harris criminal complaint

8/8/2019 Harris Criminal Complaint

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C9111lty Attol"lJ"YR,lph R. Potte!"

AssistantCaunt\' Attotneys

ChristIne O. CQr\(e!1,First Assistant

Timothy J. Gall'SherJean A. BeckerLyl, R. GalliartMI


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lDW DEC 15 PH I: 09 Defendant Tamelia HarrisDPD CASE NO.: 10-30549

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IN THEIOWA DISTRICT COURT FOR DUBUQUE COUNTY

STATE OF IOWAVS

Tamelia HarrisDefendant

SSAN

Before the PresidingJudge or MagistrateIowa District CourtCourt House, 2nd Floor700 Central AvenueDubuque County,Dubuque, Iowa 52001

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DOB: 08/201771970 St Joseph 5tDubuque, IA 52001 Criminal No, 0131/ FEC!l.lB3737

COMPLAINTThe Defendant, Tamelia Harris, is accused of the crime of Murder in the 1 t degree, inthat the Defendant did, between May 21th through June 20 th 2010, in Dubuque CountyIowa, knowingly acted in a manner that created a substantial risk and intentionally usedunreasonable force, torture or cruelty that resulted in bodily injury and led to the death ofher dallghter Cecilia Denise Harris, DOB of 10/18/2008, under circumstances manifestingan extreme indifference to human life,in violation of Section 707,1,707.2 (5) of the Iowa Criminal

" c :J i e, L:corporall)W:l H o r ; : ; t f t : 8 ~ Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before me this 17 day ofD . e U 4 ~ ~ ,:;&9:1}) 7


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DPD 149-05-90 L8

STATE OF IOWA ) ss.DUBUQUE COUNTY )

Defendant: Tamelia HarrisDPD CASE NO.: 10-30549Page 20fS

AFFIDAVIT

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The undersigned, being 'first duly sworn, states the following in support of probablecause to believe the offense charged hereon has been committed and that the Defendanthas committed it: .On 06/29/10 at approximately 3:04 PM the Iowa Department of Human Services receivedan anonymous call stating that Tamelia Harris DOB 08/20r17 of 1970 st. Joseph's StDubuque IA reportedly sent her daughter, Cecilia Denise Harris DOB: 10/18/08, to live withsomeone elsE!, DHS opened a case and met with Tamelia Harris at her residence. Harrisreported to DHS that Cecilia was with her grandmother Mary Drummond in North CarolinaDHS contacted the Dubuque Police Department who. in turn began a criminal investigation.It was determined that no one had seen Cecilia since shortly after Memorial Day weekend,The Dubuque Police contacted Mary Drummond, who resides in South Carolina.Drummond denied seeing Cecilia at all. Drummond reported to Dubuque Police thatTamelia told her, via a telephone conversation in April, that Cecilia had fallen and hit herhead and Harris wanted to bring her out to Drummond. Drummond agreed to tak.e the child,but Tamelia never arrived with her. Drurnmond also reports that Tamelia told her that shedoesn't like the child and that she told Mary "I hits her, and I don't know why", Tamelia madea comment that Cecelia was "a cry baby". Mary told Tamelia that she needed to bringCecilia to her before the end of Mayas she was planning to take a cruise then, Throughoutthe month of May, Tamelia and Mary had several conversations and Tamelia kept pushingthe date back as to when she would be able to bring Cecilia to South Carolina.While Mary was on her cruise in the end of May, first part of June, her daughter, ShanettaBrewster, received a text message from Tamelia. Tamelia indicated that other family friendshad taken Cecilia and she no longer needed Mary to take her. Shan etta was told that thechild went to live with family friends who were planning to move to Atlanta Georgia orsomewhere in Virginia. This person was identified as Shantalea Bauder who is in the Navyand currently stationed in West Virginia. Shantalea was identified by Janet Bauder ofScotland South Dakota. Janet informed the Dubuque Police Department that Shantalea isher daughter and that Shantaleawas making plans to take Cecilia and Harris newbornbaby. Most of the conversations pertaining to this were between Harris and Janet Bauder.

