Miller pleads no contest in dog bite case

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

Nearly six months after her son died from injuries sustained when he was attacked by a pit bull mix, Melissa Miller, 24, of Luling, pled no contest to felony charges stemming from his death.

Caldwell County District Attorney Trey Hicks announced on Friday that Miller entered a plea of “no contest” to the State Jail

Felony charge of Criminally Negligent Homicide in the 421st Judicial District Court on Friday morning. Under the plea agreement, Hicks said, Miller is eligible for the full range of punishment for the charge, which could face up to two years behind bars, with a fine of up to $10,000, or she could be sentenced to a form of probation.

In exchange for her plea of “no contest” to the Criminally Negligent Homicide charge, Hicks said the State opted to dismiss a charge of Injury to a Child, which also stemmed from the incident.

On March 26, 2009, Miller’s son Tyson, 2, was attacked by a pit bull dog chained in the back yard of the residence where Miller and the boy were living with friends. Miller suggested at the time she had forgotten to lock a deadbolt on the door when sending her daughter off to school with a relative, and that Tyson was sleeping when she last checked on him, around 7 a.m.

Several hours later, other residents of the house found the child’s body in the back yard, where he had apparently been bitten by the dog and died from blood loss as a result of serious injuries to his head and neck.

In May 2009, a Caldwell County Grand Jury indicted Miller on the two charges.

Miller will return to Court in November, Hicks said, when she will be sentenced by 421st Judicial District Judge Todd Blomerth on the charge.