Authorities close to the suicidal and potentially armed 19-year-old who put UW-Madison and the surrounding community on edge Tuesday afternoon, say his long history of abuse and mental illness justify that he is only a threat to himself while he remains at large.
Wisconsin court records show Jesse Miller has been in and out of juvenile court and the Dane County Court circuit for a number of years. According to the Capital Times, Miller was a victim of physical, mental and sexual abuse as a child. The paper reported he was also placed in several foster homes and began getting in trouble at the age of nine.
Miller was first ordered to serve jail time in June 2006 after being convicted of a strong armed robbery in Sun Prairie - which, according to state records, was his place of residence. As a stipulation, Miller needed only to take part in a teen rehabilitation program to avoid spending time in jail.
However, Miller did not finish the program and was re-admitted to jail in April 2007. Since Sept. 8, he has been AWOL from Dane County's Huber work release program.
Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said the program allows inmates deemed responsible by the judge to leave for periods of time during the day.
We use a variety of criteria,"" said Mahoney, ""one has to do with the charge that their in for,"" he said.
Still, Dane County authorities have no way to track work release inmates. Mahoney said as of January 2007, 397 inmates have been granted Huber and 13 have gone AWOL, including Miller.
""That's a pretty good percentage,"" Mahoney said, adding that he wants to get more GPS tracking devices on Huber inmates. Only 60 Huber inmates currently have GPS tracking devices. Mahoney said he would like 200 Huber inmates to have tracking devices.
Although Huber essentially puts criminals on the streets during the day with the promise they will return to jail at night, Mahoney said the public is warned of a Huber escapee only when the charges against the escapee warrant a warning - o - ocharges such as sexual assault. Whereas Miller, who Mahoney said was receiving treatment for his illnesses and making progress, posed no immediate threat.
Still, Miller's unstable mental state was reason enough to take the three suspected calls he made to police seriously.
""There was no question as to if this was a credible threat,"" Mahoney said, adding that law enforcement from all over the county was called to ensure ""that we didn't have a repeat of that tragedy at Virginia Tech.
