Jamichael Harris
More than a dozen family members gathered in court on Wednesday to hear that Jamichael Harris, a man who is on pretrial house arrest for the June, 2014 murder of Inez Burney, will be allowed to attend Trinity Baptist Church on Sundays and Wednesdays while he awaits trial.
Judge Barry Steelman reduced Harris’ bond on July 1 from $500,000 to $100,000 so that his family could pay to have him live on house arrest with them.
The state was originally opposed to the reduction and was similarly opposed to the reduced restriction.
Harris told the judge that he has attended Trinity Baptist since he was nine years old.
Ms. Burney was found strangled to death in her bathtub after the defendant called the authorities claiming that she had drowned. The state alleges that Harris murdered the victim after she posted a picture online of a large sum of money and then tried to stage her drowning. He has been in custody for over a year.
At the time of his arrest, the defendant was found to have fingernail scratches on his face that appeared to have come from the victim trying to defend herself. A forensic investigation also revealed that two items of bedding cloth had both the victim’s and the defendant’s blood on them.
The defendant’s counsel argued in July that because he and his family have lived in Chattanooga all of their lives and their entire extended family does as well, a bond reduction and order for house arrest would be appropriate.
Harris’ mother testified that while she and her husband could not afford the original bond, they could put together enough for the reduced bond and could further guarantee that the defendant would show up for future hearings.
She said, “I believe in my son’s innocence and I want to get him home safely. That’s my child.”
Judge Steelman said at that hearing that he did not find evidence that the defendant would be a danger to the general public given his lack of a criminal record prior to this charge and the strong level of family support made evident through family testimony.
The investigation in the case is ongoing and the state is waiting on forensic evidence relevant to the case. Specifically they are attempting to identify a piece of cloth found at the victim’s home which had several DNA samples from unknown parties on it.
Harris’ next court date is set for Oct. 28 before Judge Steelman.