USS Miller FF-1091

In the summer of 1985 an IC2 Mitchell T. Garraway stabbed a Lt. James K. Sterner Jr. to death. This murder took place aboard the USS Miller while she was underway.
Does anyone recall hearing any thing about this at all? Seems the only place it made news was in Newport, R.I. where the USS Miller was home ported.
I clearly remember the day Garraway tired to escape the Newport Naval Brig. He was being held there awaiting his Court Martial. He took my friend and fellow co-worker SK2 Jeffy McCray hostage in February of 1986 in his escape attempt.
Garraway faced the Death Penalty but instead was given life in prison in June of 1986.
It's strange to me that I can only find information about this in The Providence Journal.
I'm going to search the Boston Globe archives and see if there is any thing written about this there.

http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38388

this the link

Hucko I had just got off the Miller the friday before the ship pulled out to go to Bermuda. When I got to Norfolk on monday I heard about it at mpm school.When I got back to the ship in Sept a lot of the guys did not want to talk about what happened. For some reason the spot where the mpa died paint would not stick to the deck.

2 articles from nexus lexus from Tom Mcdade bottom of the page of sea stories

I remember seeing it on the CBS NEWS when I was a teenager. That passageway always had an eeriness to it.  

Gents - All I see here is here is what " I heard" and I also "heard stuff"  - but I was there.

Mr. Sterner did not deserve to die or be be killed.  The passageway was cleanable and paint and non skid paint DID adhere to the the floor.  I was a GM and we were at sea at the time of the tragic incident. 

Imagine being out at sea, sound asleep and hearing "Security Alert"?

Normally you have a small group racing towards the gun locker - but this time you had ALL the security alert teams showing up at the gun locker within the officers quarters.  Too many guns out in the open with out knowing whats happening, or who the suspect are.

Mitch fooled many - I in particular.  There were some "racial incidents" that were heard of.

I can try to answer ?'s, but my heart and emotions goes to the Stearner Family.

GMT2 ( at the time) Santiago

I was there during that very sad day. I was on the security alert team as LPO of weapons when the event occured. Only time in my career that we were locked and loaded and the only time we were at security alert while underway.

Lt Sterner was the victim of a horrible act of violence. Murdered on fathers day and with a newborn child at home.

FC1 Wigginton

Lt, Sterner had just been promoted from E-DivO to MPA (only a couple of weeks had gone by). IT WAS NOT Racism. Garroway was not promoted due to poor perfomance (trust me, I couldn't count how many times he would make me up to fix his screw ups in Electrical Central. Lt. Sterner was our Divo at the time.

I also remember (Very Clearly, Unfortunately), when NIS searched under his mattress for the second time and found the Bloody coveralls. Mitch screamed at them that he was going to kill them all.

almost 25yrs has past since that happened. Those of us that were there wish we wern't.  Trust me.

Hey Guys - I remember some of you, others however, our paths on the Miller did not cross.

Yes - the day of the murder... It was actually 3 days if you were there - we anchored out in Narragansett Bay until the murderer could be identified.

I woke up like everyone else to the alarming sounds of the 1MC, and calls for the chief corpsman to “double time it to Officer's Country!” - As I stuck my head through the rack curtains and looked around, I saw my friend (and fellow flag football team member) in the rack next to me, "What's going on"? I asked Mitch Garraway... "I don't know", he lied.

He had us fooled for three days – then the NIS carted him off the quarterdeck as he laughed about how some of the scuttlebutt about the details of the killing was all wrong.

Todd, you'll remember Randy (HT2 Turner) and I were asked to double up with an armed escort (I think it was DK1) on Sounding and Security. We were to go around the ship and "search" for bloody coveralls – this was an hour or so after Sterner was dead and his body stored in the mess freezer – it was very rough seas that night – we had a hard time walking through that passage inboard of the boat deck – there was blood on the bulkheads and I didn’t want to touch anything to steady my footing.

Hucko - it was tremendously frightening and a three days I will never forget.

Sharp, Wiggs, and Santiiago have it right - it was scary, senseless and gruesome - especially for us in R-Division.

Todd - thanks for this post.

Over the years I've been keeping my thoughts on that incident in a journal and my wife has convinced me to write a book about it - so I've (just) started and have been doing some research, that's how I found this website - the book is a novel about a murder on a Navy ship, can you guess which one - I will be taking some liberties with the story, but I promise to change all of your names (LOL).

If there are any thoughts you would like to share with me on the murder, please let me know - my memories are very vivid even after 25 years – I’m sure some of you know what I mean.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays.

HT2(SW) Scott Schwarz

back in Jersey

scott_schwarz@comcast.net

Had a tough time revisiting this . . . guess we tend to block some things away.

Remember it well though, haze gray and underway, halfway to Bermuda on a very stormy night right outta' a cheap Hollywood movie . . . sheet lightning, heavy seas. Sitting on the mess decks having mid-rats when Security Alert was sounded, followed very quickly by RMCS Keithly running like I'd never seen that old goat move with a horrid look on his face. I knew then, we were in for something. It was QMC Lorenzana who was the first on the scene. He witnessed a "figure" dragging the then still barely alive Lt. Stearner from the enclosed passageway presumably to the boat deck a few yards away, where it would be an easy push to send him to Davey Jones locker. THe figure had darkened the passageway, laying in wait for the Lt. to finish his watch and come through the hatch. He dropped the dying Lt. as QMC approached and Scott I guess he came down and hopped in his rack right 'cross the way from you.

