry to pit bull owners!)
@Willow Know what Willow she was beautiful inside and out. She was a premie weighing only 1pound 12 ozs. but was able to overcome and then be murdered by 3 pieces of S----T!!! Maybe you should look into the mirror and not throw stones when you live a glass house. Just saying.
 @Willow if you're referring to the picture below the video, that's the victim, Barbie Giles.
Oh the complete and utter insanity.
Really sad. I know all the people involved here. Barbie might have had a hard life, but she certainly did not deserve to be murdered. 4 children...  1 beautiful girl, 2 awesome boys and the adopted two year old girl. They will more than likely live in separate homes now and not have each other all the time.
Daddy little girl really needs help, and Daddy really needs to die. I would have been thinking that the daughter would do anything for her dad to earn his respect and love. However with a boyfriend also involved this dad sure knows how to brain wash kids. My thoughts and prays are with everyone family and friends that are involved with this. My thoughts are mostly with the unborn baby, I hope she receives the help needed to give birth to a healthy baby, and adopt it to a family. I don't think it would be good for the baby to stay around in this family.Â
Oh 16 and pregnant I guess MTV won't be calling her.. Maybe they'll do another show called 16 and pregnant behind bars.. Ugh idiots.
They better all be charged with murder one among other things.. Murder one ensures it doesn't matter who pulled the trigger, they all killed her equally. Disgusting cowards. So heart breaking. So many lives ruined. My heart goes out to the family of Barbie, her precious innocent children and her friends.. I hope her family will forever keep her memory alive for her children and that her children's hearts can heal as time passes, they remember her love and happiness and not these monsters.. Really horribly disgusting. They should all be killed, save tax payers a lot of money.
You really have to wonder...
Barbie was my cousin and i am so happy these guys were cought and locked up, they deserve to rot in there!!!!
I am very happy that the baby was not tonys biological baby!
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 @Shyleah Rachelle If the baby wasn't his, why were they going through a custody fight? that sounds fishy to me.
 @Shyleah Rachelle You have my condolences. I'd like to see all three hanged.
 @Shyleah Rachelle cought?
My prayers go out to the family and friends left behind from this horible situation. With this lebral society, our only hope is God's justice and it will previal.
Of course ex boyfriends and husbands are never connected with the death of a woman, especially when there's a custody battle. Of course authorities won't check phone/text records or talk to family members. Of course teens will never spill the beans when interrogated. Of course killing your kid's mom is a great thing to do if you really love your kid. Ever watch one of the news or the hundreds of crime shows?? I hope all these scumbags spend lots of time in jail and that somehow the child of the woman killed can grow up normally somehow and live a fulfilling life.
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Good grief! Wonder if there was gang association. Damn well better charge them all as adults and throw the book at them,and hope they waste no time putting that child in protected care after being born!
texting is definitely the best way to plot murrder. almost as good as facebook.
@hmmm... holy wow- this made me laugh so hard
Well he sure earns parent of the year. He just took one life and destroyed (4 or more) others, counting the unborn and his child with Giles. Hopefully that baby winds up in a good home with no connection to any involved, and Giles child or children recover.  Now it could be argued that the other two were worthless anyway, which I would not argue about, but they were not up for capitol murder. You have to be turning over rocks in some really nasty places to find the likes of him.  Â
All three of them need to rot in jail the rest of their lives. Disgusting.
Plain and simply, the scum of the earth.
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Prosecute the 16 year old as an adult. If it was as planned out as they say, she deserves the maximum punishment. Please do not give her a "deal" in exchange for testimony against her father.  Â
"...helped crack the case."
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I suspect there may have been some "crack" in this case long before now.
I sure hope she is charged as an adult. And the father deserves the death penalty for getting his daughter involved.
Hopefully, they will take the child away from the daughter when born.
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 @Chico Can't hang the 16 year old. Juveniles even when charged as adults can't be given the death penalty but they can get life without parole.
 @jcman In the early days it didn't matter. Cattle rustler or horse thief , that was all that mattered, not how old you were.
@jcman @Chico Both young people in this case had very long history with the justice system, some being against others
 @Chico [cracking Walter Brennan voice] Yeah, by crackie, in the "old days" we used to know how to deal with hoss thieves and them. Why in the "old days" we used to hang 8-year-olds for bein' pickpockets! We was Real Civilized about it, too: let 'em just dangle and twist and jerk on the end of the rope until their little bodies went limp! That way they got to say goodbye to they mommas Real Proper! These knuckleheads today got it too soft! </sarcasm>
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It just really annoys me when people rejoice at killing. 10 to 1 this "father" would have posted the exact same sort of comment about killers deserving to be killed - using precisely the same sort of "logic" he used to get his own child to "off" his ex-girlfriend because he was too much of a coward even to handle his own laundry - much less fulfill his obligation as a parent. EVERY person who thinks killing people is a good solution to ANYTHING - no matter the cause - is infected with the same deadly disease that is harder to cure than even HIV/AIDS. It is the disease called Sin and Death.
 @Chico I like to think that we are more civilized as a society than we were "in the early days". As Judge Judy so often says of young people, "They aren't fully cooked yet." We know that teenagers don't have good judgement and are easily influenced by some adults and peers. In fact it has been demonstrated for many years that the maturity of people and their ability to wise decisions based on brain development doesn't happen until they are in their mid twenties. Of course, some never get to that stage and show poor judgement their entire lives. But that doesn't excuse adults for making bad decisions.
Take all three of these losers and lock them up forever. The girl and her boyfriend were old enough to know better.  So they are no better than the father.    Useless wastes of space, goodbye you piles of trash.
thats a gene pool that needs to be drained
Perfect example of why the death penalty needs to stay.
The whole thing is messed up but too cowardly to do the deed himself so he had to involve his teen daughter? Father of the year right there. And when will people learn that nothing electronic is secure and is recoverable?
They are some real rocket surgeons.
BTW love the  King Leonidus quote my fav.
 @BocaBob rocket surgeons?
@NaviDog @BocaBob " rocket surgeons" IÂ it when he says that...
What a bunch of morons they left a trail of text messages detailing what they were doing! Come on everyone has to know by now that text messages are not a secure way to plot a murder. The father should face the death penalty over this the kids that did the killing should be locked up for life. What a shame.
 @DB Cooper Oh, but they were using a "code" so no one could find out! Oh wait....they did figure it out.....huh
clearly an unbreakable code. U SHt btc tday.
Isn't it great that they don't understand the technology? It saves us some time and money investigating it. I only wish they had tried to work out the whole plot on their Facebook "wall" so that perhaps they could have been caught before anyone was hurt.
That's why she opened the door at such an early hour, She knew who it was and trusted her.
Can we just trow away all this trash?
With there being so many stories of people getting busted for murder-for-hire plots because the very first person they try to recruit, no matter how dumb, sociopathic or closely related to the plotter, have enough sense to immediately call the police, you kind of wonder how often that the person is instead so stupid or devoid of common sense or humanity that they actually agree to get involved. Here's one of those sad instances.