State of Arizona vs.
Debra Jean Milke

Debra Jean Milke was arrested on December 3rd, 1989, for complicity in the murder of her only child, four year-old Christopher Conan Milke. The previous day, Debra allowed JIM STYERS, with whom she temporarily shared an apartment, to use her car for shopping errands at a nearby mall. Christopher begged her to let him go along. When she received a phone call from STYERS that Christopher was missing she phoned the police for assistance.

Before even going to the mall, STYERS picked up a friend of his, ROGER MARK SCOTT. Police detectives interviewed STYERS as well as SCOTT, while other police personnel were searching for leads to find Christopher. After many hours of waiting in the apartment for news of what might have happened to Christopher, Debbie went with her stepmother and stepsister to her father's house near Florence, Arizona. The police took her father's telephone number in case they needed to reach her.

Meanwhile, police detectives questioned SCOTT and STYERS intensively and eventually, Homicide Detective Armando Saldate, jr. was assigned to handle the case. STYERS was subsequently released, but after many hours of interrogation, SCOTT led the police to a place in the desert where Christopher's body was found, shot to death by three .22 caliber bullets to the back of his head. SCOTT claimed "JIM killed him", and during the ride to the crime scene - approximately 30 minutes later - he also implicated Debra stating, "The baby's mother knew all about the killing and in fact the only reason that CHRIS was killed was because she wanted it done."

JAMES STYERS, during his questioning by police, NEVER implicated Debra to have any part in this conspiracy - not then, not during his own trial, or any time later. STYERS claims SCOTT killed Christopher and threatened to kill him too. SCOTT denied that he killed Christopher, but confessed the murder to a co-inmate, ROBERT E. JOHNSON. However, the interrogation reports, his tape-recorded confession, and his testimony during his own trial show that he constantly changed his story.

Based on the allegation of SCOTT police decided to arrest JIM STYERS for murder, and it was only after his refusal to say anything more that Saldate went by helicopter, with no recording device to Florence to interview Debra. Debbie was awakened from a short nap (by Pinal County Sheriff's deputy SOULES) and she was told that a Phoenix Police detective would meet her at the Sheriff's Office. A friend of the family, JANET FROEBE, took Debra to the Sheriff's Complex, where both of them were led to a small infirmary room. Two Phoenix police detectives, who had arrived at the Jail facility at the same time, did not make contact with any of the two women, but asked Deputy SOULES whether there was a room where they could wait. After one hour seventeen minutes Saldate arrived and entered the room. He identified himself, dismissed JANET, and closed the door. He did not use any recording devices and later on claimed, he would only go to Florence to interview Debra. In fact, Saldate made contradictory statements about this point on various occasions. When Debra immediately asked Saldate if the police had found her son or if they had any knowledge of what might have happened, he ignored her question - instead he opened his interview by telling her : "We found your son, he was murdered, and you are under arrest." The interview lasted approximately thirty five minutes, and when Saldate left the room he made no statements to anyone on the outside at all. Later he claimed he had a "confession" from Debra Milke. Debbie was not permitted to make a phone call during the interview and when she was taken from the interrogation room, she was instructed not to speak to anyone. Saldate then took her to Phoenix to the main police station, but didn't handcuff her on the way there.

On the same day that the Grand Jury indicted her, Debra spoke to her assigned public defender for the very first time. She volunteered to be tried first, because she proclaimed her innocence in this conspiracy at all times and "wanted to get this nightmare over with." Debbie volunteered to testify and denied having had anything to do with the murder of her son, or ever having made a confession to anyone.

During her trial, Saldate testified that he had destroyed his copious notes, taken during his interview with Debbie. He did not write up his report of the interview until three days later. This seven page police report (which according to court testimony was supplemented at some later date) was handed to Debra to read in mid January 1990 by her Defense Counsel. She dismissed it as a total fabrication, never initialed or signed this report and vehemently denied ever having made any "confession" to anybody. Her defense attorney, during the investigative pre-trial stage, did not receive a copy of the supplemental report until July 1990 (two months prior to trial) and was not aware that this report would later be used as a "confession." During Debra's trial, Saldate's self-written report was accepted into evidence by Judge Cheryl Hendrix, who ruled that the contents of the report had been given voluntarily by Debra Jean Milke and that she had been properly "Mirandized."

Prosecutor NOEL LEVY subpoenaed Debbie's father, RICHARD SADEIK, and his wife MAUREEN; her sister, SANDRA PICKINPAUGH (even though she was a Wyoming citizen at that time); her step-sister, KAREN SMITH and her former close friend DOROTHY MARKWELL to testify for the State against Debra. Their testimonies, based on the questions they were asked, were instrumental for the jury to reach their decision of "guilty" on all counts. Debra Milke's trial was concluded in October 1990, and she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, first degree murder, kidnapping, and child abuse. In January 1991, Judge Cheryl K. Hendrix sentenced her to death.

Listen to an excerpt from a tape interview
that Debbie gave in prison !
or click to read the text version

SANDRA and Debbie

• "The conspiracy theory" - an analysis of the allegation of a purported conspiracy
• "A try at enlightenment" - a case synopsis trying to shine some light at the true occurrences on December 2nd,1989 - the day of Christopher Milke's murder
• "Justice in Arizona" - a rundown of the proceedings which led to the allegation of a conspiracy in this crime and Saldate tactics in order to apprehend Debra Milke