Jordan Miller sentenced over murder of Emerald Wardle at Metford
Girlfriend killer Jordan Miller has learnt how long he will remain behind bars — as his jailhouse letter is read in court.
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Jordan Miller will be eligible for parole in less than 11 years for the murder of his girlfriend Emerald Wardle, with a judge determining Miller’s moral culpability was reduced because there was no evidence he was aware his drug taking would cause him to become psychotic.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Richard Cavanagh also found Miller did not plan the attack, was remorseful and was unlikely to reoffend when finding the murder was at the lower end of “objective seriousness” before sentencing the now 22-year-old to a maximum sentence of 20 years’ jail.
Miller had kept his drug use from his family, with the court hearing he had been using cannabis daily and had taken an estimated 30 “trips” of LSD in the years before he sunk into the psychosis and strangled Ms Wardle because he thought she was a demon who was “sucking the life out of him”.
He admitted to killing his girlfriend of two years, but argued at trial that he had a defence of mental health impairment because he was suffering the first episode of a psychosis brought on by an undiagnosed mental health condition such as schizophrenia.
But a jury convicted him of murder following a trial in June, agreeing with prosecutors that Miller’s descent into psychosis which saw him kill Ms Wardle was solely caused by his drug use.
In setting a non-parole period of 13 years, Justice Cavanagh said on Thursday that Miller was psychotic and deluded and, even though he was not intoxicated by drugs at the time of the murder, he was still suffering the effects of the drugs.
The court had heard Miller had taken the last LSD “trip” 11 days before the murder and there was evidence given at trial that his behaviour had changed.
“The simple reality of this case, as sad and tragic as it is, is that that which occurred happened because the offender took drugs,” Justice Cavanagh said.
“If he had not consumed drugs, nothing like this would ever would have occurred.
“Although the offending occurred in the domestic context, the offender was not generally an angry or violent man, intent on perpetrating violence on his partner when he did not get his way.
“The offender was prior thereto a good person who of his own choice took drugs with tragic consequences.”
Justice Cavanagh said he accepted Miller’s psychotic state impacted on his moral culpability, adding later that the drugs Miller took were not normally associated with long-lasting, temporary effects.
He said there was no evidence of a “relevant factor” that Miller had any prior comprehension or anticipation of the risk of the possible consequences of taking the drugs.
“The fact that he was suffering from a psychotic episode for the first time which disturbed his thought processes and led him to be deluded informs his moral culpability,” Justice Cavanagh said.
“It is appropriate to observe that, despite suffering from a deluded mind, he has been convicted of murder.
“He has been convicted of murder because his state of mind was caused solely by the temporary effects of taking drugs.’’
Justice Cavanagh described Miller’s attack as “an assault of significant ferocity”, with a struggle continuing over several minutes as Ms Wardle “put up a fight as best she could” as she was suffering “unimaginable terror and fear” as she realised Miller was trying to kill her.
He said an autopsy showed although she had died of strangulation, she had also suffered abdominal injuries where he was satisfied a “violent assault” had taken place.
Justice Cavanagh said the couple had been in a close and loving relationship, there had been no reports of domestic violence and Ms Wardle’s family had held Miller in high regard.
There was also nothing prior which would have caused concern for Ms Wardle, or either of the couple’s families, that she was in danger, he said.
“All murders are in the nature of very serious offending. The murder of a young woman in her home by her partner is particularly egregious,” Justice Cavanagh said.
“Nothing I say detracts from that proposition.”
Justice Cavanagh said he accepted Miller was remorseful, reading from a letter the killer had written for sentencing proceedings in August.
“There has not been a single day that has gone by where I have not thought about Emerald and the many memories that I cherish dearly,” Miller wrote.
“Emerald was an effervescent individual who was always very kind and generous to anyone she met.
“I once saw Emerald give her last five dollars to a homeless man in Maitland, acknowledging that he needed it more.
“I want it to be known that in my sound mind I would have never done anything like this.
“I loved Emerald so much and held her to the highest regards.
“I often contemplate how different things may have been if I was aware of the mental health issues at the time.
