His sentencing has not been scheduled.
Dankof presided over Miller’s bench trial, or trial by judge, that began Sept. 30. Miller previously waived his right to a jury.
He was accused of shooting and killing 22-year-old Dameka Bennett-Ross and injuring a 28-year-old man on Feb. 22, 2023, from the backseat of a car. Dayton officers were called to Kettering Health Dayton after the man showed up at the hospital with a gunshot wound, Lt. Steven Bauer said previously.
While at the hospital police learned of a second victim on state Route 49 near Little Richmond Road. Trotwood police responded and found Bennett-Ross dead inside the car.
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
In a verdict announced Tuesday, Dankof wrote the state failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt Miller was the shooter.
Miller, Bennett-Ross and the injured man, one of the injured man’s friends and another woman were reportedly hanging out and driving around together prior to the shooting.
The judge noted the injured man did not identify the shooter immediately after the incident and only told a detective that a cigarette collected by evidence technicians from the back seat had been lit by him and smoked by the shooter.
The cigarette butt contained a DNA mixture of the injured man and an unknown male profile that excluded Miller, according to court documents.
About a week after the shooting, the injured man reportedly identified as the shooter as Miller.
Dankof noted the other woman in the car testified Miller had been dropped off at his sister’s house shortly before the shooting and was not in the car when the shooting took place.
She identified the shooter as an unknown man whose description matched the injured man’s friend, according to court records. The injured man reportedly knew the friend by a nickname and does not know his legal name.
In his verdict Dankof noted that the man’s friend was not interviewed in person by police and a DNA sample had not been obtained from him.
Dankof said the prosecution did prove Miller had a handgun, as evidenced by social media videos taken that night. Miller was prohibited from having a gun for a 2009 aggravated robbery conviction, according to court records.
Miller remains held in the Montgomery County Jail.
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