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DPD 149-05-90 La

Defendant Tamelia HarrisDPD CASE NO.: 10-30549Page 3 af6

Dubuque Police met with Tamelia on June 30 of 201 0 who staled that Cecilia had fallendown stairs and injured her head. Tamelia advised this injury consisted of a swollen softspot. Tamelia advised she did not call a doctor because she was afraid of DHS. Tamelisthen reported she took Cecilia to Davenport, IA to live with her friend Shameka Davis,Tamelia described Davis as a person she knew from Chicago and that she had run into herrecently at a gas station in Chicago, Tamelia stated that she has since had severalconversations with Davis about Davis taking Cecilia for up to a year, Tamelia could notprovide a phone number for Davis, nor did she have her address, Dubuque Policecontacted the Davenport Police Department for assistance in locating Shameka Davis. Noone of that description was located, Dubuque Police contacted DHS, DOT, and State ofIowa Records for food stamp assistance and no one matching that description was located.The high school where Tamelia supposedly met Davis was contacted and they did not showany record of a Shameka Davis during the time frame Tamelia told investigators the twoattended school. Tamelia also did not know any of Davis' associates and waG Lillable toprovide police with a means of contacting Davis or Cecilia and said that she had writtendown Davis' phone number on a piece of paper at home.Tameliaadvised that she met Davis in Davenport the week after Memorial Day weekend todrop off Cecilia and most of her belongings. Tamelia was asked if something had takenplace that caused Cecilia's death and she denied such an event taking place. Harris wasadamaDt that her friend Shameka Davis had Cecilia,Subsequently Harris was arrested and charged with Neglect and Abandonment as policecontinued their investigation into the whereabouts of Cecilia D. Harris.PoUce learned that Harris told multiple stor.ies.to multiple people concerning thewhereabouts of Cecilia. Such stories included that the child Was in Chicago with her sister,a member of her church took the child, the child was with her grandmother in SouthCarolina, the child was with family friends, as well as the story that she told investigators.Tamelia Harris turned her cell phone over to DubuqLle Police and her text messages from06/30/10 were acquired. Harris was discussing the fact that the Police and PHS wereinvestigating her and that she was angry with the people who had spoken to the police,Police also spoke with Bonita Anderson DOB 07/29/1973 of 514 East 22 nd Street whoprovide daycare for Harris and had watched Harris' children including Cecilia after shereportedly had fallen down the stairs. Anderson reported that the child had a small scrapeand nothing more serious than that. Anderson states that the last day that she babysat theHarris children was on 05/22/10 and that Cecilia was not there, She was told by Tamelia


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that her oldest child was watching Cecilia, Tracy E, Carroll, DOB 02/29/1991 of 929 HighBluff reports that she saw Cecilia after she had fallen and that Cecilia seemed fine. The onlyinjury that Carroll saw was a cut above her right eye, Carroll stated it was a normal 'childhood Injury much like a scraped knee. Police contacted Harris' employer, PremierCleaners, who indicated that Harris called in to work on April 9th to state she wound not bein on the 9th or 10 th as her child had fallen down the stairs. Harris brought Cecilia into 'Premier Cleaners on the 10th of April and several of her co-workers witnessed Cecilia'sinjury.Rokeita Durrah, DOB 05/24/1986 of 2515 Central reported that she and Shannon Dennis,00801/22/1978 of 967 High Bluff went over to Tamelia's house as Tamelia was giving aset of bunk beds to Dennis during the first week of June. Both report that there Was ahorrible smell coming from the basement where Tamelia kept sealed garbage bags thatwere full. They stated that Tamelia's younger children were home including Naomi andRuby but Cecilia was not present. Also around that same time period Tamelia also wascontacting several people in order to get a fire pit. Stacy Rhone DOB 02/16/1965 of 2308Queen reports that in early June, Tamelia had contacted her about borrowing a fire pit.Harris also reportedly asked Kelly Carroll of 567 % High Bluff if she or her mother LynnCarroll would loan her a fire pit as she wanted to burn her garbage and made a commentabout having maggots in the trash. Tamelia eventually got a fire pit from Jennifer Ward DOB .11/09177 of 887 Edison St. around the middle of June, In subsequent interviews ofTamelia's friends and associates it was learned that she had been burning items in afire pitthat she had recently acquired, A neighbor of Tamelia's, Richard R Hoffman DOB '09/26/1965 of 1986 8t Joseph 81., reports that some time before Feather's Day he saw alarge fire in Harris' backyard. Hoffman stated that the flames were at least 6 feet high and 3feet wide and stated that it was dusk outside.Tamelia told Lorean Durrah DOB 01/04/1985 of 1499 Bluff #3 that she started burning fourdays before Fathers Day (June 20 th ) and that she would wait until 1 or 2 in the morning .when her neighbors would be asleep before burning, Father's day was also when Tameliagave birth to a newborn. Reportedly Tamelia's mother, Linda Harris, came and stayed withher for g days to help with the baby. During her visit Linda inquired about using the fire pit tohave a barbeque. Tamelia was adamant that she not use the fire pit to cook any food,Latakka O. Bolds DOB 03/27/1982 of 2352 Washington said that Tarnelia told her she didn'tlike the way Cecilia would look at her and never felt a close bond to her. Tamelia told her "Idon't like the way the bitch looks at me". Tobias Drummond recalis a time in April that hewas speaking to Tamelia on the telephone when he heard a chikj crying and Tamelia wasscolding the child and cailing the child "a little bitch", Tobia.s then heard Tamelia strike the


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child and he asked if that was his daughter. Tamelia confirmed that it was.

