By Michael Virtanen
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y.— There’s no body and no murder weapon. Yet a once prominent auto dealer from New York’s Southern Tier is doing prison time for killing his estranged wife, who hasn’t been seen for 11 years.
Michele Harris, then 35, was last seen leaving work as a waitress the evening after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center in Manhattan, or early the next morning outside her home arguing with another man, depending on whom you believe. Undisputed by both prosecutors and defense is that she hasn’t been seen since and no murder weapon was ever found.
Now, New York’s Court of Appeals will decide whether Calvin L. Harris was fairly convicted of murdering the mother of his four children or presumed guilty based on insufficient circumstantial evidence. The seven judges on the state’s top court were scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday. They are expected to rule next month.
“The logical inferences to be drawn don’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that Harris murdered his wife,” defense attorney William Easton said. He said there’s no viable theory for how Harris could have killed her at the house where they both still resided with their children, then disposed of her body within the supposed time frame, less than eight hours, and the limited geography. Harris called the baby sitter about 7 a.m. the next morning, saying his wife hadn’t come home and he needed help getting the kids ready for the day.
Harris, now 51, is in Auburn prison, eligible for parole in 2034. He was co-owner of several upstate car dealerships and involved in a fractious divorce. His net worth was estimated at about $4 million, which prosecutors saw as motive. They also pointed to evidence of threats.
Tioga County District Attorney Gerald Keene said he finally decided to prosecute Harris in 2005, no longer hoping investigators would find a body or that Harris would make an admission to someone. “I thought the evidence was a very good, strong circumstantial case. There was good evidence of motive and opportunity and really good blood evidence,” he said.
Keene argued that some small blood spatters in the kitchen entryway and garage floor supported his theory that Harris hit his wife with a blunt object, imperfectly cleaned up, and buried her somewhere in the isolated area with thousands of acres of woods and trees. The defense argued there was no telling how long her blood had been there and there was very little of it.
Harris’ first conviction in 2007 was vacated after a new witness suddenly turned up, a farmer who said he had seen a woman resembling Michele Harris and a younger man arguing at about 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2001. Her vehicle had been found parked at the end of their driveway. Harris was convicted again in 2009, leading to the appeal.
“Case law used to be until like 1980, you did have to have a body in order to have a murder prosecution and a valid murder conviction,” Keene said. That changed in later convictions that were upheld with no body, weapon or confession, including a New York physician whose wife vanished after he flew a rented plane out over the Atlantic Ocean and came back, he said.
Easton filed an appeal citing legal insufficiency of evidence against Harris, and that the trial court made errors including refusing to exclude a juror who admitting having an advance opinion on guilt.
A midlevel court split 3-1 in affirming the conviction.