Jury Acquits Palmdale Man in 1 of 2 Slayings

A Palmdale man charged with executing two men in the Mohave Desert was acquitted of one of the killings Monday, but a San Fernando Superior Court jury has not yet decided on the second charge.

Brad Millward, 30, was found not guilty of the July 5, 1987, murder of Albert Dulyea, 37, of Norwalk. The jury is still deliberating over whether Millward killed Bruce Gruber, 28, of Yucca Valley.

Millward, who was facing the death penalty because of the special allegation that he killed two men, now faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of murdering Gruber.

During the trial, which has stretched over four months, witness Daniel Lucero, 22, testified that he was driving home when he chanced upon the crime. He said he saw Millward shoot Gruber in the head and flee into the desert. Lucero took the dying Gruber to authorities, who later discovered Dulyea’s bullet-riddled body in Millward’s garage.

Millward, however, testified that Lucero killed Gruber by accident and participated in the murder of Dulyea.

Millward said Gruber and Lucero were trying kill to him because they believed Millward was a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who had taken chemicals Lucero was using to produce methamphetamines. Lucero was aiming for Millward when he shot Gruber by accident, Millward said.

Lucero and his friends shot Dulyea earlier in the afternoon in a fit of rage over their missing drug ingredients, Millward said.