The rest you all know from your various stations around the ship as we were sequestered and allowed to move about ONLY with an armed Security Team escort.

I've thought about it a number of times over the years. It's still not easy, and for now that's about all i got on this subject.

It's good to see some familiar names here . .  Todd Sharpe, how the heck are you? Hoe-di-do. Are you back in southern Cal . . weren't you from Huntington Beach? I deen in San Diego for 20 yrs now.

 . . . yeah shipmates means somethin huh?

peace, love & understanding

I remember the stories some of the BT's would tell about this. I'd have to get oil samples from the air blowers and they'd send someone up into that hallway to make noise and try and scare me. I have to admit after learning about what happened that hallway was always kinda spooky. As for the paint not sticking, I can say thats that is NO B.S. there was that little room that I think was the battery charging room and ol' BT1 made me paint that and the hall and I had a hell of a time doing it. Can't remember who it was always doing the pranking (think it was BT3 or BT2 Cox) but I remember Chief Mullens saying no more it was disrespectfull.

I was onboard when the murder took place and as Pete Riordan mentioned, that's pretty much how events unfolded.  Mitch was a friend of mine.  We all had nicknames and his was Zooman.  I remember he was a pretty laid back guy and pretty much kept to himself.  I was a Yeoman onboard at the time and remember his court martial transcripts which were the size of two phone books.  I thought he had gotten 20 years but reading this post it looks like he got life.   

Gotcha' Nadir. You're coming slowly into focus.

I'm glad too to "hear" you say that Mitch was a friend. he was a friend to many of us. It's not like he was just some stranger who showed up.

We certainly didn't know how deeply he was troubled.

Obviously, we all condemn his actions and pray for his soul.

Amen Brotha'. Amen.

Is Leguzana still in?  or "Boats"?  Or Kevin Long and Greg Henry?  There was that short guy Craig Ismail.  I haven't heard from those guys in 20 years.  I think I found Ben Whitney on Facebook. 

Hello Shipmates - Interesting to see this article. I have thought about this often. Riordan is right on with how it went down that night. What a wierd three days for sure, still cannot believe Garraway did what he did.

The most vivid recollection I have was just after midnight. We were all gossiping about what may have happened while at full security alert... becuase you did not know what to believe and that was when the unique sound of LTJG McKenzie's voice broke the silence. In his New Zealand accent & deep voice he announced what we were all wondering "could not be true"; that an officer onboard our ship was pronounced dead. I forget exactly what he said that night but it was very eerie for anyone who remembers hearing it, kind of a Rod Serling eulogy, very morbid, and you were hanging on every word as he spoke in his strange dialect & peculiar drawl accompanied by his accent. Steaming at full speed back to Newport & not knowing who did it was really something that was surreal. NIS agents coming onboard and interviewing shipmates was very disturbing. What made it so compelling for our families & friends was that they watched from ashore or on the news and only new about a murder, they did not know who it was, or if their particular loved one was alright until we docked.

Any attempt at a book could only be done with the facts, becuase no "story" could compare to the real thing. Rest in peace Lt Stearner.

I stumbled across this page while doing a google search of my father's name.

My name is Elizabeth.  Nearly 25 years ago, when I was only two years old, my father's life was taken.

I have nothing but a fleeting memory, and stories from my mother, grandmother, and other's who knew him.

Thank you all for remembering.

Elizabeth Sterner B.

I was the military judge on the Garraway case. It was one of the more troublesome courts-martial I encountered with 18 years on the bench. Primarily caused by his troublesome civilian counsel, Brooks, who didn't give a damn about Mitch or the system. Garraway is a sociopath and he will be a very dangerous person when he's paroled. He'll be up in 2015.

mhoucky at February 6, 2009 at 10:49 AM

In the summer of 1985 an IC2 Mitchell T. Garraway stabbed a Lt. James K. Sterner Jr. to death. This murder took place aboard the USS Miller while she was underway.
Does anyone recall hearing any thing about this at all? Seems the only place it made news was in Newport, R.I. where the USS Miller was home ported.
I clearly remember the day Garraway tired to escape the Newport Naval Brig. He was being held there awaiting his Court Martial. He took my friend and fellow co-worker SK2 Jeffy McCray hostage in February of 1986 in his escape attempt.
Garraway faced the Death Penalty but instead was given life in prison in June of 1986.
It's strange to me that I can only find information about this in The Providence Journal.
I'm going to search the Boston Globe archives and see if there is any thing written about this there.

It made the paper back in Oregon, but I don't remember what the article said or anything about it.  I think my family sent me a clipping.

Garraway used to come by when he was on a roving watch and I was up in my EW space.  He'd come in and we'd chat about stuff.  I knew at the time he was having some issues with Mr. Sterner but never dreamed he'd kill him.

I was serving on the Miller when this incident took place. I had just gotten off watch and was on the messdeck eating midrats directly below the spot where the stabbing took place, at the exact time that it occurred. I remember being on security alert for three days, and how unpleasant the entire experience was for everyone.