EVERETT — A former Everett man arrested for investigation of two cold-case stabbing deaths in Arizona was acquitted of stabbing a woman in Snohomish County in 2002.
Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, on Tuesday was arrested in the fatal stabbings of Angela Brosso, 22, and Melanie Bernas, 17, in Phoenix more than 20 years ago.
Brosso was killed in November 1992; Bernas, 10 months later.
Both disappeared while bicycling near the Arizona Canal, according to The Associated Press. Brosso’s decapitated body was found near an apartment complex, while Bernas’ body was discovered about 1.5 miles away floating in the water.
DNA evidence recently collected by undercover officers linked Miller to the killings, police told reporters in Arizona.
Miller was being held without bond on two counts of first-degree murder and of kidnapping and one count of sexual assault.
Neither Everett police nor detectives with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office have any open investigations involving Miller, officials said.
“We will review our cold-case files … but there are no open investigations,” Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.
In the 2002 Snohomish County case, a jury found Miller not guilty of first-degree assault in connection with the stabbing of a woman in south Everett.
The woman showed up bleeding at a home on Holly Drive and asked for help.
She told Everett police she left her mom’s home and was walking along Evergreen Way when a man drove by and asked her if she wanted a ride. She recognized him but didn’t know him. The man drove her to a canopy business where he worked off Evergreen Way. As she was looking at a cellphone, she told police the man came around a corner, grabbed her from behind and stabbed her in the shoulder.
They fought for control of the knife before she managed to escape and run to the home nearby.
Miller told police that the woman was the aggressor, threatening him with a knife after showing up at the business after closing. He claimed self-defense.
He said he “was scared and didn’t know what to do,” according to police reports.
The woman had a deep cut across the shoulder as well as a stab wound to her side that did not penetrate any organs. Miller outweighed the woman by about 90 pounds. He was not injured.
Miller was acquitted after a four-day trial in December of 2002.
Court papers in Snohomish County indicate that Miller talked to the woman about an earlier stabbing that had occurred on the Interurban Trail. Police later questioned him about that assault.
Court papers also indicated that Miller was convicted of assault as a juvenile in Arizona.
The 1989 case “is somewhat similar to the case at hand” in that the victim was a woman and a stranger, a deputy prosecutor told the court at the time. The previous conviction was inadmissable at the 2002 trial. At the time, Miller’s wife urged the judge to lower bail, saying they had lived and attended church in Everett and had a young daughter.
Miller had lived in Everett for four years prior to his 2002 arrest. His last legal entanglement here was a 2003 traffic infraction.
He had returned to Arizona prior to his arrest for the killings there in the early 1990s. A Facebook page describes him as having worked in some film projects where he donned an elaborate costume to play a character named Hwyaden Lwcus, described as a “Arizona State Certified Zombie Hunter.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com
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