Maximillian W. Halterman’s older sister said she was unable to attend his funeral because she was in a psychiatric hospital for 18 days after his death on March 19, 2019.

Four years later, Trina Holderman and her mother, Rose Comly, were among those who gathered Monday, Nov. 13, for the first day of Alec Miller’s trial.

Miller, 23, is accused of shooting and killing Halterman at a rental home in Oakland Township.

“I lost my mind so bad, like it just shattered,” Holderman said of her brother’s death.

She hopes to see Miller receive life in prison without parole for Halterman’s death.

“This is like losing your breath and never catching it again,” she shared Monday.

Holderman said she had a baby and named him Max, after her brother.

When it came to dealing drugs, Holderman said her brother was a victim of circumstance, and addiction runs in the family. She said Halterman did not struggle with substance use disorder, but members of the family did.

“It’s devastating, because there’s no more family memories with Max,” Comly said.

She said she wants Miller to sit on death row.

“We feel terrible for the family — that they’re going through this,” Miller’s aunt, Tricia Bryan, said Monday. “We thought about it. How would we feel, the other way around, if we lost Alec? I can’t imagine, and it’s heartbreaking.”

Miller’s family said nobody really knows what happened the night of March 19 except for Miller and Halterman.

“We want to make sure … that they can prove he really did it,” Bryan said.

She questioned the video surveillance, which she said could not capture any faces, as well as the fact that police have not yet questioned the two unidentified people who visited Halterman’s residence and didn’t call 911 the night of March 19, after Halterman would have been shot and killed.

“If he (committed the crime), then he needs to pay the price,” she said. “If he didn’t do it, then … we don’t want him going to prison for something he didn’t do.”

Miller’s mother, Courtney, said her son started getting involved with drugs due to his difficult childhood. He “fell in with the wrong crowd,” she said.

“(Alec Miller) had a bit of a rough life growing up in this system,” Courtney Miller said.

As a baby, Miller was present when his father died by suicide, Bryan said.

“He’s seen a lot of dark things that no child should ever see,” Courtney Miller said.

She said her son was in and out of juvenile detention centers since he was 11 years old, following an incident when he was with an older cousin.

Miller continued to be sent back to juvenile detention centers for probation violations, including skipping school or having late attendance.

“I don’t want to make excuses for him, but he’s my nephew,” Bryan said. “He’s my first nephew. I was the first one to hold him. You know, he just has a very, very special place in my heart.”

This story was updated Nov. 20, 2023 to reflect that Trina Holderman said her brother was a victim of circumstance, but did not have substance abuse disorder himself.