A jury is slated to be seated early next week for the trial of a trio accused in the slaying of a 64-year-old Anza man operating an illegal cannabis grow, where the defendants went to rob him.
Jodi Lynn Miller, 48, of Rancho Cucamonga, James Max Robinson, 43, of San Bernardino and Jesse Robert Thurbush, 43, of Victorville allegedly killed James Cidney Brown in 2019.
All three are charged with first-degree murder, burglary, false imprisonment and special-circumstance allegations of killing in the course of a burglary and killing during the commission of a robbery. Miller is additionally charged with sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon began summoning prospective jurors to the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta earlier this week, and a panel is expected to be sworn in Monday or Tuesday.
Miller and Robinson are being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, while Thurbush is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to a defense brief filed by Robinson’s attorney last year, when he tried unsuccessfully to have some of the charges against his client dismissed, Miller was the alleged ringleader, and she invited Robinson and Thurbush to her Rancho Cucamonga home on the night of Nov. 2, 2019, to smoke methamphetamine.
The brief, based on evidence presented during the trio’s 2022 preliminary hearing, alleged that Miller wanted to steal marijuana and money from Brown, about whom she’d heard through a friend, James McCance, who tended to the illicit outdoor cannabis grow at the victim’s property in the 39000 block of El Toro Road.
Miller called and traded texts with McCance that night to get a layout of the property, court papers allege.
She persuaded Robinson and Thurbursh to join her in perpetrating the robbery, and the threesome set off in the predawn hours of Nov. 3, 2019, Miller driving her SUV, and Robinson and Thurbursh following in the latter’s Dodge Charger, according to the brief.
They arrived just before 6 a.m., cutting through a fence to gain access, then parking outside the victim’s house, where Miller armed herself with a revolver, and the two men armed themselves with rifles, with Robinson remaining outside to watch for law enforcement or anyone else arriving at the grow site, court papers said.
Miller and Thurbush allegedly slipped into the home through an unlocked backdoor and found a worker, John Fuggiero, asleep on a front room sofa and Brown asleep in his room with the door shut, the brief said.
The defendants subdued Fuggiero with zip ties and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, then proceeded into Brown’s room, where Robinson discharged pepper spray into the victim’s closed eyes, at which point he awoke in a panic, bolting out of the room, according to court documents.
Miller was directly in the fleeing man’s path and fired several shots at him, documents alleged.
“She was standing there with a gun and … shot Brown because he was running at her,” according to the brief.
The victim was fatally injured.
Miller and Thurbush ransacked the property for 20 minutes, looking for money and marijuana packages, then fled, along with Robinson, sheriff’s investigators allege.
Fuggiero managed to loosen the zip ties on his wrists and wriggled free an hour later, calling 911. Deputies arrived at 7:30 a.m. and found Brown dead on the living room floor. Fuggiero suffered minor injuries but did not require hospitalization, investigators said.
After Central Homicide Unit detectives searched the grounds, the illegal grow was razed, and all remaining cannabis was seized and destroyed.
The investigation spanned almost 18 months before the three defendants were connected to the murder and arrested in the summer of 2021.
Court records show Miller has a prior felony conviction in another jurisdiction, but it was not specified, while both Robinson and Thurbush have priors for burglary.