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Hubby Poisons Wife with Heroin, Breast Milk Proves Murder · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace in the last hours. It's
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Speaker 1: the end of the road for a man accused of
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Speaker 1: murdering his wife with poisoned cerial. I means Grace, this
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Speaker 1: is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories and on Serious XM one eleven. I Meancy Grace,
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Speaker 1: this is crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here
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Speaker 1: at Crime Stories and on Serious XM one eleven. That's right,
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Speaker 1: the murder conviction of a Davison man who murders his
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Speaker 1: wife with poisoned cereal has been up held. You're going
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Speaker 1: to jail and you're staying there. Let me correct myself.
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Speaker 1: You're going to the penitentiary and you're staying there. According
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Speaker 1: to prosecutors, Jason Harris gives his wife, thirty six year
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Speaker 1: old Christina An, a lethal dose of heroine. Now, course,
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Speaker 1: it was first believed that she oded herself, and her
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Speaker 1: friends and sister say she never used drugs a day
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Speaker 1: in her life. So how exactly did Christina die, leaving
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Speaker 1: behind a child still breastfeeding. I'm Nacy Grace, this is
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
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Speaker 1: Fox Station and SiriusXM one eleven. Take a listen. To
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Speaker 1: our friends at crime online dot com.
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Speaker 2: Just after ten am on September twenty ninth, Jason Harris
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Speaker 2: called asking his neighbor to check on his wife. It
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Speaker 2: was the second time he had made that request. The
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Speaker 2: first was just eleven days before. In that instance, Jason
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Speaker 2: Harris asked his neighbor to see if his wife's vehicle
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Speaker 2: was still in the driveway. He was afraid his wife, Christina,
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Speaker 2: had overslept. The neighbor went to a side door but
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Speaker 2: got no answer to her knock. She was able to
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Speaker 2: open the door and call out for Christina, who then
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Speaker 2: answered her. The second time, September twenty ninth, the neighbor
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Speaker 2: again went to the door, which was on locked. Christina
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Speaker 2: Harris was in bed with the covers pulled over her face.
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Speaker 2: The neighbor touched Christina, but there was no response. Thinking
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Speaker 2: Harris was still asleep, she left and called Jason Harris
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Speaker 2: to let him know. Concerned, the neighbor went back and
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Speaker 2: Christina was cold to the touch, stiff, and had phone
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Speaker 2: coming out of her mouth. The neighbor also said Christina
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Speaker 2: had no pulse and wasn't breathing. She called nine to
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Speaker 2: one one and another neighbor who was a registered nurse
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Speaker 2: to help. Christina Harris was dead.
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Speaker 1: This young mom with a little baby, still breastfeeding, dead
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Speaker 1: in her own bed, frothing at the mouth. What happened
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Speaker 1: with me? An all star panel to make sense of
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Speaker 1: what we know now? First of all, Matthew Mangino, former
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Speaker 1: elected district attorney, now private lawyer and author of The
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Speaker 1: Executioners told. Doctor Sherry Schwartz, forensics psychologists joining us specializing
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Speaker 1: in crimes of this nature her book Criminal Behavior and
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Speaker 1: Where Law and Psychology intersect. Justin Borman, former Special Victims
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Speaker 1: Unit Detective West Valley and author of I Was Wrong
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Speaker 1: and Investigators Battle Cry for Change within the SVU. Doctor
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Speaker 1: Michelle Dupree, medical examiner, forensic pathologist, detective and author of
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Speaker 1: Homicide Investigation Field Guide. But first to Karen Drew, special
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Speaker 1: guests joining US TV news anchor investigative reporter with WDVTV NBC.
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Speaker 3: Karen, thank you so much for being with us. Karen.
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Speaker 1: First of all, take a listen to our cut one,
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Speaker 1: who is Christina Harris.
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Speaker 2: Thompson and Jason Harris were married for eleven years, but
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Speaker 2: they had been a couple for five years before that.
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Speaker 2: Six years into the marriage, they welcomed a daughter. Five
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Speaker 2: years later, Daughter number two was born. Christina Harris's family
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Speaker 2: says she loves swimming, crafting, and family game night and
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Speaker 2: being a stay at home mom. She was still breastfeeding
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Speaker 2: and stalking a freezer full of milk for her infant.
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Speaker 2: Little girl was just eight months old when Harris was
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Speaker 2: found dead in their home.
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Speaker 1: I can't even imagine to you, Karen Drew. I remember
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Speaker 1: when I gave birth to the twins, Lucy and I
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Speaker 1: almost died, and it was horrible. We were all in
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Speaker 1: intensive care. The children were in intensive care a really
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Speaker 1: long time. And I remember lying there in the bed thinking,
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Speaker 1: am I going to die? Am I going to watch
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Speaker 1: my children from the other side of life grow up
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Speaker 1: without a mother? And that thought consumed me. And here
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Speaker 1: is this woman, Christina Harris, with this eight month old
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Speaker 1: baby girl, gone, no mother to raise a child. Tell
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Speaker 1: me what happened. What was her toxicology report?
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Speaker 3: Heroin?
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Speaker 4: That is what investigators found Nancy, that there was heroin
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Speaker 4: in her system. And I can tell you I talked
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Speaker 4: with family, I talk with one of her best friends,
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Speaker 4: and they were flabbergasted. They knew her, they knew her well.
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Speaker 4: I mean, ever since she was a young person, when
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Speaker 4: she met Jason as a teenager, her husband, she had
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Speaker 4: always dreamed about being a mom. She always wanted to
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Speaker 4: be this terrific mom. Breastfeeding was so important, healthy food,
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Speaker 4: spending time with the children, and you know, Nancy, the
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Speaker 4: whole bond that you have with breastfeeding a child, that
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Speaker 4: was very, very important to her. She took being a
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Speaker 4: mom very serious. She worked part time at a local
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Speaker 4: subway shop to pick up a few hours just to
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Speaker 4: help ends meet, but her priority was being a mom,
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Speaker 4: being there for her kids and taking care of them
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Speaker 4: the best way she could. And so when family found
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Speaker 4: out that there was heroin in her system, they just
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Speaker 4: simply said, no way, not possible.
