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Writer's pictureJasmine Willis

Justice For Nicholas: Mother Fights to Keep Murderer in Prison


Katie Wise loved her son Nicholas Miller more than anything in the world. On Jan. 14, 1995 a monster took him away from her forever. PHOTOS PROVIDED

By Jasmine Willis


COHOCTON — Time is running out for a local mother as she fights to keep the monster in prison who stole her baby from her 25 years ago.


On Jan. 14, 1995 a cold winters night became a nightmare for two-year old Nicholas Miller who was viciously beaten and left for dead on the floor of his father, Randy Miller, girlfriend’s apartment in East Bloomfield. Convicted Child Murderer, Deborah Soule beat the child to the point of perforating his intestines and leaving him in unimaginable agony for over 20 hours. Investigation showed his cause of death was septic shock from the perforated intestines. He also had a fractured skull. She never got him medical care in fear for her own actions and going to jail. She was sentenced to 21 years for the murder of Nicholas Miller in 1996. In the court transcripts the last words ever spoken as Nicholas was dying was “Ooowww” before his suffering was finally over. Ever since Katie Callahan Wise, of Cohocton, Nicholas’s mother, has been fighting to keep the child murderer behind bars. Soule is currently at the Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Falls NY.


The parole hearing for Deborah Soule was scheduled for September 2021 but due to changes beyond Wise’s control it has been changed to Friday, Dec. 18.


Wise is asking anyone to send letters directly to the parole board via electronically to stop Soule from being released from prison. Deborah Soule’s DIN number needed for the letters is 96G0391.The link to the parole board is https://doccs.ny.gov/form/letters-in-support-or-opposition?fbclid=IwAR1GvwGdD5k9wyN_uZ_pNjmWweGOUsd69tNuzCDsR9yu1c3526_uuP5HZ58


Wise created a blog to share Nicholas’s story with the world and her unimaginable grief about what was taken from her over two decades ago.


In this heart wrenching blog you will witness a mother’s fight for justice as she never gives up on her son. She has fought for years in the battle to keep his tormentor in prison and his memory alive.


“On October 19, 1992 I was blessed to become a mother for the first time. At 11:23 pm, after an extremely long and hard labor, I finally got to meet my son Nicholas. At tend pounds, seven ounces, and twenty-two-and-a-half-inches long he was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. His dark hair and blue eyes, I was so in love. I had never felt anything like it before, it was the most powerful thing I had ever experienced. My whole life had changed. There was nothing I loved more than being a mom,” Wise wrote. “Little did I know that 27 short months later all that would come crumbling down around me. What a parent thinks could never happen, happened. It happened to my baby boy. He was brutally beaten by my ex-husband’s girlfriend Deborah Soule and died on Jan. 14, 1995. Fast Forward to 20 years later and the 21 years to life sentence Deborah Soule received doesn’t seem very long at all. I will fight her release with everything I have, and I want the world to know what she did to my son. What a monster she truly is.”


Nick celebrating his birthday with mommy. PHOTO PROVIDED

That was in January 2016 when Wise promised to fight with everything she had. Wise has been fighting ever since. Whenever Soule is up for parole the mother comes in like David facing down Goliath. She proves time and time again there is still some magic left in David’s sling.


Wise never had any real answers to what happened to her son that fatal night. She claims Miller and Soule never gave her the answers she needed. What would drive a grown up to inflict such rage onto a small child? Why would the father allow it to happen? Why does evil exist at all? It does lurk in the shadows and creep up in the least expected places. Nicholas Miller thought he was safe. He was spending the night with his father. That would turn out to be a grave mistake. A mistake that would haunt everyone who loved the bright blue-eyed boy for the rest of their lives.


Nick enjoying one of his favorite toys.

Sue Becker, of Atlanta reached out to this local reporter to share her side of the story. She had known little Nicholas Miller as a loving and sweet baby boy. This tragic night haunts her to this day. Becker has remained close friends with Wise, who has worked tirelessly to bring justice to little Nicholas.


“My last day with Nick I babysat him while Katie took a final at school. He was just beginning to talk a bit more. He told me ‘Sue sit’ when I put him in my favorite rocking chair. He wanted me to snuggle and rock him. So sweet,” she said. “Katie was the best mom. Because of this brutal act, and Deborah Soule’s callous lack of not even getting him medical care we lost him. We do worry about Deborah getting out and going after other loved ones. She (Deborah) took Nick from so many of us who loved him and robbed him of so much.”


