Jury deliberations will resume Monday in the trial of a duo accused of killing 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 and Jesse Robert Thurbush, 43, of Victorville allegedly killed James Cidney Brown in 2019.
They’re 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.
Their co-defendant, James Max Robinson, 43, of San Bernardino, reached a plea deal with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office at the outset of the trial, admitting voluntary manslaughter. In exchange for the admission, prosecutors dropped the murder and other charges against him.
Robinson, who is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, is slated for sentencing on June 14.
The prosecution and defense delivered closing statements Wednesday, after which Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon sent jurors behind closed doors at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. They deliberated all day Thursday without reaching a verdict. The trial was not in session Friday.
Miller is being held without bail at the Smith jail, while Thurbush is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
According to a 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 received information from 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 got a layout of the property from McCance, court papers allege. She persuaded Robinson and Thurbush to join her in the robbery, and the threesome set off in the predawn hours of Nov. 3, 2019, 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, 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 spray into the victim’s closed eyes, causing him to wake in a panic, bolting out of the room, according to court documents.
Miller was directly in the 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.
Miller and Thurbush ransacked the property for 20 minutes, looking for money and marijuana packages, then left, along with Robinson, sheriff’s investigators allege.
Fuggiero managed to free his wrists 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 each have priors for burglary.