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Speaker 3: You know too, daughter, Sherry Schwartz.
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Speaker 1: Family and friends, they always think they know you so well,
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Speaker 1: but if you are addicted to Johns for alcohol, that
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Speaker 1: can make even a nie mom do things she would
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Speaker 1: normally do, things that she would keep secret from family
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Speaker 1: and friends, like drugs and alcohol addiction.
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Speaker 5: Well, that's absolutely right, But when were talking about a
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Speaker 5: drug like heroin, that's kind of a hard one to
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Speaker 5: keep a secret, right, because there's also physical signs, not
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Speaker 5: just the impairment, but you would see possibly track marks
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Speaker 5: right clouded thinking, floud like symptoms, so that would be
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Speaker 5: hard to mask from people who see you frequently.
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Speaker 1: You're right, Heroin is pretty hard to hie to you.
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Speaker 1: Karen Drew joining us WDV TV. Karen, what can you
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Speaker 1: tell us about the day that Christina was found dead?
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Speaker 4: Well, it was a little different kind of a day.
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Speaker 4: Her husband, they lived in a middle to lower class community.
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Speaker 4: He had gone to work with it, went to work
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Speaker 4: a little bit earlier than normal, and she would be
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Speaker 4: at home with the kids. He left, and from what
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Speaker 4: we understand, he was trying to call her later in
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Speaker 4: the morning, you know, around that eight nine o'clock time,
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Speaker 4: and hadn't heard from her, and that seemed a little
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Speaker 4: strange because she would be up by that time with
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Speaker 4: the kids and called a couple of times, didn't hear
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Speaker 4: from her. He became worried, so he called the neighbor
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Speaker 4: that lived right in back of the house, and I
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Speaker 4: had talked to her too, and she said she was
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Speaker 4: She was a little surprising to hear from Jason, her husband,
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Speaker 4: but then he had called her one time before, just
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Speaker 4: kind of making sure that his wife was okay. So
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Speaker 4: he just said, hey, can you just check on Christy
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Speaker 4: and knocked on the door. I've been trying to call her.
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Speaker 4: So then the neighbor went over to the house and
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Speaker 4: as you had said earlier, then found her pretty much
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Speaker 4: lifeless with you know, foam from the mouth in the bed,
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Speaker 4: A very scary situation for her. So then she they
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Speaker 4: called another neighbor who was a registered nurse. She came
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Speaker 4: and at that point she knew Christy was dead. She
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Speaker 4: was lifeless.
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Speaker 6: Toy.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Michelle Dee, a former forensic pathologist, medical examiner and
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Speaker 1: author do to dupre what does that.
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Speaker 3: Mean when you have poae coming out of your lips
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Speaker 3: in death?
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Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, this is typically pulmonary edema, which means that
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Speaker 6: your lungs are filling up with lung with water and fluids.
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Speaker 6: And we often see this in especially two types of death.
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Speaker 6: One is drowning and one is a drug overdose.
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Speaker 1: Now, how does that work? How do you get liquid
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Speaker 1: in your lungs? I understand from drowning because you breathe
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Speaker 1: in the water and then you aspirate it up. But
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Speaker 1: why would you aspirate why would you breathe out liquid
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Speaker 1: foam after a drug overdose.
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Speaker 6: Because in this case, especially with something like heroin, which
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Speaker 6: is a depressant, a central nervous system depressant, your long
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Speaker 6: stone function as they should, and so you're even your
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Speaker 6: saliva and the fluids that you would just normally cough
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Speaker 6: up are going to be retained in your lungs and
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Speaker 6: cause out a day.
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Speaker 1: Right wait, wait, wait, wait right there, right there saliva.
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Speaker 1: Of course you're the MD. I'm just a JD.
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Speaker 3: But why would there be saliva in your lungs? Isn't
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Speaker 3: that in your stomach? I don't get how.
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Speaker 1: Because you take drugs, and you have a drug OD,
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Speaker 1: you get fluid in your lungs.
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Speaker 6: It's in your mouth. Saliva is in your mouth, and
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Speaker 6: you don't really swallow it down your esophagus as you should.
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Speaker 6: Instead it goes down your trachea and into your lungs.
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Speaker 6: In addition the surrounding tissue. The fluids just begin to
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Speaker 6: ease out because your body is not functioning as it should.
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Speaker 6: It's depressed and it isn't working as properly as it would.
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Speaker 1: Okay, See doctor Dupree, You're the reason that the medical
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Speaker 1: examiner and all of the examiner staff would hide when
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Speaker 1: they would see my beat up Toyota coming to the
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Speaker 1: parking lot. See everything you just said. That makes no
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Speaker 1: sense to me at all. Now you said something about
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Speaker 1: and I would have to go through every medical examiner
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Speaker 1: report and their pages and page.
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Speaker 3: Line by lining. What does that mean?
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Speaker 6: Okay?
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Speaker 3: What does that mean? So I heard you.
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Speaker 1: Say, Jackie, did you hear say this that fluid eases out?
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Speaker 3: What fluid eases out? Then you die? I don't understand that.
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Speaker 5: Yes, that what into what our vessels?
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Speaker 6: Our blood vessels are under pressure. Our limph vessels are
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Speaker 6: under pressure because our heart is pumping normally and is
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Speaker 6: pumping strongly. When that heart begins to pump weakly, not
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Speaker 6: as it should, then the pressure that is holding our
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Speaker 6: vessels and all the fluids inside of our vessels together
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Speaker 6: begins to ease. And that's why we have a plural
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Speaker 6: bulmonary edema or plural fusion, things like that when someone
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Speaker 6: is CNS depressed.
