WILKES-BARRE - He didn't hear the car coming or see what happened.
The only thing Stephen Miller, M.D., knew is that he was crossing North Street with his 5-year-old son, Kevin, one minute. In an instant, Kevin had disappeared.
"As I was stepping onto the curb, I felt Kevin leave my hand and I heard a thud," Dr. Miller testified Monday at a preliminary hearing for his son's alleged killer. "I looked to where he was and I saw a red car speeding away. ⦠It never slowed down."
Dr. Miller said he thought his son was stuck to the front of the car or perhaps was pinned underneath it. He chased the car, futilely, until it turned south on North Main Street and left his view, he said.
Dr. Miller ran back to his wife and two other young children as well as another family who had just left a family Christmas party at a home on North Street about 10:55 p.m. Dec. 21.
"He's gone!" Dr. Miller recalled yelling. "He's gone. I don't know where he is."
Then someone called back they had found Kevin - Dr. Miller ran over and knelt by his boy, he testified.
"Daddy's here," he remembered saying. But he didn't know if Kevin was still with him.
"His eyes were glazed," Dr. Miller said. "He was bleeding from his ear. I'm not quite sure if he was alive at that point."
Kevin was taken to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp., where he was pronounced dead about a half-hour later.
Dr. Miller's testimony - the first time a family member has publicly described the events surrounding Kevin's hit-and-run death - came at a preliminary hearing for Thomas W. Letteer Jr., 23, of 9 Mack St., Plains Twp., who is charged with a single count of felony accidents involving death or injury in Kevin's death.
Mr. Letteer remains free on $200,000 bail pending trial, and Kevin's mother began sobbing when he entered the courtroom.
Prosecutors on Monday, sitting at a desk with pictures of Kevin turned slightly toward Mr. Letteer, presented their case. After identifying the vehicle as a red Pontiac Grand Am, investigators got hundreds of tips, including one that led them to Mr. Letteer, Wilkes-Barre police Detective Charles Jensen testified.
Throughout the hearing, defense attorney William Ruzzo focused on poking holes in the prosecution's case, repeatedly pointing out that the charges are based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence.
The car had some dents on the passenger-side hood at roughly the same height as Kevin stood, according to police, but Mr. Ruzzo said police couldn't say exactly when they occurred. He also noted that no DNA, blood or fibers had been found on the car.
Magisterial District Judge Martin Kane ruled the state has sufficient evidence against Mr. Letteer and forwarded the case to the Court of Common Pleas for trial. A formal arraignment was set for 9:30 a.m. July 11.
Contact the writer: jhalpin@citizensvoice.com