Jurors to decide fate of kidnapping/assault suspect
A Fayette County jury will return this morning to decide Eric Harris’ fate in a kidnapping and assault case. The jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes Tuesday before President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi sent them home for the day to return and resume deliberations in the case.
Harris, 33, of Uniontown, is charged with three counts of kidnapping, two counts each of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and one count each of unlawful restraint and firearms not to be carried without a license.
He allegedly forced his ex-girlfriend, Tawana Mills, her two children and her nephew into Mills’ car at gunpoint around 12:30 a.m. June 21, 2001.
Mills testified that Harris also beat her at her mother’s Carlisle Street home before forcing her and the children into the car and making her drive them around.
Harris testified on his own behalf Tuesday, admitting some of the allegations and denying others.
He testified that he went to Mills’ mother’s home that evening because Mills had promised to drive him to his cousin’s house earlier in the day; however, when he got there, Harris testified, Mills said she wouldn’t drive him, and they got into a fight. At that point, Harris testified, he decided to leave.
He admitted to jurors that he hit and kicked Mills at the Carlisle Street home because she slammed the door on him as he was leaving.
“Anger overtook me and I pushed her. She fell over the coffee table,” said Harris, who added that he started kicking and hitting her, “but not fully with my strength,” then stopped when he heard Mills apologize to him.
“What were you trying to accomplish?” asked Assistant Public Defender David Kaiser.
“I wasn’t trying to accomplish anything. I wasn’t intending to do this. From the frustration and anger, I guess I just snapped or something,” Harris replied.
He testified that Mills voluntarily got into the car and drove him and her two children around town, and he denied that he forced her to do so at gunpoint, noting that he did not even have a weapon that night.
In his closing remarks, Kaiser said the jury could go back in the jury room and automatically find Harris guilty of simple assault because of his admission.
The defense attorney also pointed out that Harris claimed he and Mills stopped in an alley behind Park Avenue not because he ordered her to, but because they were going to smoke marijuana. Mills testified that Harris ordered her to stop there and then threatened her while jamming a gun into her chest.
“He didn’t have to tell the jury that,” said Kaiser. “Although it’s illegal, he was truthful.”
But Assistant District Attorney Gene Grimm told the jurors that it was just too “convenient” that Harris came into the courtroom and copped to some offenses.
“How convenient it is that the defendant takes the stand and tells you, ‘I did part of it, but I didn’t do it all,'” Grimm said in his closing remarks.
He went on to tell the jurors that Harris’ treatment of Mills when he came to her mother’s home was evidence of his jealousy.
Mills testified on Monday that Harris accused her of being involved with other men and that he forcibly ordered her and her children, Raylin Mills and Rain Mills, along with her nephew, Daryess Mills, into the car at gunpoint.
“Ask yourself why he went there. Did he go there looking for a ride, or did he go there intent on terrorizing this young lady because he heard she was having sexual relations with another person?” Grimm asked the jurors.
Mills testified that the incident ended when they arrived at her Dunlap Street home and she was able to contact her mother, who in turn called police. When Harris knew that police were called, he fled the scene, according to police.
Before defense testimony was presented to the jury yesterday morning, one female juror was dismissed from the panel and replaced with an alternate because she said she could not be fair in deciding the case.