Date: 08-18-2024

Case Style:

United States of America v. Elmarries L. Harris

Case Number: 4:16-cr-00044

Judge: Roseann A Ketchmark

Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri (Jackson County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: United States District Attorney's Office in Kansas City

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Kansas City, Missouri criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant on a revocation of supervised release.

Harris was serving a term of supervised release in 2023 after finishing a prison sentence for a firearms offense. In January 2023, the probation office reported to the district court that Harris committed several violations of the conditions of his release. The most serious allegation was that Harris assaulted his wife, Erica, at an apartment in Springfield, Missouri.

In June 2023, the court held a revocation hearing. Harris denied the allegations, and the government presented only the violation report from the probation office and a defense investigator's report that Erica denied being assaulted. Harris objected that the evidence was hearsay. The court continued the hearing for sixty days to receive additional evidence. In the meantime, the probation office submitted another violation report alleging that Harris consumed alcohol.

At a reconvened hearing in August, the government submitted evidence about the alleged assault of Erica. The prosecution presented medical records of Erica's injury. The government served a subpoena on Erica, but she refused to appear.

A police officer testified that a friend of Erica's named Amy Jones called 911 on January 21, 2023. Jones reported that she had just completed a video call with Erica during which Erica had swollen eyes, was unable to speak well, and told Jones that she had just awakened from being knocked out. Harris objected to this testimony as hearsay.

The police officer explained that he responded to the 911 call by visiting Erica's residence and made contact with a neighbor named Janet Breaux. Breaux told the officer that Erica had come to Breaux's door, asked for help, and said that she and her husband got into a fight. Breaux said that "he beat the hell out of her." The officer's conversation with Breaux was recorded on a police officer's body camera, and the video was received in evidence to eliminate a second layer of hearsay. Harris objected to the officer's testimony about what Erica told Breaux and to the body camera video.

The officer further testified that he located Erica at the scene and found that she needed assistance to stand. Her entire face was swollen, and she could barely open her eyes due to the swelling. After observing Erica's injuries, the officer called for emergency medical services. Before Erica was transported to the hospital, she asked the officer to help contact her landlord to request a change of her apartment's locks.

After Erica left in the ambulance, the officer contacted Jones by telephone. The officer's body camera video recorded the call, and the government played the video at the hearing over Harris's objection. Jones said that Erica told her that Erica's husband had "beat her up really bad."

The probation officer also testified at the reconvened hearing. She explained that two days after the incident, she made contact with Erica's sister, Jessica Hempstead, at Erica's apartment. The sister told the probation officer that this incident was not the first domestic assault that had occurred between Harris and Erica. The sister then telephoned Erica's mother, Billie Newsome. The mother told the probation officer by telephone that the January incident was not the first time that Harris had assaulted Erica, and that the mother believed that Harris would kill Erica. Harris objected to the probation officer's testimony about the statements of Erica's sister and mother.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the district court found that Harris committed a Grade A violation of his conditions of release by committing a domestic assault in the second degree. The court cited images of Erica's injuries and medical records that were "consistent with multiple striking or assault or blunt force trauma to different planes or angles on her face." The court found that "some of the significant aspects of the government's evidence" were the police officer's report of the 911 call by Jones reporting that Erica had just awakened after being knocked out, the officer's testimony about neighbor Breaux's account that Erica said she had been assaulted by Harris, and the officer's testimony that Erica's immediate concern after the assault was to have the locks changed at her apartment.

The court also found that Harris violated other conditions of his supervised release: failing to answer the probation officer's questions truthfully and to follow her instructions, failing to notify the probation officer ten days before changing his residence, and consuming alcohol.

The court sentenced Harris to the statutory maximum sentence of 24 months' imprisonment with no supervised release to follow. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3); USSG § 7B1.4(b)(1). But for the statutory maximum, the court would have imposed a longer term of imprisonment "because of the multitude of violations and the seriousness of the violations."

Outcome: Affirmed

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Defendant's Experts:

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