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Speaker 1: Okay. The only way I can it can make sense
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Speaker 1: of what you're saying is okay, don't laugh, doctor jip pray,
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Speaker 1: which I know you're laughing right into your fist, is
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Speaker 1: comparing it to gravity as long as yourth keeps spinning
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Speaker 1: you got that gravity in the moment it stops, like
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Speaker 1: the heart stops suddenly, poof, we all just float away.
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Speaker 1: So as soon as the heart stops pumping, that pressure
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Speaker 1: going through the veins and all of the organ stops,
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Speaker 1: and as you said, eases out. And as she's barely
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Speaker 1: still breathing, that fluid that has now accumulated her lungs
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Speaker 1: comes out as froth out of her mouth. Now, let
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Speaker 1: me ask, do you actually asphyxiate on that fraud? I mean,
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Speaker 1: why would you die?
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Speaker 3: Or do you die because your heart stops because the
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Speaker 3: heroine slows it down?
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Speaker 6: You really die because it is a central nervous system
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Speaker 6: depressant and all of your organ functions, your brain.
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Speaker 1: If you just say in your own special way that
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Speaker 1: your heart stops because it's depressed.
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Speaker 6: Yes, it slows down and then it eventually stops, as
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Speaker 6: does your brain.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I think it should be repressed, because depressed seems
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Speaker 1: like the heart is sad.
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Speaker 6: Well, I feel that it is.
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Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is it stops. It slows the
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Speaker 1: heart down so much the heart stops, and that's why
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Speaker 1: you die with an overdose.
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Speaker 6: Yes, your heart and brain stop.
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Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, just as an aside, What about if you're
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Speaker 1: on myth, which speeds you up, how do you ode
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Speaker 1: on myth?
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Speaker 6: Well, on math, because it is a stemil, as you said,
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Speaker 6: it speeds everything up. You can actually speed your heart
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Speaker 6: up so fast that you haven't rhythmia, and that can
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Speaker 6: cause death.
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Jason Harris loses his desperate
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Speaker 1: fight to get out of jail free. It ain't happening, Harris.
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Speaker 1: How did this whole thing unfold? Kieren Drew joining us,
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Speaker 1: Who's been on this from the very very beginning when
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Speaker 1: she heard that Christina's family sisters are one She's never
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Speaker 1: done drugs ever, This isn't true, can't be right. But
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Speaker 1: they check and they rechecked the toxicology and oh yes,
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Speaker 1: she did od on heroin, Kieren Drew joining us. Wd
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Speaker 1: Ivy did they search the home for drug paraphernalia or
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Speaker 1: her heroine stash?
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Speaker 4: From what we understand, Nancy, you know, obviously the home
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Speaker 4: was searched, but I have to tell you that the
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Speaker 4: detective that was there at the time when they obviously
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Speaker 4: everyone responds to the body. Then Jason came home from
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Speaker 4: work obviously distraught. They rushed the body to a hospital,
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Speaker 4: and then after the body was removed. From what we understand,
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Speaker 4: the detective left because they thought it was an overdose case.
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Speaker 4: So there wasn't I mean there from what we understand,
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Speaker 4: there was nothing else found drug related in the home.
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Speaker 4: I don't have the tabulations from from if there was
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Speaker 4: a search warrant that was presented, but everything from what
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Speaker 4: I understand talking with family, talking to detectives, and talking
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Speaker 4: to the pro secutor, there was nothing found in the
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Speaker 4: house that really supported a drug habit a drug paraphernalia,
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Speaker 4: you know. So that was a little bit of a
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Speaker 4: mystery there or did they really even a look, that's
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Speaker 4: you know what, Nancy, that's the question, did they because
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Speaker 4: I have to try to give you that same for
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Speaker 4: for Davison. Davison, Michigan is a small town, and I
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Speaker 4: mean small murder crime, robbery that doesn't happen in Davison.
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Speaker 4: It's just a small town, a small police force, so
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Speaker 4: that's not really on your radar when something happens. There's
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Speaker 4: not a lot of detectives that are are searching for clues.
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Speaker 4: There's just not a lot of experience. And so that
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Speaker 4: that's been brought up too. Was there something did they
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Speaker 4: miss something, Did they do a search? Was it complete?
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Speaker 4: Because it just was a place that you know, there
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Speaker 4: isn't a whole lot of crime, not a lot of
14:54
Speaker 4: a lot of police experience, and that that has been
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Speaker 4: really examined a lot in this case.
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Speaker 3: And really, you know, go ahead, jump in.
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Speaker 6: So you know, another really good method in this case
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Speaker 6: of forensic methods. We can analyze the hair to determine
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Speaker 6: if it has been long term heroin use. That can
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Speaker 6: tell her a real story.
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Speaker 1: I did not know that that you could actually tell
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Speaker 1: in the hair, which grows, of course from the root.
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Speaker 1: A lot of people think your hair grows from the tip.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't. And in your hair as it grows out,
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Speaker 1: it could be tested to see what you had ingested
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Speaker 1: drug wise a week, two weeks, a month, even longer
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Speaker 1: before that is so smart, doctor Dupree, listen to this.
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Speaker 2: Christina Harris's cause of death was initially ruled an accident
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Speaker 2: by the Medical Examiner's office after a blood sample tested
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Speaker 2: positive for opiates, but her family was adamant Christina did
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Speaker 2: not use drugs. The family even insisted police officers test
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Speaker 2: her frozen breast milk to prove it. Remember, Harris was
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Speaker 2: still breastfeeding and ate month old. Friends and families said
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Speaker 2: Harris was very careful about what she put into her body.
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Speaker 3: Plus she was supposed to go.
