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Michigan Dad Who Killed Wife With Heroin-Laced Cereal In 2014 Sentenced To Life
“You are a murderer and you are a liar and the jury saw through all the lies and I see through all the lies," Judge David Newblatt told Harris during sentencing.
A Michigan father who fatally spiked his wife’s cereal with heroin and cashed in on the her life insurance policy more than seven years ago will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Jason Harris, 47, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole on Friday in connection with the 2014 fatal poisoning of his wife, Christina Ann Thomspon-Harris. Thomson-Harris died after ingesting cereal laced with drugs, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 29, 2014, Thompson-Harris was found unresponsive at the couple’s home in Davison, Michigan. A “light colored fluid” was found around her lips and mouth, according to a police report obtained by Oxygen.com.
An autopsy later concluded that Thompson-Harris had died from a lethal amount of narcotics, shocking friends and family of the 36-year-old Michigan mother who were adamant she wasn’t a drug user. A frozen sample of the dead woman’s breast milk ultimately confirmed that she had not been using drugs.
According to charging documents, investigators later learned that Jason Harris had admitted to co-workers to fatally poisoning his wife with heroin by lacing her cereal with the powerful narcotic.
"This was a terribly tragic case that left two children without their loving and devoted mother and siblings and other family members with a big hole in the fabric of their family,” David Leyton, the prosecuting attorney for Genesee County, told Oxygen.com in a statement on Monday afternoon. “My heart goes out to all of them and I hope the conviction and sentence to life in prison of Jason Harris allows them to take another healthy step toward closure as they continue to grieve their loss."
During his sentencing, the case’s presiding judge also blasted Jason Harris as a “murderer” and a “liar.”
“The jury saw through all the lies and I see through all the lies," said Genesee County Circuit Court Judge David Newblatt told Harris during his sentencing, MILive.com reported.
Thompson-Harris’ family breathed a sigh of relief following the 47-year-old’s sentencing.
“I am relieved that the trial and the sentencing are finished,” Kathy Mays, Thompson-Harris’ mother, told Oxygen.com, on Monday. “It’s been a long time…We’ve stayed focused. These things take time.”
A former friend of Thompson-Harris stated that, within a week of Thompson-Harris's death, Jason Harris began openly dating a woman he’d been seeing behind his wife’s back while she was alive.
Friends of the couple said Harris had been texting a number of women, “before, during, and after the birth,” of their daughter, the police report stated.
A month after his wife’s murder, prosecutors said Harris cashed a $100,000 life insurance check related to her death.
Harris’ co-workers also told law enforcement that the 47-year-old had openly spoken about feeding his wife “cereal with narcotics” the night before her death — and that he had been lacing her food with powerful sedatives “to knock her out” for weeks.
One co-worker, who told police he'd sold Xanax to Harris, later found out from other colleagues that Harris had admitted to using it to incapacitate his wife.
“Christina would drink the water and she would spit it out because it tasted funny,” a former colleague of Harris’ told detectives in a statement.
Investigators said Jason Harris often freely spoke of his disdain for his wife while on the job, once admitting to another co-worker he’d hired an assassin to kill Thompson-Harris in August 2014. He also openly aired suspicions he wasn’t the biological father of the couple’s daughter.
Additionally, Harris’ sister, Rachael Harris, also told investigators that her brother had made comments about “how to get rid of Christina.”
“Christy did not deserve this,” Patricia Hutchinson, the Thompson-Harris' younger sister, said in a victim impact statement obtained by Oxygen.com. “We cannot choose our parents, or what they chose to do…My wish is for my family to live our lives without worrying if he will be freed. I want us to have a peace of mind and not worry about him ever again.”
Christina Mays’ mother, who said she’d been “longing” for the day justice was served, said she’s never visited her daughter’s cemetery burial plot in the seven years since her murder.
“Jason denied me grandparenting time,” Kathy Mays said in her victim impact statement. “Thoughts of losing my daughter, her deceased father ,and my living granddaughters was incomprehensible.”
Thompson-Harris’ family described her as a “tenacious,” “precocious,” and “caring” parent, who was “over the moon” to be a mother. She had two children, who are now seven and 12 years old respectively, with Jason Harris.
“Being a mother was a game changer for her,” Kathy Mays added.
The 36-year-old, who was deeply spiritual, adored celebrating holidays with family and loved hockey. She was a “bandwagon” fan of the Detroit Red Wings, her mother said.
