'Sadly Predictable' Murder By Released Prisoner in Calif. Domestic Case
It’s a sad story that’s been told before, but California prosecutors are trying to figure out how to keep it from happening again:
Accused of twice taking his estranged wife to isolated locations and restraining her during November 2007—once by handcuffing her to furniture in a hotel room and another time by tying her up with duct tape inside his car—Curtis Bernard Harris pleaded no contest Dec. 21 to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Then, despite his history of violent, criminal conduct and alleged abuse of his wife, he was released on his own recognizance to put his affairs in order before beginning a 16-month prison sentence. Prosecutors didn’t oppose this result, even though the Los Angeles County Probation Department had described Harris in a written report as “unsuitable for release,” writes the Los Angeles Times.
On Saturday, he and his wife, Monica Thomas-Harris, were found dead in a Whittier, Calif., motel room. He apparently shot her to death before committing suicide.
“These deaths were sadly predictable,” Katie Buckland, executive director of the California Women’s Law Center, tells the newspaper. “This is the classic cycle of intimate partner violence. To say the least, it was irresponsible of the judge, and particularly the prosecutors, to allow Curtis Harris to be released without bail for any reason.”
A unidentified source at the district attorney’s office says staffers at the Pomona office are upset about the murder and spent much of the day Monday trying to figure out why the Los Angeles County Superior Court case went so disastrously wrong.
According to the article, it isn’t clear that the probation office report was received or read by the prosecution before Harris was released, and the judge who made the decision to give him time to settle his affairs may have been unfamiliar with his full criminal history and all of the accusations of domestic violence made against him. It also appears that the prosecutor who handled the Dec. 21 hearing may not have worked previously on the case.