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Speaker 2: To an obgyn employment in the morning she was found,
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Speaker 2: you know, to Karen Drew.
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Speaker 1: Joining us w d IV TV, I find it very
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Speaker 1: odd that she would actually take heroin just before she
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Speaker 1: was going to the obgyn.
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Speaker 4: Right, I agree, that seems a little strange if you
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Speaker 4: know you're going to the doctor's office. I mean, we
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Speaker 4: all knew how serious of a mom she was in
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Speaker 4: terms of she was really everything family told me, you know,
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Speaker 4: cared about the kids and making sure the sockets in
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Speaker 4: the wall were plugged, and getting healthy food and doing
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Speaker 4: all of this. So it seems strange if she was
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Speaker 4: doing heroin that she would even be breastfeeding then, or
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Speaker 4: if she was doing heroin she was going to go
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Speaker 4: to the doctor the same day. So let me ask
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Speaker 4: you a.
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Speaker 3: Question your set.
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Speaker 1: I keep hearing that the family became upset. They insisted
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Speaker 1: she had never used drugs. Who in the family was upset.
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Speaker 4: The mother was very upset, and she had two sisters,
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Speaker 4: and I will tell you those sisters we are a
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Speaker 4: fourth I mean, they really, really really were strong on this,
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Speaker 4: and really Patricia and Katrina just were very vehement. They said,
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Speaker 4: there's just no way I know her. We spend you know,
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Speaker 4: we do birthday parties together, we do we have coffee
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Speaker 4: together in the morning. I mean, it wasn't just like
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Speaker 4: we just visit on the weekends. They saw each other
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Speaker 4: and talk to each other almost every single day. So
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Speaker 4: they just they felt they really knew their sisters.
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Speaker 1: And I guess the police were saying, yeah, we hear you,
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Speaker 1: we hear you. But the blood tests show it was
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Speaker 1: oh day heroin, take a.
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Speaker 7: Listen to our cut Jay Davis and police didn't consider
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Speaker 7: the mother of two's death a murder, that is until
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Speaker 7: Christie's sisters started nosing around.
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Speaker 5: And I'm not a detective, but I mean I looked
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Speaker 5: up more than I've ever looked up before.
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Speaker 3: Their first concern how the crime scene was handled.
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Speaker 7: The day their sister's body was found inside her Davison home. Remember,
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Speaker 7: her death was deemed an accidental drug overdose.
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Speaker 8: As soon as my sister's body left the house and
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Speaker 8: the officer left when she.
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Speaker 7: Left, then there is their sister's breast milk. The family
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Speaker 7: kept telling police to check Christie's milk. It would show
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Speaker 7: she was not doing drugs. No tens were run crime
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Speaker 7: stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 1: In the last hours, Jason Harris, lying, scheming, conniving husband
18:40
Speaker 1: realizes his fight to get out of jail is over
18:45
Speaker 1: and he lost. Now at trial, he tells investigators he
18:51
Speaker 1: serves his wife a bull of cereal on the evening
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Speaker 1: of September twenty eight, and that she had difficulty even
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Speaker 1: holding on to her spoon. He's trying to make it
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Speaker 1: look like a drug addict. She wasn't. He said he
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Speaker 1: had to help her get into bed and they both
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Speaker 1: went to sleep. The next morning, she was still asleep
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Speaker 1: and he left to work. He took the children, and
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Speaker 1: he took the children with him, he claims. When she
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Speaker 1: did not respond to his texts, he asked a neighbor
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Speaker 1: to check on her. The neighbor discovered her coal to
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Speaker 1: the touch and unresponsive. At first, investigators believed it was
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Speaker 1: an accidental overdose on her part, but her family refused
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Speaker 1: to believe that and begged police to dig deeper. Let's
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Speaker 1: talk about breast milk, all right? To doctor Michelle Dupree,
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Speaker 1: former forensic pathologists, medical examiner, and author of homicide Investigation
19:47
Speaker 1: field guide. What will breast milk show? Probatively speaking, like,
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Speaker 1: what can it prove?
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Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, it can actually prove that there was in
19:58
Speaker 6: this case, heroin in the mother because it is then
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Speaker 6: in the mother's milk. It also passes along basic antibiotics
20:06
Speaker 6: and things like that.
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Speaker 1: So basically, whatever you drink or eat will be passed
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Speaker 1: to your baby through your breast milk.
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Speaker 6: Yes, exactly.
20:16
Speaker 3: Huh.
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Speaker 1: I mean I've heard cases where mom would have Mexican
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Speaker 1: food and then breastfeed and the baby would get a
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Speaker 1: six stomach in burt and carry on because it's getting
20:26
Speaker 1: the after effects of spicy food exactly, And that's real.
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Speaker 6: Yes, it is real. And the same thing with alcohol
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Speaker 6: or drug in this case.
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Speaker 1: Blessing you whoever that was justin Borman. Let me go
20:37
Speaker 1: to you, former Special Victims Unit detective and author. Why
20:42
Speaker 1: would the police be so resistant to the sister saying
20:47
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with that toxicology?
20:49
Speaker 3: Get her breast milk, it's in the freezer.
20:53
Speaker 9: Well, we seem to as a profession sometimes get stuck
20:56
Speaker 9: in our stylos and not look quite out of them,
21:01
Speaker 9: if you will, or ask questions as a profession we
21:05
Speaker 9: are responding to overdose after overdose after overdose, and when
21:11
Speaker 9: we respond on a body and we see the foam
21:14
Speaker 9: cone is what we're calling it. If you will, we go, okay, well,
21:19
Speaker 9: it looks like an opioid overdose. And one of my
21:24
Speaker 9: questions for doctor dupri was, we keep calling this heroin
21:28
Speaker 9: and this is something that's that's that's fine. I don't
21:31
Speaker 9: know if it was exactly heroin, but what heroin and
21:35
Speaker 9: an opioid like oxycotton show up in the testing as
21:41
Speaker 9: the same like an opioid. Are we assuming it was heroin?