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Lawanda D. Williams DOB 10101/1977 of 2555 Central # 4 recalls a time near the end ofMay when Tarnelia had called her and told Williams that she "did something real bad" butwould not go into details. Williams added that 2 days later she met Tamelia at the park andCecilia was notthere. Allegedly Tarnelia gave different Versions of where Cecilia was beforetelling Williams that "she had to duke CeCe up last night". Tamelia told Williams that shehad to revive CeCe by giVing her mouth to mouth resuscitation.Janet Bauder reports that she was in town over the Memorial Day weekend when Tameliacalled her and was crying hysterically. Bauder reports that Tamelia told her she had donesomething that Bauder could not help her get out of. Bauder reports Tamelia added that shewould not understand nor would she forgive her. Bauder reports that Harris would n'ot settledown and that she asked Harris "you didn't kill anyone, did you?" At which point Harrisbecame defensive and asked "why would you even ask me that?"During a Memorial Day cookout at Jennifer Ward's house several people saw Cecilia andreported that she appeared to have two black eyes and that her head was swollen. Thesepeople included Ron Ward Jr., Kaleigh Hartley, Sandy Frederick and Jennifer Ward.The Wards report that Tamelia would often get right in Cecilia face and swear and yell ather to shut up. On the day of the cookout Tamelia instructed Ron Ward Jr. not to even talkto Cecilia as she would just start crying. Ron Ward Jr. reports that he picked up the child tofeed her and that Cecilia attacked her food as if she hadn't eaten for days.On or near June 7th , one of Harris's other kids saw Cecilia "sleeping" on Tamelia's bed.When the child returned home from school Cecilia was gone as was all of her belongings.Her children report that they never saw her again. They kids were told by Tamelia thatCecilia was with her auntie in Chicago. Tamelia does have a sister in Chicago, Angel Harris;however Angel would have last seen Cecilia at the end of March through the first part ofApril, 2010.During the execution of a search warrant of the Harris residence police located whatappeared to be blood stains inside the master bedroom closet on the walls and carpet. Itappeared that the carpet inside the closet had recently been cleaned. It was also learnedthrough an interview of Rokeita Durrah that Tamelia had confided in her that she slammedCecilia's head off the headboard of her bed within the master bedroom and threw the childinto the master bedroom closet. Rokeita went on to say that Tamelia's other children heardCecilia crying from. within the closet.


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DNA obtained from a Guthrie Card containing a known bl.ood sample of Cecilia taken at thetime of her birth, was compared to the swabs taken from inside the Harris residence, Thestains from Harris closet were confirmed to be blood and through DNA analysis itwasdetermined to be the blood of Cecilia,Police searched a small fire pit in the backyard of Tamelia residence and discovered Whatthey believed to be small human bones, The Medical examiner's office was contacted andsent two technicians, Walker Hodges and Brian Drewry, who collected this evidence andtransported the remains to the State Medical Examiners Office, Dr, Caitllier, ME" along withDr. Michael Finnegan Ph, D" a forensic anthropologist, confirmed the remains were that ofa small child, DNA testing was done on these remains and compared to the known samplesof Cecilia's parents, Tamelia Harris and Tobias Drummond, The results indicated that theremains were 9,95 trillion times more likely to be the biological offspring of Harris andDrummond as opposed to originating from an unrelated individual from the AfricanAmerican population,

/ : - ~ ~ , ~ - - / c= ,Corporal Kurt HorchS u . ~ c r i . b e d j l n ~ } W o r n to before me thi:'_. /5- day off..&(,:'''./I/\/0/ ,2010, . ~ . . . , . ~ ..

. . ~ ~ ,. Notary ,Public, Sta,.,6f I wa

The foregoing Complaint with attached affidavit having been filed before theundersigned, it appears from said Complaint and Affidavit that there is probable cause tobelieve an offense has been committed and that the Defendant committed the offense,Dated this day ofBY THE COURT:

Judge Magistrate f Iowa District Court .

harris criminal complaint

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