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Handyman ordered to stand trial in slaying of Drexel grad

A West Philadelphia handyman was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for murder in the July 15 rape and strangulation of Drexel University graduate Jasmine Wright.

James Harris and Jasmine Wright
James Harris and Jasmine WrightRead more

A West Philadelphia handyman was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for murder in the July 15 rape and strangulation of Drexel University graduate Jasmine Wright.

Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon ordered James Harris held after a sometimes-tumultuous preliminary hearing in which Harris' lawyers, Thurgood M. Matthews and Geoffrey Kilroy, argued there was not enough circumstantial evidence to justify a trial.

Assistant District Attorney Gail Fairman called the defense argument ridiculous, noting that Harris' DNA was in the sperm found in the body of Wright, 27, and on a towel and pillows in her third-floor apartment in the 200 block of South 50th Street.

Fairman also cited a witness' testimony putting Harris on the front porch of Wright's rowhouse apartment around 5:45 p.m. on July 15. That time is within 30 minutes of when Wright's mother, Paulette, said she was on the phone with her daughter when she heard a noise and the phone went dead.

Kilroy argued that the victim could have had consensual sex with Harris, 56, earlier, and that Wright could have been beaten and strangled later by an intruder. Matthews noted that Wright's body was fully clothed when found the next day, and said Harris' skin cells could have been left in Wright's apartment during an earlier maintenance job.

DeLeon, however, was not convinced: "Everything is pointing to him."

Wright, who had just completed a graduate degree in public health at Drexel, was found about 2:15 p.m. July 16 by a real estate manager for the apartment owner, who let herself in after Wright's parents said they had been unable to reach her after the abruptly ended call of the previous day.

Harris was charged in Wright's death about 10 days later after he was arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

At the time of Harris' arrest, police said he had been fired a week earlier from his maintenance job at Wright's apartment building but kept a ring of keys giving him access to the units.

Harris was well-known in the neighborhood, testified Tanya Giebus, who lived nearby, and said she saw and talked with "Jimmy" every day.

Giebus testified that Harris once showed her a vacant apartment on the second-floor of Wright's building that he was cleaning.

"He was very polite; I never had any problem with him," Giebus said.

On the day of Wright's slaying, Giebus testified, she saw him riding his bike, and he stopped and walked her to the subway station. When she returned to the block about 5:45 p.m., Giebus continued, she saw Harris on the porch of Wright's building, his bright-yellow bike parked in front.

This time, the usually talkative Harris was reticent: "He just sort of stepped back."

Harris has a series of criminal convictions and served about five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in the 1982 slaying of his father in what Harris' family said was the culmination of years of abuse.

jslobodzian@phillynews.com 215-854-2985 @joeslobo

www.philly.com/crimeandpunishment