The murder trial of a western Iowa man who was accused of strangling his girlfriend and throwing her body in a well ended today not long after it began. Twenty-five-year-old Daniel Miller, of Elliott, had pled not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the death of 24-year-old April Sheree Corter, of Red Oak.
Miller’s trial was to have begun today, but in a surprise announcement this morning in Pottawattamie County District Court, Miller pled guilty instead to third-degree kidnapping and willful injury charges. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on both charges.
Prosectors say Miller strangled Corter to death then dumped her body into an abandoned farm well near Oakland, Iowa. Corter was last seen alive at the end of September 2006. She was reported missing October 11th. Authorities discovered her body November 27th with plastic zip ties around her neck and ankles.