“Emerald taught me what it feels like to be in a happy, loving relationship and it still breaks my heart everyday knowing that she is gone.
“I can only describe it as living a nightmare that I can never awake from.
“I can only hope that with the passing of time, one day the people most affected by my actions, will be willing to offer forgiveness and understand that with every part of my being I am so sincerely sorry for the harm and suffering that I have caused.”
Miller, who has been in custody since being arrested on the night of the murder, will be eligible for parole in 2033.
EARLIER
Jordan Miller has been sentenced to a maximum 20 years’ jail for murdering his teenage girlfriend Emerald Wardle in a drug-induced psychosis.
Miller will be aged 33 when he is eligible for parole after NSW Supreme Court Justice Richard Cavanagh sentenced the former University of Newcastle student in Newcastle on Thursday to a minimum 13 years, backdated to when he was taken into custody.
A jury found Miller guilty of murder following a trial in June, agreeing with prosecutors that the then 20-year-old’s descent into psychosis which saw him strangle 18-year-old Emerald Wardle was solely caused by his drug use.
Miller had admitted to killing his 18-year-old partner in a Metford home in 2020, with his murder trial hearing he was psychotic when he believed Ms Wardle was a demon and was “sucking the life out of him”.
Miller had argued he was suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness, such as schizophrenia, and had a defence of mental health impairment available to him.
But the jury rejected the call to find a “special verdict”, where they could have found the act proven but Miller not criminally responsible because of a mental health impairment.
Instead, they found that Mr Miller’s mental state was a substance-induced psychosis solely due to his ”chronic” cannabis use and the ingestion of an LSD trip just 11 days before Ms Wardle died.
The sentencing comes after a harrowing two years for families of the couple after Ms Wardle’s body was found in the ensuite of the Metford home once owned by Miller’s grandfather in the early hours of that Saturday morning.
Miller had told triple-0 operators, which he had rung after strangling Ms Wardle, and attending police that he had killed a demon which was sucking the life out of him.
He would tell detectives in a recorded interview hours later that he felt he was in a coma or matrix and the only way he could escape was either killing himself or Ms Wardle.
And Miller produced several outbursts in court the following day, including repeatedly saying he was “a murderer” in a monotone voice before adding: “I wrapped my hands around Emerald Wardle’s throat”.
He would also tell authorities that he was aware he was strangling Ms Wardle.
Along with a lack of any evidence of previous domestic violence, the jury also heard Miller being described by friends and family as a “gentle giant” who had never shown any acts of aggression.
Miller’s family and friends also told the court of some subtle behavioural changes in the surveying student, most of which they did not identify until after he was charged with murder.
He had become more argumentative, more impulsive and his vocabulary had changed.
It also included a significant change in the weeks leading up to the death, with prosecutors arguing it was linked to him taking half a paper of LSD, or acid, on June 9.
The court heard Miller told people he had become more intelligent since the “trip” and had experienced an “ego death”.
He had been able to determine when poker machine “spins” would pay just by watching the machine and had unlocked “codes” on his iphone that only “geniuses” could do.
The Caltex service station employee also began ringing a counselling service for the company, and would later tell authorities that he believed he was getting messages from the counselling service about demons.
Two days before Ms Wardle’s death, Miller had driven her car to what he would tell authorities was her “favourite spot” at Morpeth and was going to kill himself.
But he returned after a series of phone calls between him and Ms Wardle.
Within 24 hours, Ms Wardle was dead.
In emotional victim impact statements read during sentencing proceedings in August, Emerald’s parents Tania Simshauser and Mathew Wardle spoke of the heartbreak of losing their daughter.
“During the murder trial...I constantly heard Emerald being referred to as the demon. She was not a demon – she was an innocent, young woman,” Ms Simshauser told the hearing.
“She was born my daughter but became my very best friend. She was the absolute light of my life.”
Mr Wardle would add: “She will never get a chance of a full life. She will never get married. I will never have the chance to walk her down the aisle‘’.
“She will never be able to experience being a mum, experience travelling the world, or just even having a full life.
“All of this caused me pain like I have never felt before – unexplainable, unimaginable heartbreak.’’
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