In the spring of 2021, a tragedy unfolded in an apartment in Portland, Oregon's Old Town neighborhood, forever altering the lives of two men. On the afternoon of April 10th, police were called to a residence on Northwest 2nd Avenue to conduct a death investigation. Inside, they discovered the body of 41-year-old Edward T. Grant, a Black/African American male.
The initial assessment by officers at the scene suggested that his death was not of natural causes, prompting the involvement of homicide detectives.
The subsequent investigation by the medical examiner would confirm the officers' suspicions, ruling Grant's death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. As detectives delved into the circumstances surrounding Grant's death, a suspect was quickly identified and detained. This individual was 30-year-old Anthony Maurice Millner. Millner was formally charged with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon in connection with Grant's death.
As the legal process began, Millner initially put forth a claim of self-defense. However, as the investigation progressed, his account of the events that transpired in the apartment began to unravel, revealing inconsistencies. Eventually, Millner admitted to a violent confrontation, stating that he had repeatedly struck Grant in the head with both a hitch and a vacuum cleaner, inflicting the fatal injuries.
In a resolution to the case, Anthony Maurice Millner pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. On January 31, 2024, a Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge sentenced Millner to 16 years in prison for his role in Edward Grant's death, bringing a close to the legal proceedings and holding him accountable for the violent end to a man's life.