21:44
Speaker 3: That's right about it? Show up is the same if
21:47
Speaker 3: it's heroin versus oxy.
21:49
Speaker 6: It's going to show up as as metabolites probably of
21:52
Speaker 6: whatever the original drug was. There may be some native
21:56
Speaker 6: drug as well, and that's one of the things we
21:57
Speaker 6: do is we compare the metabolites to the native drug
22:00
Speaker 6: to determine how long that has been in the system.
22:03
Speaker 3: What did she say? Okay, let me dumbing down my question.
22:06
Speaker 1: Okay, if she had taken oxy oxy contin, for instance,
22:10
Speaker 1: oxy codone, would it show up in the toxicology to
22:14
Speaker 1: test the same way heroine would That's a yes, no,
22:17
Speaker 1: Doctor Dupree.
22:18
Speaker 6: Essentially yes, I mean, you would not do it in
22:21
Speaker 6: one world.
22:22
Speaker 3: I didn't know what the other word was gonna be.
22:24
Speaker 3: Now I know is essentially okay, So there's no answer question,
22:28
Speaker 3: you know what I think here and Drew.
22:30
Speaker 1: Wd IV, I think that many times cops discount what
22:35
Speaker 1: women tell them.
22:36
Speaker 3: Women witnesses me, I.
22:39
Speaker 1: Hear somebody growing grown all you want to don't care.
22:43
Speaker 1: I think that the cops went of, the sisters are
22:46
Speaker 1: calling again, who's going to take Have you ever seen
22:48
Speaker 1: home alone?
22:49
Speaker 3: When he the mom is calling from Paris?
22:52
Speaker 1: And they go, it's the mom again, you take it,
22:55
Speaker 1: same thing, it's the sisters again.
22:57
Speaker 3: Ah, she's a heroine. Why do they keep calling me?
23:02
Speaker 3: You know that's what happened, Karen Drew.
23:04
Speaker 4: I've seen it in the stories I've covered. I mean,
23:06
Speaker 4: I mean there's many times that there's the eyes roll
23:09
Speaker 4: back and say, okay, whatever, and come on, it's the sisters.
23:12
Speaker 7: What family really Very rarely, unless it's a very well
23:16
Speaker 7: known drug addiction, does family know about it. Many times
23:19
Speaker 7: family is surprised and family says, this isn't true, this
23:22
Speaker 7: couldn't be.
23:23
Speaker 4: So it's no surprise they said that. And you're right
23:25
Speaker 4: with the with the way the body reacted. You know,
23:28
Speaker 4: the authorities are thinking one way.
23:30
Speaker 7: But but but I have to say, Nancy, they have
23:33
Speaker 7: this breast milk that they said they had, and they're like,
23:36
Speaker 7: I felt like that that kind of opens the door
23:39
Speaker 7: to like could we check it?
23:40
Speaker 4: Could we check it? And but they like these these filters,
23:44
Speaker 4: they don't.
23:44
Speaker 3: To check it. But no, they wouldn't check it.
23:48
Speaker 9: Our stubborn personal biases are one of those reasons, those
23:52
Speaker 9: male biases, if you will.
23:55
Speaker 3: But I think he's admitting.
23:57
Speaker 1: I've got two guys on the panel, Justin Boorman and
24:00
Speaker 1: Matthew Mangina, who's confessing to mail bias Justinas.
24:05
Speaker 3: Then everything went quite quickly.
24:08
Speaker 4: Yeah.
24:09
Speaker 1: So you've got the sisters just riding the police like
24:13
Speaker 1: a mule, insisting they're all wrong, begging them to test
24:17
Speaker 1: the breast milk.
24:18
Speaker 3: They won't do it. But wait, wait, wait, now, listen
24:23
Speaker 3: to this. Take a listen to hour cut for from
24:24
Speaker 3: Crime Online.
24:26
Speaker 2: Sheila Coop told police that on one occasion, she saw
24:28
Speaker 2: Christy Harris run out of her home, visibly upset, sobbing.
24:32
Speaker 2: Harris told her that Jason Harris was cheating and her
24:36
Speaker 2: newborn was just two weeks old. Other family and friends
24:39
Speaker 2: also thought Jason Harris was seeing other femin Nearly five
24:43
Speaker 2: nine hundred texts were found to a woman from Providence,
24:46
Speaker 2: Rhode Island. There were also emails and pictures sent to
24:50
Speaker 2: several other women. Nine days after Christina died, Jason Harris
24:54
Speaker 2: bought a plane ticket to go visit the woman in Providence.
24:57
Speaker 2: Not long after that, a woman and her daughter moved
25:00
Speaker 2: in with Jason Harris in the home where Christina had died.
25:04
Speaker 1: What more will it take to put a fire under
25:07
Speaker 1: the rear ends of the police. A woman moves into
25:10
Speaker 1: the home right after Christina dies, that brings her daughter too.
25:15
Speaker 3: They didn't know that, Karen Drew.
25:17
Speaker 4: Oh, folks knew that, Nancy. I mean again, this is
25:19
Speaker 4: a small town. People know what's going on. And she
25:23
Speaker 4: moved in and the kids are in the house, and
25:26
Speaker 4: it just seems strange, no matter what, like what's going on.
25:29
Speaker 7: So, yes, lots of people were I talked to two
25:32
Speaker 7: of the neighbors and they were very upset.
25:35
Speaker 4: It seemed very strange. The sisters were mad. They didn't
25:38
Speaker 4: know what was going on. But you know, it's not
25:40
Speaker 4: illegal to move someone into your house, so you know,
25:44
Speaker 4: there was no action from police.
