ST. MARIES - Plummer resident Angelita Ashby said her ex-boyfriend, 41-year-old Jody A. Miller, tracked her down one night last month.

It was his birthday, and he wanted a half-gallon bottle of booze she had once promised him.

Miller never got the alcohol, but Ashby's new live-in boyfriend, 37-year-old Antowyn D. Swiney, ended up dead on her floor, the victim of multiple stab wounds.

Ashby, who lives in Coeur d'Alene Tribal housing in the south portion of Plummer, testified Monday during Miller's preliminary hearing in 1st District Court in Benewah County.

She said Miller and two other men barged into her home and attacked Swiney. Investigators found a bloody knife handle in her house and the entire six-inch blade broken off inside Swiney's body.

"I didn't know what they were doing to him until I saw the blood," she said through tears.

Miller was bound over to District Court by Magistrate Patrick McFadden. He now will proceed to trial on the charge of first-degree murder.

The two other men, Stephen R. Milton, 22, and Irael S. Kennedy, 21, waived their preliminary hearings and were bound over on first-degree murder charges.

Milton, who testified during Miller's hearing, is likely to accept a plea deal in which he will agree to be sentenced on a much lesser charge of accessory to a felony, said Douglas Payne, Benewah County prosecutor.

None of the evidence presented Monday suggested Milton stabbed Swiney, though he did allegedly kick and punch the victim during the attack.

Ashby said she and Swiney encountered Miller at a Spokane bar as he celebrated his birthday. Swiney had worked as a bouncer at the Spokane bar, Chan's Dragon Inn.

Miller told her he wanted some alcohol, but she refused him.

Swiney told Miller, "This is my woman" now, and the couple left for her place in Plummer.

Some time later the three men showed up there, but she and Swiney were in bed sleeping. Her 13-year-old grandson answered the door and told Miller she was at the casino.

He returned five minutes later, however, and this time Swiney answered the door, according to testimony.

Then Kennedy charged into the house, followed closely by Miller and Milton.

Swiney took a swing at Miller with a bedpost or stick, but it wasn't enough to stop the three men, the boy said.

Ashby's daughter, Anna Morrison, who lives just across the street, testified that she also had been visited by the three men. She testified that she was standing in her mother's driveway talking to Kennedy, an ex-boyfriend, while Miller talked with Swiney at the door.

Just before the three men charged inside, she said, Kennedy allegedly told her to, "Watch this."

She herd a "yelp" from Swiney, who was trying to close the door on them, as they forced their way in.

She followed and watched from the doorway as the men "swung awkwardly," in slashing type motions at Swiney, who was surrounded and backed into a corner inside the home.

She heard another sound from Swiney.

"You could call it a scream, but there must be a different word for it," Morrison said. "Then he fell to his knees," making a gurgling sound.

She said the three men then darted from the house.

On the way out, she said, Miller allegedly said, "'I told her I was going to do this.'"

She said she never saw the men with a knife.

She described the men as intoxicated, and she could smell alcohol. Miller was really sweaty and not speaking clearly, she said.

Ashby's grandson testified he was up late watching TV when the murder occurred.

"I seen Jody stab him," he said.

He also heard Miller, as he fled, allegedly blurt out that he had promised to do this.

The fourth suspect in the case, Miller's wife, Kelly A. Miller, 40, also was bound over to district court on a charge of aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

Witnesses said she was seen driving the three men away from the scene in her car. She also allegedly told the men to destroy their bloody clothes.

Idaho State Police detective Terry Morgan said Miller never denied in interviews his responsibility for Swiney's death. Miller also told investigators he brought a knife from Spokane to Ashby's home, located on the 1400 block of South Eighth Street.

Miller told investigators he traveled from Spokane with the others to Plummer because he wanted to see Ashby and get a bottle of alcohol for his birthday.

Morgan said Miller admitted using the knife on Swiney but only in defense.

"He said he didn't remember where he had stabbed (Swiney)," Morgan said.