Landlord John Miller will miss Thanksgiving at home this year after what may be Central Florida's first case of eviction rage ending in attempted-murder charges.
Miller remains held without bail in the Orange County Jail after crushing a mobile home with a large front-end loader while a terrified child cowered inside as a woman tried to save her, according to Sheriff's Office records.
"Good, then I got what I wanted," Miller, 51, said after deputies told him the roof had collapsed and the small trailer was uninhabitable.
The attack began Tuesday afternoon on West Ponkan Road near Apopka when 911 calls reported the Mount Dora landlord had been chasing his tenants with a front-end loader after destroying their home rather than waiting for them to leave Dec. 1. He previously has been charged with refusing to vaccinate a dog or cat against rabies as well as firing a gun in public, records show.
"When Miller returned, he was driving a yellow front-end loader that the women believed to be a bulldozer," records state. "Miller drove the front-end loader into the right, front side of the trailer as Michelle and Bonnie screamed for him to stop and telling him the children were inside."
Besides Michelle Valdez, 23, and Bonnie Peach, 20, there were four children from 10 to 14 years old, records state. All but the 14-year-old girl escaped when Miller began ramming the mobile home. He continued ramming after seeing Peach run inside to rescue the teenager, reports state.
Valdez paid $150 a week for the trailer and had lived there for four months with her three children, brother and sister-in-law. She said she wasn't behind in rent but upset Miller's family earlier this month over the use of a table at a yard sale.
"I'm still in shock. I used to get along with him," she said Wednesday afternoon. "Yesterday, he liked, turned into the devil."
When deputies arrived, one aimed an M-16 assault rifle at Miller and ordered him to stop but Miller repeatedly swore at them until they forced him onto the ground and handcuffed him.
After being placed in a patrol car Miller told a deputy, "This is my property and I will bulldoze the whole … place," records state.
By Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel
5:13 p.m. EST, November 23, 2011