25:46
Speaker 1: It took two years, two years after the heroine overdose,
25:55
Speaker 1: before anybody finally got around to testing that breastmel Now
26:01
Speaker 1: you know another woman has moved into the home with
26:04
Speaker 1: her children, So I doubt very seriously that the new
26:09
Speaker 1: girlfriend would keep the ex wife's breast milk in the freezer.
26:14
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, take a listen to our cut f Wdiv.
26:20
Speaker 7: Two years after the medical examiner ruled her death an
26:23
Speaker 7: accidental overdose, a key piece of evidence was found at
26:27
Speaker 7: her parents' house.
26:28
Speaker 10: Police were able to secure three plastic packages of Christina
26:33
Speaker 10: Harris's frozen breast milk that were placed in a cooler.
26:38
Speaker 10: All three of those were submitted to the Michigan State
26:41
Speaker 10: Police crime lab. In each instance, no controlled substance was detected.
26:49
Speaker 1: So then how did heroin get into her system? Take
26:56
Speaker 1: a listen to more from Michigan State Police.
26:59
Speaker 10: You believe Jason Harris murdered his wife. We believe he
27:07
Speaker 10: put heroin into her cereal and milk the night that
27:11
Speaker 10: she died.
27:12
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to our cut c Stephanie Park
27:16
Speaker 1: NBC twenty five.
27:17
Speaker 8: One of his co workers actually claims that Jason Harris
27:20
Speaker 8: first tried to hire him to kill his wife, but
27:23
Speaker 8: that coworker said no. In court today, this man said
27:26
Speaker 8: he thought that this was all just set out of frustration.
27:28
Speaker 8: That was until he found out Christina, who had just
27:30
Speaker 8: had a baby, was found dead at the home she
27:33
Speaker 8: shared with Jason Harris.
27:34
Speaker 11: He had asked me if I would do it, and
27:37
Speaker 11: he told me he would be able to pay me
27:40
Speaker 11: out of a life insurance policy she had.
27:42
Speaker 8: That shocking question came from Zachariah Shustock's boss. Jason Harris
27:47
Speaker 8: was his supervisor at work at the time. Shoestock thought
27:50
Speaker 8: it was just Jason venting, but the odd questions continued.
27:54
Speaker 7: I knew of anything that would put her.
27:56
Speaker 3: To sleep, Shoestock says. Jason kept asking.
27:58
Speaker 11: For pills, me if I knew of any that were tasteless,
28:03
Speaker 11: or that she would not know of being put inside
28:06
Speaker 11: something she was going to eat or drink.
28:08
Speaker 8: She was talking to Jason was struggling in his marriage
28:10
Speaker 8: because he would complain a lot to him.
28:12
Speaker 11: He was just saying that Christina wasn't wanting to go
28:14
Speaker 11: back to work, that he believed the child they had
28:19
Speaker 11: wasn't his, and that she was just laying around the
28:22
Speaker 11: house not doing anything, and he was just getting tired
28:24
Speaker 11: of it.
28:25
Speaker 1: That's right, Jason Harris, it's over. You poisoned your wife,
28:29
Speaker 1: the mother of your children, with an o D of
28:33
Speaker 1: drugs in her cereal. She died. You dance to the music,
28:38
Speaker 1: and now it's time to pay the piper, Jason Harris.
28:42
Speaker 1: Can't you imagine this guy thinks he's smarter than everybody
28:45
Speaker 1: in the room, poisons his wife, the mother of his children,
28:49
Speaker 1: in her cereal, then schemes asking the neighbor to discover
28:54
Speaker 1: her dead body. Can't you imagine him behind bars since
28:58
Speaker 1: his original conviction, swishing his tail and gnashing his teeth,
29:03
Speaker 1: trying to think of any way out. There is no
29:06
Speaker 1: way out except for you to do your time. What
29:09
Speaker 1: did we know about what unfolded?
29:12
Speaker 3: Six thousand text messages to other women?
29:15
Speaker 1: Wants to have his wife killed because she's laying around
29:18
Speaker 1: the house and won't go back to work. Is this
29:20
Speaker 1: her second child? She's still breastfeeding? Who is this guy?
29:24
Speaker 12: You know?
29:25
Speaker 4: Nobody can figure him out? He really is? I mean,
29:28
Speaker 4: she is this loving, doting mother. She's breastfeeding. He's I'm
29:36
Speaker 4: a law back cast.
29:37
Speaker 3: That's a technical legal term.
29:39
Speaker 1: A complete horses rear end and another thing.
29:43
Speaker 3: Let's get off him for a moment. Let me hop
29:45
Speaker 3: back on the police.
29:47
Speaker 1: Two years past, time passes, So Matthew Mangino joining me,
29:53
Speaker 1: former elected DA Lawrence County, now private attorney and author
29:56
Speaker 1: of the Executioner's Tool. Matthew, it took a civil lawsuit,
30:02
Speaker 1: statal limitations running ending before the place got off their
30:07
Speaker 1: ear ends.
30:08
Speaker 3: What happened, Matthew explain it now.
30:11
Speaker 12: Really, it's a clever way to gather evidence in escape.
30:16
Speaker 12: The suit was filed, and I'm sure through discovery they
30:22
Speaker 12: were able to obtain information about people that he was
30:27
Speaker 12: communicating with, other women, you know, emails, all this sort
30:31
Speaker 12: of thing that would help them begin to build a case,
30:36
Speaker 12: you know, circumstantially, you know, here's a mode of here's
30:41
Speaker 12: a reason why he would want to kill his wife.
30:45
Speaker 12: And then you know, some of these other pieces began
30:47
Speaker 12: to come together as the state police got involved in
30:51
Speaker 12: this investigation, and they they very you know, fundamentally built
30:58
Speaker 12: a case based on information that they were able to
31:02
Speaker 12: obtain from the defendant in a civil laws It's a
31:06
Speaker 12: clever maneuver.
