— Caitlin Wardlow/Tribune-Courier || Daniel Miller, who murdered two Calvert City residents in 1995, issued his first public apology in an exclusive Tribune-Courier interview Friday at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.

Convicted killer: 'I am sorry'

Miller still denies
he murdered
Theresa Miller

By Misti Strader
Tribune-Courier News Editor
mstrader@tribunecourier.com

EDDYVILLE – From beyond the confinement of razor blade laced fencing and a concrete jail cell, convicted killer Daniel Miller spoke out Friday for the first time to the families of his victims whose lives he has forever changed.

Fear was thrust into the hearts and minds of residents throughout western Kentucky when two Calvert City residents, Theresa Miller and Charles Hensley were brutally murdered 13 years ago.

A third Calvert City resident (name withheld) was also “savagely” attacked in the crime spree, according to police reports.

Miller was arrested for the crimes and later convicted. However, throughout the duration of the proceedings, Miller maintained his innocence involving some of the charges, including the murder of Miller, for which he refused to show any remorse.

He was sentenced to two life sentences, and had the opportunity for parole after serving 12 years, but that was permanently denied by a panel of parole board members last year.

Now, serving out his life sentence, Miller is speaking out, and for the first time, issuing a public apology for his crimes.

The following is a question-and answer-session between Miller and Tribune-Courier News Editor Misti Strader held Friday at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.

Q. Who was Daniel Miller before all this happened?

A. I thought I was a good person, but certain things that I have done just don’t make any sense to me.

I was never planning on staying in Kentucky when I came here. I was just trying to get some money together to leave.

I was on the run from parole in Illinois. I was just six months short of being done with my time. I had a little girl and a baby on the way, but just could not make any money here.

I was making good honest money there in Illinois, but then I messed it all up.

Q. What events led you to commit the crimes in Kentucky?

A. I thought I could get away with it.

Q. How did the murder of Theresa Miller happen?

A. The thing about the parole board was that I was supposed to show remorse for my actions. I was told to “do this and do that” and show remorse. I said ‘no, I can’t do that.’

I did not kill Theresa Miller.”

Q. So, are you saying that your lack of remorse in this case is because you did not commit the crime?

A. They (the parole board) were sitting there asking me a bunch of questions. 40 minutes into the hearing, I was mentally drained. Some people can’t see that, but it is emotionally draining. I had been dreading that day for 12 years.

I didn’t want to go in there and say I did something I didn’t do. I was going to stay in jail anyway, it didn’t matter.

It was a package deal. They put everything on the table back then. The prosecutor said, this is the deal, and it started out with me getting 300 years.

They locked my pregnant wife up for having three guns. It was eating me up that she was in there because of me.

I told them I would do whatever I had to do to get her out of there. I said I will take whatever you give me, but I am not taking Teresa Miller. I did not do that.

Q. Take me through the Charles Hensley murder. How did that happen?

A. It was a robbery. Me having a gun, well, it was just so easy to pull the trigger to keep from getting caught.

To this day, I have to live with the fact that I took a man’s life for nothing.

Q. Are you saying it was easy to take a life?

A. I had been in prison twice before that happened and my mind-state was that I was not going to be caught again.

I thought “I am not going to let anything stop me from not getting caught again.”

Q. What was your state of mind after the murder?

A. My mind-set, at that time, was that I went to the gas station, got a pack of cigarettes and went home.

I never really thought about any of it. I never watched TV. Me and my daughter never even turned it on.

I never saw anything about it until I went to a gas station in Draffenville and saw the newspaper. That kind of got me to thinking about it, but not really about how I felt.

Q. People throughout west Kentucky were fearful for their safety. Were you aware of that?

A. “I did not know about that. But I am sure not proud of it.

Q. People described you as “pure evil.” What is your response to that?

A. I don’t like to hear that about myself.

I have done some bad things, but me as Danny, that is who I am. The things I have done are another side of me. They just happened.

