Evil killer dubbed 'Zombie Hunter' moans Death Row 'cold' and food 'not great'

22 October 2023 , 21:29

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Bryan Patrick Miller says death row is cold and that the food is 'not great' (Image: Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Life on death row is cold and lonely, moans a convicted serial killer — but the worst part? The food is terrible.

Bryan Patrick Miller, 50, was convicted in April this year on two counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault — solving the decades-long mystery of the "canal killings" and ending the hunt for the infamous "Zombie Hunter" serial killer.

In an interview, whining sicko Miller has now discussed his experiences on death row over the past month — and moaned that, while they've been better than life in general population, death row is still pretty abysmal.

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Melanie Bernas was just 17 when she was brutally murdered and dumped in the river (PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT)

Angela Brosso was almost 22 at the time of her death, and like Bernas, had been riding her bike on a trail (PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT)

"It is obvious that isolation has taken its toll on many people here," he wrote to CBS News. "From what I saw of people in county jail compared to here, the majority of the people here are by far not what I would consider the worst of the worst. It is by far safer than anywhere else in prison even though they have nothing really to lose anymore."

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Despite that, however, he said "it is far from great," especially as he's isolated from the people he cares about and his legal team. "The food is still not great and the cells are getting very cold now that temps are falling," he added.

The isolation, he said, could prove detrimental to his case, though, he said. "How is a person supposed to defend themselves and prove anything for a crime that happened decades ago?" he asked, also noting that he was arrested eight years ago for murders that occurred in the early 1990s and that he waited ages for his trial to commence this year.

Miller was convicted of killing two young Phoenix women in the early 1990s, sexually attacking them before fatally stabbing them. One was decapitated. His death sentence was handed to him in June this year, and he was relegated to death row after the eight-year stint in county jail in general population.

Miller became known as the Zombie Hunter due to a zombie walk event program in which he drove a decked-out police car with the words 'Zombie Hunter' on the back (Maricopa County Court)

The story of the killings is now a documentary on Paramount+ called Unmasking the Zombie Hunter. The reason Miller became known as the Zombie Hunter was because of a zombie walk event program in which he participated in Phoenix, donning handmade costumes that featured a menacing mask and a fake Gatling gun and made him appear like a zombie from the apocalypse, cold case detective Clark Schwartzkopf said. He also drove a decked-out police car with the words "Zombie Hunter" on the back.

Angela Brosso was slaughtered in November 1992 the day before her 22nd birthday, while Melanie Bernas was killed in September 1993 at the age of 17. Both disappeared as they rode their bicycles along the Arizona Canal in north Phoenix, the authorities have said.

The police believed the killer to have knocked Brasso off her bicycle before stabbing her to death and dragging her limp body off the trail. She was stripped, then decapitated. It's also alleged that she was sexually assaulted.

Bernas' body was discovered floating in the canal ten months later, though she was not decapitated. Her bicycle, however, was missing. Both women had Miller's DNA on their bodies, which was finally matched to him in 2015 after sitting in evidence since the early '90s.

A teal bodysuit like the one Melanie Bernas was found wearing (KPHO)

Miller has continuously denied involvement with the murders, yet waived his right to a trial by jury, opting instead to be sentenced by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Cohen alone. He continued to waive that right even after Cohen said in April that the death penalty would be put on the table for the trial.

He also refused to testify at the trial, which started in early October 2022. At the time, he pleaded not guilty, citing insanity as his reasoning.

Part of the evidence that got him convicted, however, was his admission to the authorities that he rode his own bike on paths in the area and that he lived close to where the killings occurred.

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The delay in the trial was reportedly due to Miller's mental state — he wasn't deemed mentally fit enough for several years. His attorneys pleaded with Judge Cohen during those years to consider giving him leniency but to no avail.

"The defendant did not just murder them. He brutalised them, and he evaded capture for over 20 years," Cohen said. Prosecutors added that he deserved the death penalty because of his sexual sadism as well.

The mug Bryan Patrick Miller drank from (Maricopa County Court)

His case will automatically be appealed under Arizona state law. He told CBS News that he doesn't know if he has a way to refute the DNA evidence or explain why it was on the bodies. "If I had a provable answer for that, I wouldn't be in this situation, would I?" he wrote. "It is a question that I would like answered, and everyone is so convinced that I did, so it will go unanswered."

He was adamant, however, that the psychological experts who fabricated his insanity plea were wrong. He says he does not have dissociative amnesia, as they claim, and that he doesn't remember the murders because he didn't commit them.

It was Miller's social media accounts that allowed Schwartzkopf to link him to the cases, he said, leading to his 2015 arrest — less than a year after Schwartzkopf took over the case.

Bryan Patrick Miller's kitchen (Phoenix Police Department)

Miller's lawyers also detailed the abuse he suffered at the hands of his late mother, Ellen, who died in 2010, which created many mental health issues he had to suffer with for decades. "My mother was not a very good person in so many ways, but what helped was that when I was an adult, she acknowledged that she did horrible things to me and apologised," Miller said.

But it led to his divorce, his struggles raising his teenaged daughter, who friends and a detective have said he was abusive towards. Now, Miller suffers in isolation on death row with emails as his only companion, and he misses his family and friends — and, of course, the food.

Jeremiah Hassel