THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609210250
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 70 lines
A judge didn't believe the three explanations Timothy Harris offered for how his 2-year-old stepdaughter might have suffered the severe blows to her stomach that caused her death.
Circuit Judge Robert S. Wahab Jr. on Friday convicted Harris, 28, of second-degree murder and felony child abuse in the death of Asia N. Jenkins. The girl died on Feb. 12, 1994.
Harris, who has been in jail since the offense, is set for a sentencing hearing on Nov. 1. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the murder and a maximum of 10 years on the child abuse conviction.
William P. Robinson Jr., representing Harris, offered three possible explanations for the internal and external bruising that caused Asia's death.
He said Harris could have inadvertently caused the injuries when he performed CPR after the little girl nearly drowned in the bathtub; someone could have broken into their home and inflicted the blow or blows while he left the child unattended; or the child's mother could have caused them.
Sisha T. Harris, 27, the child's mother, had also been charged with murder, felony child abuse and neglect, but the murder charge was dropped. She is scheduled for trial Oct. 3.
Prosecutor Nancy Parr told the judge that the explanations Timothy Harris suggested were not possible. She said Harris was angry at Sisha Harris because she did not arrange to have the child cared for.
``This defendant admits he was angry,'' Parr said. ``He was angry at Sisha because he had to get a baby sitter. We submit he took his anger out on poor little Asia.
``He's responsible for this,'' Parr said.
Sisha Harris cried during testimony as she recounted the events of the day Asia was killed.
She had seen Harris several times during the day, although she was working a 24-hour shift at the Coast Guard base. At one point, she went home during the day and found the child perched in front of the television, watching cartoons with a bowl of cereal in front of her. Harris was not around. She left the child and went back to work.
Harris joined her for dinner, but didn't have the child with him, she testified. The mother said she didn't ask where the child was.
About 9:15 p.m. Timothy Harris called her at work and told her that the little girl did not seem to feel good.
The mother suggested two children's Tylenols and warm milk. He called again a few minutes later and told her that the child would be OK.
But by 10:30 p.m., Timothy Harris had called paramedics, and they found the badly beaten child. She was dead on arrival at the hospital.
In tearful testimony, Sisha Harris said she had lied to social services workers to protect her husband after an earlier incident when her daughter had suffered a broken leg. She told them that she had accidentally shut the girl's leg in the car door, when Harris had actually done it. Harris maintains the mother was responsible for the accident.
After the baby died, Timothy Harris begged her not to go talk to detectives, she said.
``He pleaded and cried for me not to go down there,'' she said. ``He told me not to go and that he was going to be accused of killing my baby.'' ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Timothy Harris, 28, faces sentencing on Nov. 1 for Friday's
conviction for the child abuse and murder of 2-year-old Asia
Jenkins, his stepdaughter. Prosecutor Nancy Parr said Harris was
angry at his wife, Sisha Harris, at left, because she did not
arrange to have the child cared for. Sisha Harris faces a trial on
Oct. 3 on charges of felony child abuse and neglect.
KEYWORDS: MURDER CHILD ABUSE CHILD NEGLECT CONVICTION by CNB