Rolando Millan, now 17 but 16 when the killings occurred, is awaiting trial, with jury selection currently slated for Aug. 10, on murder and multiple other charges from the July 4, 2021, triple homicide at Lundy’s Trailer Park off Miller Street Extension.
Whether the case could actually go to trial in August is unknown. Neither the district attorney nor Millan’s defense attorney were reached by phone Friday. The most recent document in the public record of the case was a June 28 “state’s demand for discovery,” filed by Assistant District Attorney Judith Ann Oglesby as Ogeechee Judicial Circuit prosecutors sought any evidence held by the defense and the identity of all defense witnesses.
Millan’s attorney, Nicole Fegan of Atlanta, had filed a defense motion for discovery April 2 and a motion May 10 for extension of the time to file motions. A March pretrial order signed by the circuit’s Chief Judge Gates Peed had mentioned a July 6 jury selection, but the trial didn’t happen then.
Now the case, assigned to Peed, is listed for the selection of a Bulloch County Superior Court trial jury beginning Aug. 10.
Deadly July 4th
When Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office deputies answered a call to Lundy’s Trailer Park, which is just beyond Statesboro’s city limits, around 7 p.m. on July 4, 2021, they found Brittany Sneed Mack, 35, suffering from gunshot wounds on the porch of a residence. She died on the way to the hospital.
Officers from the BCSO and Statesboro Police Department’s Special Response Team entered the home and found Travis Sneed, 37, and Kristina Soles, also 37, both dead from gunshot wounds. Sneed and Mack were brother and sister, and Soles was Sneed’s girlfriend, according to investigators.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was immediately called to assist in the investigation of what was soon described as a triple homicide involving a suspect at large. But investigators said it was August when they learned that their suspect, Millan, then a 16-year-old juvenile, was by then being held in the Augusta Youth Detention Center on unrelated juvenile charges.
GBI Special Agent Trevin Goodman swore out warrants Aug. 30, initially charging Millan with three counts of felony murder. Bulloch County Sheriff Noel Brown and GBI Region 5 Special Agent in Charge Chris DeMarco then held a news conference Sept. 2, identifying Millan, announcing the charges and predicting he would remain at the YDC to complete his juvenile sentence before being transferred to Bulloch County by this spring for eventual trial as an adult.
Millan was booked into the Bulloch County Jail earlier this year, on or soon after his 17th birthday. He remained there Friday, with no bond set.
March indictment
Meanwhile, District Attorney Daphne Totten had presented a 13-count bill of indictment to the February-term Bulloch County grand jury, which true-billed it March 7. An indictment is not a determination of guilt, but only a decision by the majority of a grand jury’s members that enough evidence exists for charges to go to trial. The standard is probable cause, and the grand jury usually hears only from the prosecution side.
In addition to three counts of felony murder, or causing a death by committing another felony, the indictment charges Millan with three counts of malice murder, or murder with malice aforethought, also in the deaths of Mack, Sneed and Soles. Only one murder conviction is possible in the death of one victim, but prosecutors often present both types of murder charges to provide options for the jury.
Counts 7, 8 and 9 are charges of aggravated assault, also alleging that Millan shot the same three people. The alleged aggravated assaults are also stated as the legal basis of the felony murder charges. Count 10 accuses him of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Cruelty charges
Counts 11 through 13 are three charges of first-degree cruelty to children. They allege that Millan shot and killed the three adults in the presence of three children under the age of 18, causing them “cruel and excessive mental pain.”
In describing each of the murder and aggravated assault counts, the indictment alleges that Millan used a firearm, “the make and model of said firearm being unknown to the grand jurors but known to the accused.”
Asked Friday whether a gun was recovered, DeMarco, the Region 5 GBI agent in charge, said he couldn’t comment on this because it is “evidentiary material” before trial. That was also his response when asked about the motive.
But DeMarco confirmed that Millan was the only suspect sought in the shootings and that investigators believe he acted alone.
Fegan asserted Millan’s plea of not-guilty in a March 24 request for a waiver of arraignment and in-person court appearance. But other documents state that his arraignment was held March 31, so he apparently was brought to court to hear the charges read.