A number of people who work at North Hills Christian School, where Miller taught computer classes, testified Wednesday about Miller’s actions on Oct. 21, 1998.

And one thing Miller did not do, according to first-grade teacher Faythe DiLoreto, was come to her classroom to return a student’s barrette at the time she said she did.

The evening her father’s body was found, Miller told State Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Todd Duke that during her afternoon break from 12:45 p.m. to 1:25 p.m., she made copies, returned a student’s barrette and talked to a secretary about a computer problem.

Defense attorney James Davis asked DiLoreto several times, several different ways, if DiLoreto was positive the barrette was not on the student’s desk at 3 p.m.

Davis continued badgering DiLoreto for a more specific answer, but when District Attorney Bill Kenerly objected, Judge Thomas W. Seay Jr. cut Davis off.

DiLoreto’s final answer was: “There was nothing on the desks when I left.”

The student whom the barrette belonged to has not been called to testify.

The prosecution is trying to prove that during Kathy Miller’s break on Oct. 21, 1998, she drove to her father’s home and shot Leon Wilson Jr. six times with a .357-magnum handgun.

Dr. Teddy Cruse, superintendent at North Hills Christian School, said he saw Kathy Miller leaving her computer room on Oct. 21 “five or seven minutes” after her 12:45 break began. He also said Miller was at the school for her 1:25 p.m. class.

“Otherwise, children would have said they didn’t have a teacher,” and Cruse’s office is directly across the hall from Miller’s classroom.

Martha Shoemaker, elementary secretary at NorthHills, said she received the call from a man identifying himself as Leon Wilson. She transferred the call to Kathy Miller because “there was some urgency in his (Leon Wilson’s) voice,” Shoemaker testified.

Shoemaker had difficulty remembering her previous statement given in 1998 about Miller or the phone call from Wilson. She referred repeatedly to her earlier statement to answer questions.

District Attorney Kenerly asked Shoemaker if she sent Kenerly a card after Miller’s arrest pleading for the prosecutor to support a bond allowing Miller’s release.

“Yes,” Shoemaker replied.

Louise Loflin, middle/high school secretary, testified she gave two special-order shirts to Miller the afternoon of Oct. 21. One was green and the other blue, both with the North Hills crest.

Miller told investigators she wore the blue polo shirt to school on Oct. 21, and she voluntarily turned her outfit, including the shirt, over to investigators for forensic testing.

But Loflin said Miller could not have worn either of the two shirts to school on Oct. 21 because she received them that day.

Wilson’s friend, Brenda Tortoreo, found his body in his Proctor Drive home on Oct. 22. Special Agent Duke testified that faxed copies of several checks were found next to his body. Among the checks, believed to be forged by Miller, were two written out to her totaling $1,500.

Miller told Duke that her father wrote the two checks to her on Oct. 15 so his account would show a zero balance when he sued business partner Joe Allen Jr.

“I said I didn’t understand why he would do that. She said she didn’t understand it either. She said she was supposed to hold that money for Leon Wilson,” Duke testified.

Miller said her father “got confused because of his medication” and that might explain the lost checkbook.

Miller also told Duke that she and her husband “didn’t have any financial problems other than living week to week like most people do.”

During the interview, Duke noted that Miller’s “overriding concern during the interview was getting the gas cut on at her house… She made a few calls from the Sheriff’s Department… so we drove back to her house so she could be there.”

In other testimony, Barbara Fabian, who had worked with Wilson at Frito-Lay and previously dated him for eight years, said Leon Wilson told her Kathy Miller forged the checks.

“He asked me please not to say anything to anyone, that he did not want to slander Kathy’s name,” Fabian said.

Wilson talked to her on the phone a few hours before he was shot.

Fabian asked Wilson if he thought Kenneth Miller was behind the forged checks. “Lord no. If Kenneth knew about this, he’d have a fit,” Wilson told Fabian.

“He was very hurt — very, very hurt. He even made the remark to me, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ ” Fabian said.

Wilson was supposed to call Fabian back and “tell her what came about all this.” She called his house multiple times on the evening of Oct. 21 and all day Oct. 22.

Around 6:20 p.m. Oct. 22, Fabian’s phone rang and her Caller ID showed the call coming from Wilson’s home. “I thought it was him so I said, ‘It’s about time you called me back,’ but it was someone from the Sheriff’s Department telling me he was dead,” Fabian testified.

Also on the stand Wednesday:

• Landis School Resource Officer K.B. Safrit, who was a Rowan County Sheriff’s deputy in October 1998, testified that he filed a report for Leon Wilson about his stolen checks.

The charge listed on the incident report, taken at 11:43 a.m. Oct. 21, was misdemeanor larceny. The actual value of the book of checks — No. 2400 to No. 2425 — was only $5.

Wilson listed Kathy Miller as the suspect. The incident report also logged her address, phone number and date of birth, Feb. 7, 1965. The same birthdate appeared on a forged check Kathy Miller allegedly wrote at a Food Lion store.

When Safrit asked if he could have lost the checks, Wilson said he “did not take it (checkbook) out of the house, that he had the Visa Check Card.”

Defense attorney Davis asked Officer Safrit if Miller was ever charged with the theft of the checks. He responded “No.”

• Mike Rainey and Jeff Ridenhour’s testimonies verified previous testimony that Kenneth Miller was working at KoSa from 7 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. Oct. 21.
• Mailman Tony Parker testified that he delivered mail to Leon Wilson’s home around 2 p.m. Oct. 21. Wilson did not come outside to meet him as he usually would.
• Amy Nance, a United Parcel Service worker, testified that she left two packages on Leon Wilson’s porch at 5:50 p.m. Oct. 21, after ringing the doorbell and knocking. She also put his Oct. 21, 1998, Salisbury Post on his packages.
• Jane Owen finished her testimony about the status of Kenneth and Kathy Miller’s bank account at First Citizens Bank.