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Police say trio targeted elderly

Authorities arrest three people who they say robbed victims in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and other cities.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO and AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published March 29, 2006

TAMPA - Daisy Paris doesn't go out anymore.

The 89-year-old widow's life changed Feb. 13 when a man approached her outside her home.

He forced her inside, with two other strangers following. The three held her down on a chair, threatened to bash her head in and ransacked her home.

The two men and a woman got away with $400 from an envelope Paris stowed in her bedroom, leaving Paris uninjured.

But an overwhelming fear has taken hold of her. Paris no longer tends garden, goes for groceries, cleans out her alley way or sweeps her property.

"No telling who's been watching me," Paris said Tuesday.

Georgia police have arrested three people they suspect were responsible for robbing Paris and at least three other elderly victims in Tampa, along with numerous others in places such as Delray Beach, Chicago, Texas, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach and at least two Georgia cities. Authorities say Walter Miller, 25, Sam Waters, 37, and Lisa Johnson, 29, have made a career of targeting elderly people in their homes, robbing them of valued possessions.

Miller and Waters are brothers. They were found in Hardeeville, S.C., on March 10, when U.S. marshals swarmed their hotel room.

Johnson, who is said to be four months pregnant with Walter Miller's child, was arrested in Savannah, Ga., March 8. Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said it's unclear now how long the three have been robbing the elderly.

But Pearl Jordan, the mother of Waters and Miller, said her sons' most recent spree began six months ago after Waters was released from jail.

Speaking at her Clearwater home, Jordan described her sons as drug addicts. But she said she's more likely to believe the charges against Waters than she is about about Miller, whom she calls "the sweetest kid you would ever meet."

Jordan, a self-described born-again Christian, called a television prayer line Tuesday looking for support as more details were released about her sons' arrest.

Over the years, Miller would come his mother's Clearwater home without shoes or pants, smelling of crack cocaine, Jordan said. She would bathe him and feed him and try to take him to church. He would refuse and return to the street.

Eventually, he hooked up with his brother, Waters, who Jordan said had spent most of his adult life in prison.

They would come back to Jordan's house, sometimes bringing drug dealers with them, she said.

The mother said she called police and even had a restraining order placed against Miller, but nothing has helped. She said each of her sons has dated Johnson.

Besides Paris' case, Tampa police issued arrest warrants for the three in connection with the Feb. 17 robbery of Leonard and Grace Little, 83 and 79, respectively, and the Feb. 21 home invasion of Gloria Dixon, 68.

For the Tampa crimes, Johnson faces one count each of home invasion robbery, false imprisonment and petty theft. Waters and Miller each are charged with two counts home invasion robbery and two counts of false imprisonment. They are all being held in a Georgia jail.

Grace Little said she won't be at peace until the suspects are convicted. Every time she looks at her left hand, she remembers the awful day.

While the strange woman held Little's wrist, her bracelet digging into Little's skin, one of the men who'd entered her house took the wedding band she'd worn 62 years off her finger, threatening to break her finger if she didn't let him have it.

"I don't care about getting anything back except that one piece," Little said. "Nothing is more important to me than that ring."

McElroy said investigators believe the threesome also was responsible for what happened to 91-year-old Emmet Evans on Feb. 21.

Evans, who has bad eyesight and is hard of hearing, opened his door to three people after they identified themselves as his grandchildren. They held him down and then proceeded to ransack his home, removing his wallet and tossing back the three dollars that were inside.

Miller has an arrest record in Florida that includes charges for drug possession and giving a false name to law enforcement. Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows Waters has been arrested for resisting an officer in South Florida and had warrants out for his arrest for failure to appear in a Broward County court.

Authorities elsewhere are also seeking a fourth person in connection with the group, Peter Miller, 22, as a suspect in crimes other than the ones in Tampa.

"What did I do wrong in my life, Lord?" Jordan asked Tuesday night.

Little, one of the robbery victims, said she sometimes wonders about her abusers' mothers, wondering how it must be to parent a child with no respect for elders.

"I feel sorry," she said, "for the mother of the two men and the mother of the woman. Because, being a mother, I'm sure they've suffered over the actions of their children."

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. This story includes information from the Palm Beach Post and the Savannah Morning News.

[Last modified March 29, 2006, 01:46:52]