Judge Finds Probable Cause in Case of Drifter Charged With Burning Brevard Church

Update 12/08/09

News Channel 7 coverage partners the Hendersonville Times News reports a judge has found probable cause that Douglas Miller was responsible for a fire at Midway Baptist Church.
He is charged with felony larceny, felony breaking an entering to a church and burning a place of worship.
The case will now move to superior court.

Update 11/15/09

A drifter, looking for a place to get warm, has now been charged with the fire that destroyed a Brevard area church.  37-year-old Douglas Edward Miller is charged with Burning of a Church or Religious Building, Larceny and Breaking and Entering into a Place of Worship in connection with the fire that heavily damaged the Midway Bible Baptist Church late Friday night. Both charges are felonies.  Miller is currently in the Transylvania County Detention Center on a $60,000 bond.  Miller claims he went to the church in search of food and a place to get warm.    “Well, if he had just come and told us that we would of have taken care of him,“ Pastor Douglas Miller said.  Miller was caught in Macon County hitchhiking, and in possession of a guitar stolen from the church Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, services were held at the church site. Pastor Ray Aiken has only been the pastor of the Midway Bible Baptist Church for the past year and a half, he was there at the beginning. Back when he was a bricklayer in the 1960’s he helped build the church. He says the fire is devastating.

“It really tore me up, but I realize God is in control,“ says Pastor Aiken.

The fire started in the back of the church in a classroom area where gospel tracts were stored