The curling iron and a knife belonging to Miller were tested for blood. Gonzalez, later testified he believed that it was the weapon used to make the scratches, yet he acknowledged he never measured the width of the curling iron's teeth to see if they corresponded with the scratches. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy, V.V. Underneath some clothes in a hamper, the investigators found an electric curling iron. Two of them were pretty young pups," he later testified. "Every time we would go out there, they would be wagging their tails. It is clear from Wilson's testimony that he doubted that the dogs were capable of attacking anyone. ![]() ![]() Miller and Loveless said that although they told the sheriff about the dogs, he made no attempt to catch them. In a preoperative report, he noted "puncture wounds, ragged bite marks, abrasions, contusions, lacerations" and bruises on her body.Īccording to published reports and court testimony, Rains County Sheriff Richard Wilson doubted the dog attack story almost from the start. A large chunk of thigh - muscles, the femoral artery, blood vessels, skin - was simply gone.Īpril was "essentially morbid" when she arrived at Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas, 35 miles to the southeast, according to the testimony of Dr. It wasn't 'til I rolled her over that I saw the gash in her leg."ĭoctors later described the "gash" as a gaping hole on the inside of her right thigh that measured four inches by six inches. "She raised up and said `Mommy, Daddy.' All you could see Was little scratches. "We looked over and April was laying face-down on the ground with no clothes on," he said during an interview in prison. They spotted her under a large pin oak tree, Miller said. Miller and Loveless said that when they realized April wasn't with either of them, they began looking for her. April, who stood 3 feet 5 and weighed about 45 pounds, often played with the family's two dogs as well as a third dog that belonged to a neighbor, the couple say. She had had free run on the property for months. 4, 1989, while Loveless, 35, was cleaning house.Īpril often played outside by herself, they say. Miller, a 46-year-old unemployed construction worker, says he was salvaging wood from an old house down the road on Jan. If not, Loveless and Miller will be freed. ![]() The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will decide whether to order a new trial. He also criticized prosecutors for withholding evidence. ![]() "My opinion is that this is not a case of child abuse, unless you want to call it a case of animal abuse of a child," said Charles Petty, who spent 22 years as Dallas County's chief medical examiner and 13 years as director of the county's Rape Crisis and Child Sexual Abuse Center.Ī judge agreed and recommended that Loveless and Miller get a new trial. A prosecutor described a horrible death, saying the girl had been cut and poked repeatedly with a hunting knife and beaten with a curling iron.īut five nationally respected forensics experts now say that the state was wrong and that Loveless and Miller were right: April was killed by a rare frenzied dog attack. But authorities charged the pair with murder after a pathologist said April died from child abuse.Īt the trial, jurors saw photos of a lifeless girl whose body was a grotesque roadmap of cuts, scratches, punctures and mottled bruises. The Northeast Texas couple told sheriff's deputies the 4-year-old had been mauled by dogs outside their rural home 50 miles east of Dallas. EMORY, Texas - In November 1989, Debbie Loveless and her common-law husband, John Harvey Miller, were sentenced to life in prison for killing her daughter April.
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