Insanity defense raised in deadly 2020 Lubbock apartment fire

The trial of a 39-year-old man accused of killing two people in 2020 after starting a fire at a south Lubbock apartment has been delayed by four months so prosecutors can hire an expert to evaluate him for insanity.

District Judge William Eichman in the 364th District Court on Friday granted prosecutors' request for a continuance and rescheduled Todd Bryant Miller's trial initially set for July 22 to Nov. 18.

The continuance comes after Miller's defense attorneys earlier this month filed a notice of their intent to raise an insanity defense.

An insanity defense requires defendants to admit they committed the crime but were under the grips of a severe mental illness or defect and didn't know their actions at the time were wrong.

Miller is charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of 45-year-old Ta-Tanisha Harris and 63-year-old Tommy Hornton after a May 2020 apartment fire in South Lubbock.

Miller's attorney Ted Hogan, told the court on Friday he had not planned to raise an insanity defense during the upcoming trial. Instead, he hired a neuropsychologist last month to evaluated his client to develop evidence for mitigation purposes.

However, the expert determined after evaluating Miller that the defendant was insane at the time.

"(The insanity evaluation) is not anything we requested and that is not anything we anticipated using at trial," Hogan told the court. "This was not our intention and we're certainly not happy we're here today having this discussion."

Prosecutor Neal Spradlin told the court the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office has been actively looking to hire an expert after receiving the report from Hogan's expert. However, he said the soonest someone could evaluate Miller for the state would be in October.

A deadly apartment fire

Miller's charge stems from a Lubbock Fire Marshal's investigation into the deadly blaze at the River Oaks Villa apartments in the 1300 block of 65th Drive, where Harris and Hornton were found dead.

Two other people were taken by ambulance to a hospital for minor injuries, LFR officials said.

Lubbock fire crews responded about 11 a.m. May 31, 2020 to a two-alarm structure fire at the apartment complex. Officials reported the fire was extinguished about three hours later and fire marshals began investigating the cause of the blaze.

Fire investigators determined the fire started in the apartment unit Miller lived in with his girlfriend and her adult son.

Investigators believed the fire started in the apartment unit's living room near the couch.

Investigators spoke with the son, who initially told them that Miller and his mother left for the store earlier that day and he went to sleep.

He said Miller woke him up and told him to get out of the apartment. He said when he was outside, he began to vomit and looked back at the apartment as smoke billowed from the front door.

However, the man later told investigators he lied about how the fire started, saying he was afraid of Miller.

He said he was startled awake by Miller, who kicked open the door of the their apartment unit then told him to leave.

He said he reportedly saw Miller try to light bedding on fire with a small torch. However, the materials didn't ignite and he said Miller pushed the bedding into a pile near the couch and set fire to a plastic bag, which caught fire and dripped flames onto the bedding, which ignited.

The man said Miller grabbed a backpack before leaving through the front door.

Meanwhile, the man said he ran outside and vomited. After seeing smoke billowing out of the building, he ran back and began knocking on his neighbors' doors to alert them.

Investigators also spoke to Miller's girlfriend, who said before the fire, she and Miller were outside near the front of the apartment complex arguing because Miller accused her of cheating on him.

She said Miller walked away. Moments later her son called her telling her that Miller was setting their apartment on fire.

She said she saw Miller walking from the apartment toward her, telling her that he was going to prison. She said she left the scene with him.

Miller spoke with investigators and initially denied starting the fire. He reportedly said he left the apartment with his girlfriend but said he went to the store alone to buy cigarettes. He said became overcome with the urge to return to the apartment to check on his girlfriend's son, returned to the residence and kicked the door open.

He said he didn't see any smoke or flames as he left the apartment. Instead, he said he returned to his girlfriend who was outside the apartment complex and heard an explosion.

However, after speaking with Miller's girlfriend and her son, investigators spoke with him a second time.

According to the documents, Miller initially gave the investigator false and misleading information about the fire before admitting to setting the bedding on fire to force his girlfriend's son out of the apartment.

During a search of the apartment unit, investigators found three small torches, one of which was in bedding on the living room floor.

Murder carries a punishment of five years to life in prison. However, court documents indicate prosecutors are seeking to use Miller's 2012 aggravated robbery conviction to enhance his minimum sentence to 15 years.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Insanity defense raised in deadly 2020 Lubbock apartment fire