Change of venue sought in F. Glenn Miller Jr. trial for Jewish center killings

The battle for F. Glenn Miller Jr.’s life has begun in earnest.

Attorneys for the accused killer of three people outside Jewish facilities in Overland Park last year on Thursday filed 21 motions as they prepare for what could be Johnson County’s first death penalty trial in more than a decade.

Among the motions is a request for a change of venue because of extensive pretrial publicity in the case.

Other defense motions cover issues including how jurors should be chosen, how police collected evidence and how courtroom spectators should behave.

Miller, 74, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., is scheduled to go to trial beginning Aug. 17. Attorneys have estimated that trial could last six weeks.

He is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of William Corporon, Reat Underwood and Terri LaManno on April 13 last year.

Corporon, 69, and Underwood, his 14-year-old grandson, were killed outside the Jewish Community Center. LaManno, 53, was killed a few minutes later outside the Village Shalom care center.

Miller, an avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite from southern Missouri, has stated publicly that he was trying to kill Jews. None of his victims was Jewish.

He has repeatedly stated in court hearings that he wants the opportunity to explain in open court the reasons for his actions, and one of Thursday’s motions asked that he be given that chance.

Capital trials are conducted in two phases. If a defendant is convicted in the guilt phase, a second penalty phase is held to determine whether the sentence will be life in prison or death.

In their motions Thursday, Miller’s attorneys asked that he be given the chance to address jurors in the penalty phase without being put under oath or subject to cross-examination.

The defense also is requesting that jurors not be shown gruesome crime scene photos or photos of the victims before they were killed.

Another motion also seeks to have potential jurors questioned by attorneys individually. The defense also wants prosecutors to be precluded from striking potential jurors because of their religious views on the death penalty.

A hearing is scheduled for May 14 to begin taking up the motions.

This story was originally published May 1, 2015 at 9:52 AM with the headline "Change of venue sought in F. Glenn Miller Jr. trial for Jewish center killings."