Accused Murderer Asks Jurors to Be Patriots

OLATHE, Kan. (CN) - The white supremacist accused of murdering three people in an anti-Semitic killing spree in Kansas told the jury in his capital murder trial Monday that he had "good, moral reasons for what I did."

F. Glenn Miller, 74, is representing himself for the shooting deaths of Dr. William Corporon, 69, and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park on April 13, 2014.

Miller also is accused of killing Terri LaManno, 53, outside the Village Shalom care center that day.

Assistant District Attorney Chris McMullin opened the trial by telling the jury what Miller had said to police moments after his arrest: "I'm an anti-Semitic. I hate goddamn Jews. How many did I get?"

Miller aka Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., said he felt it was his duty to kill Jews. But all of the victims were Christian.

Police arrested him in his car immediately after the shootings.

"He drank some whiskey to celebrate what he just did," McMullin said.

McMullin said a "mountain of evidence" will prove Miller's guilt, including his confession to police, a recorded confession to a friend, video surveillance of the murders and eyewitness accounts.

McMullin said he will also produce DNA evidence from a "chunk of bloody tissue" from Corporon's brain that splattered and stuck to Miller's car, which the prosecutor called a "mobile arsenal." The white Suzuki Forenza was stocked with a .38 revolver, a .30 caliber carbine rifle, shotguns and numerous rounds of ammunition.

"His sole mission was to find and kill as many Jewish people as possible," McMullin told the jury in the Johnson County Courthouse.

McMullin described the shotgun blast that blew Corporon's brain from his head, and LaManno's screams and pleas of "No! No! No!" in the Village Shalom parking lot, where Miller allegedly reloaded his shotgun and shot her point blank.

Miller shot at or threatened to kill other victims that day, the prosecutor said, including one woman he asked, "Are you a Jew?" as she looked him in the eye over the barrel of a shotgun.

McMullin closed his opening statement by quoting from a recorded telephone conversation about the killings, in which Miller allegedly told a friend: "I did it, and I'm proud of it. I planned it. I plotted it. I schemed it."

Miller, who fired his attorneys in May, uttered only one sentence of his opening statement, concerning his discussions with prosecutors, before Tenth Judicial District Judge Kelly Ryan ordered the jury to leave. Ryan then told Miller that he could only present evidence relevant to his guilt or innocence.

Miller wanted to present "evidence" from television news and other media to explain why he committed the murders, but Ryan warned him that introduction of materials irrelevant to the guilt phase of the trial could result in a mistrial.

When the jury returned, Miller told them: "My actions that day were well-intentioned. I had good, moral reasons for what I did and good intentions in my heart."

Miller said he was trying to stop "genocide" that Jews commit against the white race and called the murder victims casualties of war. "During war, innocent people get killed," he said.

Miller told jurors to not give in to "peer pressure" and "political correctness" and to be "brave, courageous and patriotic."

"Let your conscience be your guide," Miller told the jury. "I'm confident you will find me innocent."

Prosecutors expect Miller's trial to take all week.

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