Inwood mother and daughter plead not guilty in murder conspiracy

Inwood residents Mary Miller, 80, and her wheel-bound chair daughter, Ann, 59, pled not guilty on Aug. 2 in First District Court in Hempstead to charges they conspired to help Daniel Miller — Mary’s son and Ann’s brother —attempt to hire a hit man to kill a witness who is expected to testify against him.

In addition to entering their pleas, both women agreed to orders of protection prohibiting them from trying to contact a witness in the case. They released on their own recognizance.

A secretary at Lawrence High School in Cedarhurst, Mary Miller allegedly used her position to gain access to the personal information of the 17-year-old student Daniel Miller planned to have killed.

Prosecutors said she may not have known what her son was planning, but she was going to give the records to a private investigator who was collecting information on the teenager to assist in Daniel’s criminal case.

The information was allegedly given to another person by Ann Miller with the idea that it could be used to dissuade the boy from testifying, or discredit his testimony.

Attorneys for both women said that if the Millers did provide the information to others, that wasn’t a crime.

Daniel Miller, 45, was arrested in April for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting the teen in January. The young man was employee of Miller’s at his Santeria religious supply store —Botanica Inle Osain — that is also in Inwood. He initially asked a relative to stick pins and knives into a voodoo doll of the boy. Miller than offered a man $15,000 to kill the teen. Miller, who is being held for the April charges, has pled not guilty to the murder-for-hire charge.