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Army: Murder suspect was fit for duty

The Fort Lewis, Wash., soldier accused of killing an Army couple and taking their baby did not require a moral or medical waiver to enlist, a spokesman for Army Recruiting Command said Wednesday.

Spc. Ivette Gonzalez Davila, 22, of Bakersfield, Calif., is the sole suspect in the shooting deaths of Sgt. Randi Jean Miller, 25, and Staff Sgt. Timothy Joseph Miller, 27, police say.

“There was nothing out of the ordinary about her enlistment,” said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for Army Recruiting Command. “We would know in our records whether or not an applicant needed a criminal waiver, which we call a moral waiver, and we’d know if there was some sort of medical condition that required review. There was nothing.”

Smith said he didn’t know whether Davila, who enlisted Dec. 29, 2004, was receiving treatment for any kind of medical condition. He said privacy law prevents the disclosure of such information.

The Millers were found Sunday in their suburban Parkland home, their bodies dumped in a bathtub and covered in muriatic acid, a highly corrosive chemical commonly known as hydrochloric acid. Both victims were medics who had served in Iraq as part of the 47th Combat Support Hospital, 62nd Medical Brigade, Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Hitt said.

Davila, a chemical operations specialist attached to the 1st Corps Honor Guard from the 61st Chemical Company, 23rd Chemical Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade, was taken into custody after police said she appeared on the base with the couple’s 6-month-old daughter, Kassidy. She eventually confessed to another soldier that she killed the Millers, according to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. That soldier alerted military police.

Davila allegedly disclosed to the soldier — who was not identified — that Randi Miller was in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, also a soldier, “who had apparently chosen Randi Miller over Davila,” Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Edmund Murphy wrote in a court document.

Police recovered a handgun, a receipt from Home Depot for the acid, and Randi Miller’s purse from Davila’s barracks, the document states.

Authorities didn’t specify what type of weapon was used.

“I do not have any indication that it was a military weapon,” said Hitt, the Fort Lewis spokesman. “Military weapons are normally locked up in arms rooms. I don’t know what her assigned weapon was or is.”

The Army plans to prosecute the case and on Wednesday morning took custody of Davila from Pierce County law enforcement. She is being held in pretrial confinement at the Bangor Naval Station, said Catherine Caruso, a public affairs specialist at Fort Lewis.

“The interest of the Army was strong in this case because of the active-duty status of the two victims … the suspect and several of the main witnesses,” Murphy said.

Pierce County law enforcement officials said in a statement they were “poised to file two counts of aggravated murder in the first degree” before she was transferred to Army custody. Army authorities assured local officials that if convicted, Davila would face life imprisonment or the death penalty, according to a joint statement from the Pierce County prosecuting attorney’s office and the sheriff’s department.

The Army intends to bring charges against Davila on Thursday, Caruso said.

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