Deborah Soule took the life of two-year-old Nicholas Miller on Jan. 14, 1995.

Wise has voiced in her blog that the only comfort she has now is that Soule is locked away behind prison walls.


“If Katie doesn’t win this parole hearing Deborah will be released. If she does win Katie still has to fight all over again in September 2021,” Becker said. “Katie fought and had her parole denied again last September. Deborah has a free team of advocates to work with her to appeal the parole denial. Katie just found out she had only a week to prepare for the parole hearing and try to prevent Deborah from being released. This seems so wrong to me. How can we allow a prisoner to appeal a parole hearing?”


“I have known Nick since he was a baby. I can still remember the site of that tiny casket. It’s never gotten better. As time goes on the loss and pain has gotten worse for so many who knew him and loved him,” Becker continued. “Katie was the love and hugs and snuggles for so many children in those years. My children still adore her. She had a song, I love you lovee…that she made up and would sing to Nick while they were driving. That phrase is on his little headstone at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Wayland. It has a picture of Clownie on it. Clownie and Teddy were his favorite toys.”


The Christmas stocking Katie made her son has been in a trunk for 25 years. This is the first Christmas she has brought it out and hung it up for her boy. PHOTOS PROVIDED

The Christmas Stocking that Wise made for little Nicholas has been in a trunk for 25 years. It was too painful to be taken out. Becker said after all these years Wise has found the strength to take the stocking out of the trunk for this Christmas and hang it up for her sweet boy.


Becker had a son of her own in 1995 and spent the next two decades imagining the same horrors would happen to him. She has been deeply heartbroken by her friend’s pain and suffering.


Wise stated in her blog for those who didn’t know the tragic story of her son.


“Lately I realized people don’t know or remember what happened to Nicholas. For those of you who don’t know his name is Nicholas Christian Miller. He was my blonde haired, blue-eyes baby boy. At only two-years-old, he had the biggest personality, and a smile that could light up the darkest of days. I simply adored him. Thinking about him literally takes my breath away. A mother’s broken heart never mends. Most days it is hard to let myself remember just how he made me feel. It makes my heart ache, not just emotionally but physically as well. I have found that as a parent, each one of our children has a special spot in our hearts, their own little way they make us feel inside. It is a feeling of such indescribable love and joy it is hard to put into words. To have those feelings with no child to hold is a hell no parent should have to live through,” Wise wrote. “Deborah Soule took that all away from me. She ripped Nicholas right out of my arms…and for what? Jealousy? I just couldn’t understand it. I still don’t have any real answers about what happened that night. Randy Miller (Nick’s father) was never forthcoming about it and Deborah was out to save herself. It took years to accept the fact that I am never going to understand what happened to my son that night. For so long I wanted answers from Randy and Deborah but now I know I will never get them.”


Nick enjoying a Christmas with his mommy.

Randy was the highschool sweetheart and the best friend of Wise. He left his wife and son on Father’s Day weekend in 1994. He had an affair with Deborah Soule, the very woman that would turn out to be a child murderer not even a full year later. The devastated single mother rallied to support her son and did everything she could to make him the most loved and happy baby boy. Wise told her ex-husband many times to never leave her son alone with Deborah. When he had visitation with his son, he was meant to be with him at all times.


There were signs early of abuse. Nicholas would have scratches on his cheeks, bruises on his body, and dig marks in his diaper area. When Wise brought him to the emergency room she was treated like the jealous ex-wife. Wise didn’t want to send her son back to his father for visitation rights but was told by social services she would be arrested if she didn’t comply. It was the system that failed to protect this sweet child from the abuse he endured at the hands of a sadistic child abuser and murderer.


“Katie had child protective services go to the house due to the constant abuse. They just told her she was acting like a jealous wife,” Becker said.


Ontario County Sheriffs handled the investigation. Deborah Soule had confessed to police of the murder and initially it was thought he died of a blow to his stomach. It was only at the compassion of the six-year-old daughter of Soule that investigators could piece what

happened. She witnessed what her mother did to Nicholas that fatal night.


This prison sentence never ends for the ones who loved and cherished this sweet blond haired and blue-eyed boy.

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