Interview of James Styers

RIGHTS : 1841 hours by DET. R. MILLS 2781 from Card.

On 12/3/89 at 1841 hours I entered the holding room at 620 West Washington containing JIM STYERS, whom I had had contact with earlier. At this point I told JIM that he was at this time under arrest. He asked what he was under arrest for and I told him that he was under arrest for the murder of CHRISTOPHER MILKE.

At this point I read JAMES his warnings from the Standard Miranda Card to which he replied, "I want an attorney." JAMES then asked when he would have an attorney and I told him that he would be appointed one at some time in the future. He then asked me if he was going to be any more questions and I told him no. JAMES then asked about CHRISTOPHER and I told him that I had talked to ROGER and I knew this had been a planned murder. I told him that we had discovered the body and I also had in my possession the shoes he had given ROGER which were to be disposed of. I told JIM tat I knew he was the one that shot CHRISTOPHER in the head out in the wash off of 99th Avenue and that I also knew about DEBRA'S participation in the conspiracy to kill CHRISTOPHER.

Comment : DETECTIVE MILLS' allegations were solely based on ROGER SCOTT'S statements, which were later described in the report of Detective Saldate. It is amazing to realize that DETECTIVE MILLS never took into consideration that SCOTT'S self-protecting statements might be untrue, and that his incrimination of JIM STYERS and Debra Milke only had this one purpose: to protect himself and talk himself out of the main responsibility for the crime. And in fact, MILLS was about to talk to SCOTT on tape about his confession, and the transcript of that interview shows SCOTT'S story to be thoroughly confused and inconsistent. This arrest is the first direct result of SCOTT'S rambling statements. STYERS immediately requested an attorney. In contrast to Det. Saldate's illegal policy of ignoring constitutional rights, DET. MILLS properly respected STYERS request for a lawyer and stopped questioning him. This interview didn't yield any information to corroborate SCOTT'S allegation of a conspiracy.

JAMES then asked what was going to happen now and when he could have a lawyer. I told him that he was going to be booked into County Jail on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder and first degree murder and that he eventually would be given an attorney. At this point JIM said that he didn't want to say anything more. He sat back in his chair and remained mute. At this point I told JIM that I was going to need the shoes that he currently had on and had him unlace them. Those shoes are shown as evidence item #4 on my supplement.

JIM STYERS was subsequently booked into Maricopa County Jail on a charge of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.