‘I WAS JUST TRYING TO GET HIM HELP’: Mother of inmate found dead says mentally ill son was supposed to go to Sandilands

With Sandilands not accepting admissions, Rose Miller went to police for help keeping her son off the streets

Brother: The justice system failed him

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Rose Miller, the mother of the inmate found dead at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDOCS) on Monday, said she was only trying to get her mentally ill son some help when she got him arrested last month.

Officials advised 29-year-old Mikhail Miller, who was serving a three-month sentence at the correctional facility, was found dead in his cell with injuries on Monday.

No details surrounding the cause of his death have been confirmed.

Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe told reporters yesterday that officials are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. He indicated that both the police and BDOCS will launch investigations into the suspicious death.

In an interview with Eyewitness News yesterday, Rose Miller said she was at the grocery store when she received a call from the prison chaplain saying that her son had died.

She said since then, she has been given no answers from officials about his death and had only heard speculation that he may have been beaten in his cell.

She said she had yet to be able to identify his body.

He pleaded not to be sent to jail

Miller said the last time she saw Mikhail was when he was sentenced in court for stealing from her.

She said her son, who she claimed had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, had struggled with bouts of psychosis and had been in and out of the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC) and prison.

However, there is currently a moratorium on admissions at SRC.

“When he takes the medication, he behaves very nicely,” she said.

“It’s when he does not take the medication that he has problems, when he walks [up] and down the street when he does not take the medication.

“So, I wanted him off the street.”

She said Mikhail had another pending matter in court where one of their neighbors filed a restraining order against him. Miller said her son would often compliment the young woman, telling her she was pretty and asking her to be his wife.

Miller said she went to the police station and requested officers’ help to get him off the streets but was told they needed a reason to hold him.

She said she officially reported a minor matter to the officers — that Mikhail had stolen her phone and tablet and sold them — and asked if that would be enough reason to get him into Sandilands to get the help he needed.

“They reassured me that they would have done that,” she said.

But when she went to court and appeared before Magistrate Shaka Serville in early October, she realized that would not happen.

Miller said she pleaded with the judge for her son not to go to jail but to get help and be sent to Sandilands because he has a mental problem.

As she began to break down in tears, the grieving mother told Eyewitness News: “My son also said to the judge: ‘Please do not send me back to the prison.’”

She said Serville advised that her son would be remanded to BDOCS and he would write a letter to officials advising of Mikhail’s challenges so an SRC team would visit the prison and conduct an evaluation.

“I hugged my son and that was the last time seeing my child,” Miller said.

Nowhere to turn

Miller said she reached out to prison officials as recently as last week to see how her son was doing, find out if he had been seen by a doctor and ask if she could speak to him or hear his voice.

“[The prison officer] spoke to me like a dog and said if there is anything I need, I must go to the prison gate and inquire about what he needed,” she said.

The grieving mother said she went to the facility on Tuesday but after waiting around for hours, she was told that no officials were on the property to speak with her.

She said even after going to the morgue, she was told they could not locate his body and she could not identify him.

“He’s not an animal,” Miller said.

“He had his challenges and every neighbor around here can tell you I tried my best with my child. I even took him to pastors.”

She said she is currently still grieving Mikhail’s father, who died in February, and an aunt and two uncles who were recently buried this year.

“If I know this would have happened, I would have never done what I did. I just wanted to take him off the streets,” she said.

Miller’s brother, Macoyan Miller, said he wants answers about what happened to his brother.

“I’m just waiting for someone to say this is a sick joke because this doesn’t feel real,” Macoyan said.

He remembered his brother as a positive and outgoing person, insisting that while his brother was not an angel and had “sticky fingers”, “everybody has their flaws”.

He said The Bahamas does not take mental health seriously and even after going to SRC many times, his brother never really got the help he desperately needed.

“The justice system failed my brother,” he said.