Last week, a Michigan judge ruled there’s enough evidence for a sex offender to go on trial for murdering a 13-year-old girl last year after raping and impregnating her.
Jarvis Butts, 41, the father of one of Na’Ziyah Harris’ cousins, allegedly started grooming her with sexually-explicit texts in 2022. Harris allegedly informed Butts in September 2023 that she missed her menstrual cycle even though a pregnancy test came back negative, text messages shown in court last week revealed, according to WDIV.
“My period haven’t came at all,” Harris reportedly wrote to Butts, who authorities claimed eventually responded, “OK.”
A month later, Harris asked to talk to Butts because she did not want to “lose” him.
“I don’t what your problem but I need you to bring me what I need tonight it’s hard doing all this gym s**t with this baby and if I don’t do em I’m gonna get a F,” she also wrote, per WDIV.
Prosecutors have accused Butts of raping and impregnating Harris, who vanished in January 2024. Before Harris’ presumed slaying, Butts allegedly searched online about abortions, abortion pills, and drinking anti-freeze.
READ: ‘Expert Groomer’ Murders 13-Year-Old Girl After Impregnating Her
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Text messages suggested Butts told Harris he would pick her up from school on January 9, 2024, the last day she was seen alive.
Butts is charged with Harris’ murder even though her body was never found. However, Butts was traced to the Rouge River in Detroit a day after Harris’ disappearance. A single shoe belonging to Harris was found at the river, according to WDIV.
Detroit Police Department Sgt. Melanie O’Rourke testified that Harris’ school identification card was found in the area where Butts’ phone was traced between January 10 and 11, 2024. The Detroit News reported that Harris’ clothes were also discovered in the vicinity.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Wyatt Barnes testified that a black hoodie found in the area had both Harris and Butts’ blood on it.
“All the evidence shows that something traumatic happened to her at the hands of Jarvis Butts,” Assistant prosecutor Matthew Makepeace told the court, according to The Detroit News.
Butts was convicted in 2005 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. In that case, he admitted to having sex with a child and was sentenced to seven years. He is not only facing criminal charges for sexually abusing two other girls, but prosecutors said he assaulted an 8-year-old family member and transmitted chlamydia to his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter.
“Mr. Butts targeted and befriended women to have sexual relationships with their young daughters,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said last year. “He would have relations with their mothers, but his true desire was to have sex with their young daughters. He was a classic and expert groomer.”
Reports indicated that Harris’ family contacted Child Protective Services about Butts before Harris’ disappearance as they believed he was having inappropriate contact with her and other children.
Prosecutors believe Butts killed Harris because he did not want Harris having his child while he was in custody for an unrelated gun case. Butts was expected to turn himself in the same day Harris vanished, but the date was pushed back to February 2024.
District Judge Aliyah Sabree ruled on Thursday that the case will go to trial on January 16. While handing down the ruling, she called attention to Harris’ grandmother — who waited the next morning to report Harris missing even though she had no history of running away.
“How were there two women in that house, who had birthed children themselves, who did not notice Na’Ziyah was pregnant—and I believe she was—and not having her period anymore?” the judge said.
“I don’t know who else failed Na’Ziyah, but the community did.”
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[Feature Photo: Wayne County Prosecutor/Michigan Department of Corrections]
