The Region - News from Jan. 2, 1986

The conviction of 29-year-old Richard James Wetherell for murdering the son of former Orange County Supervisor Edison Miller was overturned by the 4th District Court of Appeal, which said he should be retried because Costa Mesa police coerced his confession. The appellate court said police used “relentless persistence” to get him to admit the June, 1983, beating and strangling of Patrick Scott Miller, 26, in the bedroom of Miller’s home. Wetherell was sentenced in May, 1984, to life in prison without possibility of parole. His co-defendant, Arthur Goldner Jr., was found guilty in a separate trial and sentenced to 25 years to life.