Assassination of Candace Miller

The Assassination of Candace Miller was a successful attempt by Shades to silence Candace Miller before she could testify against Mariah Dillard.

Background[]

Following a heated argument between Mariah Dillard and Cottonmouth, Dillard ended up pushing the latter through the window at Harlem's Paradise and beat him to death with a microphone stand in a fit of rage. As Dillard came to her senses, she was horrified by what she had done but Shades showed up at the club, as he was going to kill Cottonmouth himself, and comforted Dillard. He assured Dillard that he will help her out of their situation by framing Luke Cage for the murder. Using Cage's dishwashing gloves, Shades beat Cottonmouth's face some more to leave Cage's DNA on his dead body, so he would be incriminated when the DNA traces would be found. Shades then instructed Dillard to burn all her clothes and jewelry to not erase any traces of Dillard being present at the scene, which was witnessed by Candace Miller.^[4]

Shades then approached Miller and told her that Cage was the one who killed Cottonmouth, offering her $50,000 in exchange for testifying and pointing at him as a murderer. When Cottonmouth's body was found by the New York City Police Department, Miller was taken in for questioning and testified that she saw Cage killing Cottonmouth. Miller lied that she was one of Cottonmouth's lovers and witnessed the murder after they had sex, but Misty Knight found it suspicious. Before Knight could press Miller on her testimony, Benjamin Donovan showed up at 29th Precinct Police Station and presented himself as Miller's lawyer, getting her out of the precinct as she was not under arrest.

Miller later met with Dillard who paid her for the testimony, although Miller felt terrible for going on record as Cottonmouth's woman and was unsure if Cage really did it as Dillard claimed. Shades was certain that Miller will be obedient and would not snitch about the payoff, but was prepared to kill her if it were to happen.^[1] Miller remained silent for a while, but as the situation in Harlem continued to heat up and Miller was among the hostages at Harlem's Paradise, held by Diamondback, Miller told Claire Temple that Dillard paid her off to say that Cottonmouth was killed by Cage.^[5] When Cage rescued her and other hostages, Miller decided to come clean and reached out to Knight, asking her to meet in private, as she was afraid that Dillard and Shades were to find out if she were to go to the police straight away.

Meeting with Knight, Miller confessed that she saw Shades tampering with the crime scene to incriminate Cage and then paid her off to lie. Miller was afraid of going against Dillard and kept her silence but after she could not keep up the lie anymore after Cage saved her, so she promised to testify officially if Knight can protect her. Knight gave Miller a burner phone with her number programmed in and took her to Soledad Temple's apartment. However, they were unaware that Dillard had Alex Wesley to keep tabs on Miller, who later informed Dillard about her meeting with Knight.^[6] Later, during a conflict at Pop's Barber Shop, Shades managed to steal Knight's phone and retreated, after which Knight arrested Dillard for killing Cottonmouth.^[7]

Assassination[]

With Mariah Dillard being taken to the 29th Precinct Police Station, Shades knew that he had to act fast to prevent her from being charged with Cottonmouth's murder. Using Misty Knight's phone that he stole earlier, he texted Candace Miller's burner phone, tricking her into coming to the local bodega for a meeting with Knight. Miller thought that she was contacted by Knight and followed the instructions, waiting on the street for Knight to show up. At that moment, Shades snuck up on her from behind and shot her in the head with Cottonmouth's revolver, before getting away unseen.^[7]

Aftermath[]

Candace Miller's body was discovered by the New York City Police Department, so Donnie Chang reported her death to Misty Knight and Mark Bailey. With Miller dying before she could go on record and testify, Mariah Dillard was released from the custody as without her testimony, as the police had no substantial evidence to charge her with anything.^[7]

In the wake of Miller's death, her brothers Sean and Cole took jobs for Sowande, so they could provide for their mother.^[8] They joined Sowande's crew to clean up after the Hand's operations in New York City, but both of them ended up being killed by the Hand to ensure that nobody finds out about their involvement.^[9]

When Bushmaster showed up in Harlem and ruined Dillard's plans to go legitimate with his war to kill her and bring down the Stokes Crime Family, Dillard went eventually responded by having numerous civilians at Gwen's killed.^[10] Shades confronted Dillard as they had a clear rule of not involving innocent civilians, and although Dillard rebuffed it by saying that he did kill Miller, Shades claimed that she was not innocent since she took their money. Realizing how far Dillard was about to go, Shades decided that she needed to be stopped, so he turned himself in to the police and offered to testify against Dillard in exchange for total immunity.^[11]

Knight sanctioned an official testimony with the United States Department of Justice and Shades confessed about everything, including him killing Miller for snitching on him and Dillard.^[12] With Shades' testimony and the revolver that Miller was killed with obtained, Knight was able to take Dillard into the custody, and Blake Tower built a successful case against her. Dillard's bail was denied and she was taken to Ryker's Island until the trial date was set. However, Dillard was murdered by Tilda Johnson before that, so Shades' deal was null and the police arrested him on the charge of killing Miller and Comanche.^[13]

References[]