31:08
Speaker 3: And I heard you.
31:09
Speaker 1: Say a reason to kill her, So I guess you're
31:11
Speaker 1: saying that the wife laying around and that's with air
31:15
Speaker 1: quotes after giving birth was a reason for a murder. Okay,
31:20
Speaker 1: before I tear you to shreds on that, Matthew Mangino,
31:23
Speaker 1: here's a good comparison. Who can forget the oj Simpson
31:27
Speaker 1: murder trial. Remember how much more we found out in
31:31
Speaker 1: the civil case. How that was his Bruno Molly footprint
31:36
Speaker 1: at the crime scene in blood, How he failed his
31:39
Speaker 1: polygraph with another I think a negative forty something. Just
31:42
Speaker 1: so much more came out in the civil case than
31:45
Speaker 1: we learned in the criminal case. That's exactly what happened here,
31:50
Speaker 1: but in.
31:51
Speaker 12: The reverse order, Nancy, because.
31:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Simpson trial criminally first.
31:56
Speaker 12: Right, they come after a criminal case because there's a conviction.
32:01
Speaker 12: It's much easier to prove what you have to The
32:04
Speaker 12: burden of proof is much less in the civil case.
32:06
Speaker 12: But here we have it used and that's why I
32:09
Speaker 12: say it's clever. They used it in a different way.
32:11
Speaker 12: They used it to accumulate evidence. Yeah, prosecute a criminal kit.
32:15
Speaker 1: They did take a Listen to our cut g our
32:18
Speaker 1: friend Karen jwd iv on that civil lawsuit.
32:23
Speaker 7: Christie's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, so Jason was
32:27
Speaker 7: deposed under oath. Let's start with another woman he admitted
32:32
Speaker 7: being in contact with during his marriage to Christy.
32:35
Speaker 3: You sent sexual messages to her, yes, And you disclosed
32:39
Speaker 3: this at some.
32:39
Speaker 9: Point to your wife.
32:40
Speaker 6: Yes.
32:41
Speaker 7: When did you disclose it to Christy?
32:43
Speaker 3: As soon as she asked about him?
32:45
Speaker 13: And he asked what the number was, and I told her.
32:47
Speaker 7: Harris also admitted what he said about divorcing Christie.
32:51
Speaker 13: I think it came up as an option for.
32:57
Speaker 3: The whole therea of living in a perfect world.
33:00
Speaker 7: He was questioned about money problems in his marriage, what
33:03
Speaker 7: was the reason.
33:04
Speaker 13: For filing bankruptcy because we were well over our head?
33:07
Speaker 7: And then asked about hiring a hitman to kill his wife.
33:11
Speaker 9: Did you ever request that mister Shustock kill your wife?
33:16
Speaker 7: No?
33:18
Speaker 9: And if he said that you did, he's either lying
33:23
Speaker 9: or mistaken.
33:23
Speaker 11: No, he'd be lying.
33:25
Speaker 12: Oh.
33:25
Speaker 1: I love it when the Phinnans do that. Everybody's lying
33:28
Speaker 1: but them. They're the only person telling the truth.
33:31
Speaker 3: Take a listener. More from Kieren jwdv R cut H.
33:34
Speaker 7: The forty four year old father also talked about what
33:37
Speaker 7: happened inside his Davison home while the couple's two children
33:41
Speaker 7: slept the night before his wife died. When you went
33:45
Speaker 7: to bed that night, you were concerned that anything was wrong.
33:48
Speaker 6: Did you notice anything.
33:48
Speaker 13: Out of the ordinary either than her fall asleep when pumping,
33:55
Speaker 13: She got hungry and made her up a bowl of cereal,
33:58
Speaker 13: so what she asked for?
34:00
Speaker 7: Harris left early for work the next day.
34:02
Speaker 5: And when you left, she was a lot.
34:04
Speaker 6: Correct.
34:05
Speaker 7: A neighbor then found his wife dead in her bed
34:08
Speaker 7: after Jason called that neighbor asking her to check on Christy.
34:12
Speaker 7: At that time, Christy's death was ruled an accidental overdose.
34:16
Speaker 7: You had nothing to do with your wife's doth right, correct? Right?
34:20
Speaker 1: Okay, So Kieren dre joining me w d IV TV
34:23
Speaker 1: investigative reporter. So the working theory is that he put
34:29
Speaker 1: heroin in her cereal he made her the night before.
34:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is that was the theory that was going
34:36
Speaker 4: you know, That's what the prosecutor believed. And there was
34:39
Speaker 4: some digging from the sisters as they were trying to
34:42
Speaker 4: get that information from the civil lawsuit, because they were
34:44
Speaker 4: knocking on doors and talking talking to neighbors and talking
34:47
Speaker 4: to co workers, and there was some word out on
34:49
Speaker 4: the street, that he was unhappy in his marriage, and
34:52
Speaker 4: he was talking to some folks who were known to
34:56
Speaker 4: deal drugs and things like that. So that was kind
34:59
Speaker 4: of the pieces that they were trying to put together
35:01
Speaker 4: that they thought he put. He literally put heroin in
35:04
Speaker 4: her cereal.
35:06
Speaker 1: So is it true that he would proposition people at
35:09
Speaker 1: work to be a hit man?
35:11
Speaker 4: Can you believe that? I mean, we always talk about
35:13
Speaker 4: dumb criminals, but I mean that that was the case.
35:15
Speaker 4: They had two individuals from his work take the stand
35:19
Speaker 4: and talk about how he one complained about his wife,
35:22
Speaker 4: and then a second one he was looking for a hitman,
35:25
Speaker 4: and then a third he was trying to get drugs.
