Bubbaworld

Publication Date: 4/13/06
Last Update: 4/13/06

Saturday, March 11, 2006, was a very bad day for Johnny Ray Miller, 48, and Robert Allen Patterson, 24, of Enid, OK.  Before it was over they were both locked up in the Garfield County Jail on charges of conspiracy, manufacturing/transporting an incendiary device and arson.

This dynamic duo came to the attention of the Enid, Oklahoma Police Department because someone called the cops on them.  This as they were allegedly planning, executing and fleeing the scene of the crime.  According to Enid Police that ‘someone’ was none other than Miller and Patterson themselves.

Evidently one of the dynamic duo accidentally activated a cellphone lying on the dashboard of the truck in which the men were traveling around Enid on that fateful morning. The number the cellphone dialed was ’911′. When the 911 operator answered the call no one specifically replied to the operator but rather the phone was simply ‘broadcasting’ the conversations taking place within the pickup truck.

These conversations, which went on for three hours and forty five minutes, were recorded in their entirety by the Enid Police Department as the men allegedly discussed their plan to steal or burn the car of an acquaintance of Patterson’s.  Court documents indicate the police listened in as the men discussed constructing the ‘firebomb’, carried out the attack, left and drove right back past the arson scene as officers were discussing the fire with the victim.  The victim upon noticing the men’s pickup truck pass his residence told police he suspected that the men in the truck were involved in the fire bombing of his car.

The accused managed to slip past the police, continued driving around town, with the police still listening to their conversation until ultimately officers were able to determine the area of town in which the vehicle was located. One officer suggested to another that he approach the suspect truck and honk the horn of his police cruiser which he did. Other officers listening to the 911 call reportedly heard the honking over the phone connection and closed in on the suspects.

As officers interviewed the men they asked each of them to speak their name, which they did.  Court documents indicate that the officers listening in on the still active 911 call confirmed the voices of the suspects speaking their name were identical to the voices they had been listening to for the previous three plus hours. When police told the suspects that their cellphone had dialed 911 and that the police had been listening to their conversations for hours they refused to believe the officers.

Court documents indicate that when officers searched the suspect vehicle they found a lighter, a claw hammer with glass particles embedded into it and a leather jacket with the smell of a flammable liquid. Those same documents indicate that during an interview at the police department Patterson admitted to placing a light bulb of gasoline in the victim’s vehicle.

The affidavit also indicates that Patterson said an earlier attempt to make a bomb using rubbing alcohol failed because the bulb broke and the rubbing alcohol spilled. Patterson allegedly showed detectives how to prepare the light bulb and called it a ‘bulb bomb’.

Miller denied being involved in the arson although he allegedly admitted that it was his voice on the tape discussing making the bomb. He claims that it was just talking and that he never did anything. Since Miller is a four time convicted felon he faces up to life in prison if convicted on any of the three charges he faces.

Patterson was released on $10,000 bond. As of this writing Miller remains in jail on a $15,000 bond. Both men are scheduled for their next court appearance on May 3rd.

Interested parties can view the on-line court records of the two cases as follows:

STATE OF OKLAHOMA v. JOHNNY RAY MILLER

STATE OF OKLAHOMA v. ROBERT A PATTERSON