Jury selected for Miller trial in Monroe County; opening statements scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday

PARIS, Mo. — It took seven hours on Monday for a jury to be selected in the first-degree murder trial for a Madison man accused of killing an 88-year-old woman in 2021.

Opening statements are expected to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Monroe County Circuit Courthouse in Paris before Judge Rick Tucker of Macon.

Lyle Miller, 66, allegedly admitted to a witness he struck 88-year-old Betty L. Hayes of Holliday, Mo., in the head and placed her body in a pond on a 40-acre lot he owned, according to a probable cause statement filed in July 2023 in Monroe County Circuit Court.

Members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s dive team and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department conducted a search in a pond in Monroe County on July 28 and found Hayes, who had been missing for more than 18 months. Miller was arrested shortly thereafter.

Approximately 100 potential jurors (the county population is approximately 8,700 people) were brought in at 9 a.m. Once interviews were complete around 2 p.m., people were scattered throughout the three-story courthouse, waiting for Tucker to call them back in.

A 12-person jury eventually was empaneled at approximately 4 p.m. before Tucker sent them home for the night.

Miller has been held without bond in the Randolph County Jail in Huntsville since his arrest. He has been photographed with a beard when he’s been booked in the jail, but he appeared for court on Monday cleanly shaven. He is being represented by Columbia attorney Jeffrey Hilbrenner. Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney Nicole D. Volkert and Miranda Loesch from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office will be co-counsel for the prosecution.

Volkert originally charged Miller with second-degree murder, but she amended the charge to first-degree murder in September 2023. If convicted of the Class A felony, Miller faces either the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The amended complaint included a second count of tampering with physical evidence, a Class E felony that carries a prison sentence of up to four years and a fine not to exceed $10,000. 

A witness told Monroe County Sheriff Joe Colston that Miller allegedly was upset with Hayes because he believed Hayes owed him money for work he performed for her.

During a preliminary hearing in September 2023 in Monroe County Circuit Court before Judge Talley Smith, prosecutors presented evidence that an autopsy revealed Hayes also suffered three cuts to her throat, which they said shows the act was premeditated, necessitating the first-degree murder charge.

Hayes was reported missing at approximately 4:24 p.m. Dec. 17, 2021. She was believed to have been at her home in Holliday, Mo., at that time.