Among the cast of characters who testified in the murder trial of Joseph Howard Milman last week, Michael Rolsing played a minor role.
But his testimony may have a dampening effect on the prosecution’s effort to prove Milman guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rolsing, who lived with his mother in Indian Harbour Beach at the time of Scott “Skippy” Hyatt’s murder on Oct. 19, 2014, considered himself friends with Milman, who stands accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Hyatt and attempted first-degree murder in the wounding of Robert Mell. The state also charged him with home invasion robbery. He faces life without parole if convicted.
At 4 p.m. the day of the shooting, Milman showed up at the front door of Rolsing’s mother’s house.
“We talked a little bit,” he testified. “He seemed normal, but like he had not showered in a couple of days.”
Milman borrowed Rolsing’s phone in exchange for a Dilaudid pill. He called a buddy for a ride. The ride came and picked him up.
But the kicker to his testimony was his inability to identify Milman in the courtroom.
The week began with the testimony of three then teenagers – Justin Howard and his girlfriend, Ashley Lawson, and friend Michael Billias. They offered the most damning testimony based on Milman’s alleged visit to Howard’s house not long after the crime. The week continued with a parade of forensic specialists from Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement labs. The forensics teams failed to tie the defendant to the crime scene or the weapon through either fingerprints or DNA.
The shooter wore a Halloween mask during the incident, so Mell, the wounded survivor on scene, could not identify Milman by sight, only by voice and physical stature.
Howard, who supplied the murder weapon, agreed July 31 to a plea deal to second-degree murder which took life in prison off the table. Other charges – first-degree attempted murder and home invasion robbery – remain. He received 10 years jail time.
He, Lawson and Billias told similar, but not identical tales of what happened on Oct. 19 three years ago, which together sketch out a tick-tock of their somewhat imperfect recollection of events. Billias stopped by Howard’s house on Oxford Court, north of Indialantic. The two did some yard work then moseyed down the bike path to Elvira Hull’s house to smoke marijuana with Jeremy Morelli, who lived in the house with his wife and daughter. Milman, who crashed at Hull’s house for the prior few days, joined them.
During the visit, Howard, Milman and Morelli chatted about the oft-discussed plan to steal Dilaudid pills from Hyatt, who also resided at the house. The idea was to swipe the pills when Hyatt, also known as Skippy, was showering. But sensing something was afoot, Hyatt elected to stay at Mell’s place at 370 East Riviera Drive, some 10 minutes away.
The plan changed that morning to committing the robbery at Mell’s residence. In exchange for 10 Dilaudids, Howard had previously provided the .22 semi-automatic gun he stole from his mother, designed to intimidate Skippy if he caught the thief in the act. Howard testified the gun did not enter the conversation that morning.
Billias and Howard returned to Howard’s house where they hung out in the bedroom, smoked weed and did some more yard work. Lawson came over around 11 a.m.
Sometime in mid-afternoon, Milman showed up. They all gathered on the patio. They described Milman in various terms. They all agreed there was blood. And a knife. And a canvas tote bag. They disagreed on the details.
“He look like he just ran a race and won,” Billias testified. “He was covered in sweat, and was very excited. He said ‘it was messy, man.’ He had to get a dog out of the way, so he slashed the dog with a knife.”
Investigators did not find a dead or injured dog on the scene.
“He was acting very skittish, excited. We can tell something happened. He was holding a knife with his right hand. I can’t say I saw blood on the blade but I believe there was,” Lawson said.
Depending on who testified, Milman admitted shooting Hyatt and Mell; that Hyatt was dead and Mell may still be alive. Billias said he did not see Milman with a gun. He also did not see the Dilaudid handoff from Milman to Howard.
Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and cuffed, the diminutive Howard testified Milman said, “Damn, dog, it was messy.”
“He might have said at one point he shot them. I am not 100 percent sure,” the bespectacled Howard said. “There was never a discussion of using the gun to harm anyone.”
Lawson did not hear Milman shoot anyone, nor did she see a gun. Billias wanted to flee. “I was really scared. I had to get out of here. He just killed somebody,” he said.
Milman went in the house and showered. That gave Billias the cover he needed to leave. Howard called and asked why he left, “I said I was sweaty from yard work and went home and showered,” Billias said.
Howard put the soiled clothes, the tote bag and the Halloween mask into a black Swiss Army back pack. He poured bleach into the pack.
“I poured bleach onto the gun in the laundry room. There was some blood. I might have wiped it off. I put the gun in a guest room under an end table,” Howard said.
He got fresh clothes for Milman.
Lawson took the pack and threw it in a trash can by the curb a few doors away. “Justin told me it has to be thrown away implying I should do it,” she said. “Someone was staring at me and I walked away fast.”
Police arrived the next night and Howard told detectives he knew nothing. He also deleted any text messages. “I was nervous, somewhat freaking out. I was scared for Ashley.”
The state hammered its case with a long list of photos of the crime scene, the house across the street where a bleeding Mell collapsed, and Howard’s house. Forensics ruled out sending swabs of the blood collected on Riviera Boulevard, concluding the blood belonged to Mell or Hyatt. “There was no reason to believe the blood belonged to the suspect,” Crime Scene Investigator Phil Miranda testified.
The defense made much of a blood stained T-shirt worn by Pete Soracco, who also lived in the house with Mell. Sheriff’s deputies discovered Soracco hiding behind a shed in the back yard after the shooting. Soracco claims he panicked and jumped out a window after hearing gunfire. Sheriff’s Agent Nicholas Walker testified he did not notice blood on the shirt on Oct. 19 at the crime scene. But he was alerted on Oct. 20 when Soracco’s shirt was collected for analysis.
Walker testified that authorities interviewed Soracco four times and found his story about jumping through his bedroom window after hearing the shots conflicts with the scene in which the blinds in the window were not disturbed.
“This guy was found in the back yard shortly after two people got shot. There’s a reason why we looked at the blinds,” Walker said.
Armed with a search warrant, investigators visited Howard’s house on Oct. 21 where they found casings and cartridges from the .22, as well the gun hidden under a wicker stand.
Buccal swabs from Howard and Milman were sent to the labs for analysis. The weapon, cartridges and casinos were tested for DNA and fingerprints. Based on the testimony of Tina Ringfield, Identification Unit Supervisor for the Sheriff’s office, forensics got 54 latent fingerprints at the crime scene of which three were of value in identifying someone. Milman’s was not among them.
Milman was expected to testify this week before the case goes to the jury.