Like the guys here, some people stay away from me. Even administration, they don’t want me to do things around here because they think I am going to do something I am not supposed to.

Q. So the reputation of “you better watch him” has followed you to prison?

A. Yes, and I don’t like it.

Q.. What do you want people to know about you?

A. I am a good-hearted person, even though people won’t believe that. I love both my kids, but won’t ever get to see them.

Q. Are there things that you did as a teen that led you here today?

A. I went to prison for the first time at 18 for burglary and stealing cars.

Q. What led you to do those things?

A. The rush. I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t drink.

Q. So, basically thrill seeking over the course of about six years led you to spend life in prison?

A. I would say it caught up to me.

Q. What would you say to teens who might be committing these same types of petty crimes?

A. I would hate to talk to kids today. But if I had to, I would tell them to stay in school. If you don’t have an education, you don’t have anything. Kids think things like shoplifting are cool, but little things like that snowball into big things.

Q. What happened the day of the assault on the Calvert City woman?

A. All I had to do was turn right to go home. That’s all I had to do. But I went straight.

That was the changing point in my whole life right there. I hate myself for what I did to her. What I did that day wasn’t me.

To have that kind of anger inside of me and to do something like that makes no sense to me.

Q. Where did the anger come from?

A. To say it was because of the anger is a cop out. It’s been over 12 years and I don’t like thinking about stuff like that.

Thinking about the things that I have done, for the first two years, I thought about it constantly, every night. I could not go to sleep. It irked me.

And to think about what my family thinks...(pause for silence). That has been hard. I had to tell them what I had done. My gramma and my mom just could not believe it. They were dead silent. They asked me, ‘what are you doing?’

But, the years go by and you just kind of try to let it flow out of your mind and not really think about it. I just think that what I did was a big mistake.

Q. Why did you say you were not guilty?

A. You know, when you are accused of something, like during the arraignment and the judge said “do you understand what I am telling you?” I had to say, “no I don’t,” because that is not what happened.

Right then and there I had to say, “I am not guilty – not for everything.”

Q. Who is Daniel Miller today?
A. “I am not a violent person.” (He points to bruise on his face and explains that the injury was not caused by fighting, but from a basketball game)

Q. Do you feel like you got what you deserved for the things you did?


A. “Yes, everything. I did not expect parole. I would have hoped for it maybe in 50 years, but I didn’t deserve to get out yet.”

Q. If you had one thing to do over again, what would it be?

A. “Stay home with my kids. I had an opportunity to do that. When I crossed that state line, I made a promise and I did not keep it. We were in a U-haul truck that day and I promised them “no more burglaries and no more robberies.” I broke that promise.

Q. Why did you break that promise?

A. Well, they never got me for every robbery and burglary that I committed.

I have done a lot from Illinois all the way down to Mississippi. It was just a high to do something and get away with it – rob a house, a store, steal a car, whatever. It was about the rush – an instant high.

So for someone to come home on me, I wanted to be free. It’s like a caged animal. I wanted out and that was how it all happened.

Q. In your opinion, were the people you are convicted of harming simply victims of circumstance?

A. I don’t like using that term. It’s a cop-out, as well. I had a gun. What do you carry a gun for?

Q. What do you do now to fill the need for that rush?

A. I am passed that now, I grew up.

I am turning 36 years-old and turning gray. I don’t want to sit in segregation. There are consequences to your actions here.

I just wish I had the same mentality when I was 23 years-old.

Guess I think about it now and wonder why I couldn’t have been the same person then.

Q. Is there anything you would like to say to the public and to the victims and their families?

A. I didn’t really get to say what I wanted to the families during the parole board hearing.

So, I want to tell the victims’ families and all their relatives that I am sorry. That is from my heart. I am truly sorry. It was something awful to do what I did. I am deeply sorry for that.

Q. You have tears in your eyes. Is this remorse?

A. Yes. I have to live everyday knowing that I took a man’s life for nothing.