By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star

A conference and hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in the case of Dakotah Eliason, 14, charged with shooting and killing his grandfather, Jesse Miles, as he slept at his home on Niles-Buchanan Road three months ago.

According to Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur Cotter, “there’s going to be a motion to suppress his statements” to police regarding the incident early March 7. Those statements include Eliason’s exchanges with Michigan State Trooper Brenda Kiefer, Berrien County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Eugene Castow and Michigan State Det. Sgt. Fabian Suarez following his arrest.

Cotter said the motion calls into question whether or not Eliason’s status as a minor could come into play in regard to hours of conversation he had with police and whether or not he was aware of his rights at the time he gave the statements.

“I don’t think he’s going to be successful in that,” Cotter said.

If Eliason’s attorney, Lanny Fisher, is successful, the prosecutor said, “it wouldn’t be helpful, let’s put it that way.”

There are “factors” Cotter said that a judge would look at “to determine whether a juvenile confession” was made freely.

“I think under the circumstances of this case, Det. Suarez (and police) acted appropriately,” he said. “I think he (Eliason) made a knowing waiver of his Miranda rights.

“The kid was pretty free about talking about what he did,” Cotter added.

In those statements, heard during the preliminary hearing in March, Eliason reportedly told Kiefer, the first to arrive on scene, that he had shot his grandfather due to “sadness” and “pent up anger.”

Police were called to Miles’ home after Eliason allegedly shot his grandfather in the head as he lay asleep on the couch. Eliason’s grandmother, Jean Miles, testified that she heard a “popping” sound before her grandson came to her room and told her, “I just shot Papa.”

Following the estimated 15-minute discussion, Eliason was held in Casto’s police cruiser.
On audio recordings from that night, Eliason is heard discussing everything from paranoia to a paper written by his father on executions for a criminology class. At another point Eliason asked Casto, “what do you think will happen to me?”

“A murder charge – that’s big – but I’m still a minor,” the Niles High School student is heard saying, later adding, “my life just turned into an episode of ‘Law and Order’ – no commercials.

“I wish I could take it back,” Eliason said. “But now I understand how it feels when people do that. Now I understand how it feels.”

Cotter said the audio recordings show there was no interrogation by Casto, and some of the statements which would be included in the suppression were made by Eliason while he was alone in the car.

“In the car, actually, if you look at that – Casto didn’t interrogate him at all,” Cotter said. “A lot of that actually was made spontaneously.”

Eliason was then shown on video recordings at the Michigan State Police Niles Post where he was questioned by Suarez both in and out of the presence of his father, Steven.
“I want to know why,” his father pleaded. “And don’t tell me ‘I don’t know,’ because that’s bogus. … Are you trying to be famous? Trying to get attention? Are you pissed off at me? Because if you’re pissed off at me, you should have shot me,” Steven said.

“You don’t feel no remorse?” the father asked.

“Of course I do,” Eliason said.

Still, it wasn’t until he was alone with Suarez that Eliason began to open up about just what had been going through his mind that night.

“Before tonight it never occurred to me ever,” he said. “I guess (it was) just pent up anger with certain things.”

Eliason described to Suarez some of the frustration he had with his family before turning attention to the night in question.

“You ever hear people talk about voices in their head?” he said.  He tried to explain. “It’s not so much that but multiple personalities,” Eliason said, adding there are good and bad sides to a person.

“The good doesn’t always win,” he said.

Asked about the progress of the case, Cotter declined to give too much detail, but said, “we have received some feedback on some of the evaluations that we’ve done.”

There would be a better chance at suppression, Cotter said, if the defendant were proven to be mentally impaired, something he said did not appear to be the case with Eliason.
Should Fisher see success in suppressing Eliason’s statements, Cotter believes the county has a strong case against the youngest defendant in Berrien County to be tried as an adult for murder.

“Even if they were (suppressed) I could still pursue this case,” Cotter said, pointing out Jean Miles’ testimony.

Testimony, he said, which “in and of itself is enough.”

Eliason is currently awaiting a late-July trial at the Berrien County Juvenile Center, where he has been held since his arrest and has been able to visit with family.

Phone calls made to Fisher were not returned.