Thanks in large part to a breast milk sample, a 47-year-old Michigan man has been convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and other charges in the killing of his wife who ate a bowl of cereal he had laced with heroin.
“The circumstances of this case make for a unique story and garner headlines in the media, but at the core of it, a family is mourning the loss of their loved one, and I can only hope that today’s verdict will help them with closure as they continue to grieve and they can feel some sense of comfort in knowing that justice under the law has been served,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in a tweeted statement on Wednesday.
Jason Harris was found guilty on Wednesday of all counts in the 2014 killing of his wife Christina Ann-Thompson Harris, as first reported by WDIV Local 4. As noted during the trial, Harris told investigators his wife had been in the middle of eating a bowl of cereal when she started struggling to hold a utensil. From there, Harris said, he assisted her in getting to bed and left her there the following morning when he went to work.
Eventually, Harris requested that a neighbor check in on his wife when she failed to respond to texts or calls, with another neighbor ultimately placing a 911 call after she was determined to be unresponsive. At first, the death was formally ruled as an accidental overdose. Within days, however, family informed police that such an explanation didn’t track with Christina’s lifestyle. By 2019, the death had been reassessed and instead determined to have been a homicide.
During the ensuing investigation, a sample of breast milk—which had been frozen by Christina for her child—tested negative for the presence of controlled substances. Also pointed out during the trial was that another woman had moved into the home just two weeks after the death of his wife, as well as statements from Harris’ own family revealing that he had spoken previously about “getting rid of” his wife. Thanks to his wife’s death, Harris was able to get a reported $120,000 in life insurance funds.
Harris, per Leyton, is now facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He’s currently scheduled to be sentenced in December. In addition to the premeditated murder conviction, Harris was also found guilty of solicitation of murder and the delivery of a controlled substance causing death.
