No charges for elderly homeowner who fatally shot burglar

Gus Adams, 26, and Andrea Miller, 28, broke into a man's home in Long Beach, police say. Miller, who had claimed she was pregnant but was not, was fatally shot by the homeowner, who won't face any charges.

Jan. 26, 2015 9:05 PM PT

No charges will be filed against an 80-year-old man who fatally shot a woman who was burglarizing his Long Beach home, prosecutors said Monday.

On July 22, Thomas Greer fired two bullets into the back of Andrea Miller, 28, even after she begged him not to shoot and claimed she was pregnant.

Prosecutors say Miller and her suspected accomplice, 26-year-old Gus Adams, had assaulted Greer before prying open a safe and stealing $5,000.

Greer, who was robbed on two other occasions, “held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury,” wrote Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore, explaining the office’s decision not to charge him.

“Greer exercised his legal and legitimate right of self-defense when he shot and killed Andrea Miller,” Moore wrote.

Authorities claim Ruby Adams served as a lookout while her son, Gus, and Miller allegedly broke into Greer’s home in the 3900 block of Country Club Drive.

Greer picked up a gun from his bedroom and fired at the pair as they fled from his home office, prosecutors said. After Miller was struck, she fell once near his garage, then fell again in an alley near the home.

Greer dragged Miller’s body into his garage in an attempt to lure her accomplice, authorities said. Once Gus Adams returned, prosecutors allege he stole Greer’s gun and phone before hopping into a getaway car driven by his mother.

Gus Adams was charged with five felony counts in connection to the Bixby Knolls break-in: murder, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, and first-degree robbery and burglary.

His mother was charged with first-degree residential burglary and first-degree residential robbery.

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