- March 5, 2025
One neighbor thought she was hearing fireworks. Another, construction work. A few thought they were hearing gun shots, but when they peered outside and along their quiet Flagler Beach street, they saw nothing and returned to their dishes or televisions.
They would soon learn that the noise they heard early in the evening on March 14, 2012, were the five shots that ended Dana Mulhall’s life.
A handful of them sat in court Tuesday as the second-degree murder trial for Paul Miller, who shot and killed his neighbor, Mulhall, began. Prosecutors asked them to describe the noises they heard, particularly, the amount of time between each shot.
Their answers ranged from half of a second between each shot to one second. All of them said they were measured and evenly spaced.
“To me, it sounded like target practice,” said Paul Neisler, a gun owner and recreational shooter himself. “It was what they call, ‘slow fire.’ … What you’re trying to do is hit a specific spot on the target.”
Tuesday’s proceedings were almost wholly orchestrated by the prosecution, led by attorney Jacquelyn Roys. Miller’s defense decided to defer its opening argument until after the prosecution rests it case.
Roys spent much of Tuesday morning describing Mulhall’s last hours of life. A landscaper, he worked all day before meeting some friends for drinks. Over the course of about two hours, he had about six Miller Lite beers, witnesses estimate. Among those who testified were a bartender at one of Mulhall’s frequent bar spots and some people who have drank with him before. All of them said Mulhall was not a heavy drinker, but a consistent one. Those who saw him right before he died said he was not impaired by alcohol.
Mulhall returned to his home on South Flagler Avenue, in Flagler Beach, at about 6 p.m. His neighbor’s dogs were barking, so he approached the white, picket fence that divided their respective properties, cursing at the dogs and telling them to be quiet. That’s when Paul Miller emerged from his house. The two men began to argue.
This account came from a 12-year-old boy who was walking by at the time. As Mulhall and Miller argued, the boy continued on his way to his friend’s house, where he was going to spend the evening playing football.
The boy, as well as several neighbors, later heard the shots.
“Miller fired five slow, paced, methodical shots,” Roys said, implying that the action was not done in self-defense.
Miller then called 911 and told dispatchers he’d shot a man.
When law enforcement and paramedics arrived, Miller was standing at the end of his driveway with his hands in his pockets. Mulhall was lying in his flower bed. He was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m.
Controversial back-rub
Later in the afternoon, Roys raised a concern with the judge outside the presence of the jury: During a court recess, she had seen Miller rubbing his wife’s back in the presence of jurors. Roys worried that the emotional element to this act might sway the jury. Such actions might cause a mistrial, Roys said.
Circuit Judge J. David Walsh asked that Miller refrain from such acts in the immediate vicinity of courtroom.
Defense attorney Douglas Williams asked Walsh about the area outside of the courtroom: the courthouse steps, for example.
Walsh said he could not control people’s personal affairs outside the courtroom.
Jurors in the case were not sequestered, so they return home nightly and are potentially subject to outside influence, but they are forbidden to discuss the trial, listen to anyone talk about it or read media coverage about it while it is underway.
Prosecution will continue to present its case in court Wednesday before the defense begins its arguments. Miller faces up to a life sentence if convicted.