35:28
Speaker 4: And there was some situation where he did some I
35:33
Speaker 4: think was a clonnapin or some type of drug that
35:36
Speaker 4: he did. Initially tried, there was a weird taste she
35:38
Speaker 4: was eating. It was a weird taste, so she didn't
35:40
Speaker 4: finish whatever he tried the first time. And then when
35:43
Speaker 4: he went back and talked to the guy at work,
35:46
Speaker 4: there was just even this guy was like, this guy's
35:48
Speaker 4: a little crazy.
35:49
Speaker 12: I don't want anything to do with him right now.
35:51
Speaker 4: So he stopped helping him out with his plot.
35:55
Speaker 1: What's amazing to me is the co workers just never
35:58
Speaker 1: said anything. I got a guy trying to hire a hitman,
36:02
Speaker 1: and isn't it true that he bragged he hired another
36:05
Speaker 1: hitman for five thousand dollars and the hit man was
36:09
Speaker 1: doing surveillance and got caught with a gun and sent
36:13
Speaker 1: back to jail because he was on parole, and he
36:15
Speaker 1: bragged about that at work.
36:16
Speaker 4: Yes, hire's a hit man. Guy gets busted with a
36:19
Speaker 4: gun right there. Now, we got it and feel free
36:22
Speaker 4: from the police. Sand I got to be like, Okay,
36:25
Speaker 4: what's going on here? I mean, we've got so much
36:27
Speaker 4: stuff going on. Clearly somebody is trying to do something
36:32
Speaker 4: to their wife. I mean, you had to interview that guy.
36:34
Speaker 4: But I don't get it.
36:36
Speaker 1: I don't get it, and I want to go straight
36:38
Speaker 1: out to our shrink joining us. And I say that
36:41
Speaker 1: in a loving, caring way, Doctor Sherry Schwartz, Doctor Sherry,
36:45
Speaker 1: people just sit by and listen to a guy solictening
36:49
Speaker 1: for a hitman to kill his wife, and they do nothing,
36:51
Speaker 1: and then she pops up dead and they still do nothing.
36:54
Speaker 5: Well, we know that this happens more frequently than we
36:58
Speaker 5: care to talk about. A lot of times, you know,
37:01
Speaker 5: people think, oh, this guy's just crazy, he's not really
37:04
Speaker 5: going to do it. He's not serious, he's just talking nonsense.
37:06
Speaker 5: And then you have the other guy who's giving away
37:09
Speaker 5: or selling klonopin. That's somebody who's highly unlikely to go
37:14
Speaker 5: to the police, right because they're engaging in criminal behavior.
37:18
Speaker 5: They don't want to be detected.
37:20
Speaker 7: Where did he work, Karen Dray, You know, I don't
37:23
Speaker 7: remember the name of the facility, but it was like
37:26
Speaker 7: a it was kind of like a manufacturing factory kind
37:29
Speaker 7: of environment.
37:31
Speaker 1: Okay, in case you're wondering whether he got away with it,
37:35
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut b our friend, Karen
37:38
Speaker 1: Drew wd Ivy.
37:40
Speaker 14: The jury didn't believe your lies, and now on we're
37:42
Speaker 14: finally exposed for the selfish, murdering, lying monster.
37:45
Speaker 3: That you are.
37:46
Speaker 7: Judge David Nublant did not hold back on what he
37:49
Speaker 7: thought about Jason Harris and his plot to kill his wife,
37:53
Speaker 7: Christy Thompson Harris and cash in on her one hundred
37:56
Speaker 7: and thirty thousand dollars life insurance.
37:58
Speaker 14: What you wanted, all the stuff you sacrificed your daughters, right,
38:04
Speaker 14: you took away their mother. That's the first thing you did,
38:07
Speaker 14: you took away their mother.
38:09
Speaker 7: Forty seven year old Harris was found guilty of a
38:11
Speaker 7: murder plot that involved Harris lacing his wife, Cereal, with heroin,
38:15
Speaker 7: causing her death. Christy was a mother of two. There
38:19
Speaker 7: was a breast milk that would prove she was not
38:21
Speaker 7: doing drugs and was poisoned by her own husband.
38:25
Speaker 1: To Karen Drew Special Guests joining us wd IV TV,
38:29
Speaker 1: where is this poc another technical legal term.
38:34
Speaker 3: Jason Harris now, oh, he's behind bars, sentenced to life
38:38
Speaker 3: in prison. Can only hug that he stays there.
38:43
Speaker 4: I can't even put into words. I've covered a lot
38:45
Speaker 4: of court cases, and as a reporter.
38:47
Speaker 7: You normally you sound from you know, when somebody takes
38:51
Speaker 7: the stand and.
38:51
Speaker 4: Talks about that judge. I had never heard of judge
38:55
Speaker 4: go off on an individual more than this judge. And
38:58
Speaker 4: he summed it up. You wanted all the stuff. You
39:01
Speaker 4: wanted her one hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy, You
39:06
Speaker 4: wanted to buy a car with that, You want to
39:09
Speaker 4: do have an affair. You just wanted some stuff, and
39:12
Speaker 4: then you left your two kids without a mom. The
39:15
Speaker 4: twelve year old one of the children is twelve right now.
39:18
Speaker 4: They read her statement in court. It was chilling. I
39:21
Speaker 4: mean she basically said, Dad, you lied to me, you
39:24
Speaker 4: killed my mom, and the children don't want anything to
39:28
Speaker 4: do with him.
39:29
Speaker 1: All I can say is, Jason Harris wrought in hell,
39:32
Speaker 1: of course, and your conviction for murdering your wife, the
39:36
Speaker 1: mother of your children, with poison cereal, is affirmed. You're
39:42
Speaker 1: staying behind bars. This is a victory for Christina Ann
39:48
Speaker 1: Thompson's family, but she can never be replaced. Her children
39:53
Speaker 1: won't grow up without their mother. It's a small victory,
39:57
Speaker 1: but yet a victory. Indeed, good bye, everybody,