True Crime with Kendall Rae - He Poisoned Her Cereal With WHAT?! The Murder of Christina Harris

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Jason Harris must have decided he had enough of being a husband and father, and figured the best way to deal with these feelings was to murder his wife. He had divorced a woman before and was paying child support to her, and didn’t want to do that again with his current wife and the two daughters he had with her. His plan? Poison her cereal and claim that she had eaten the drugs of her own accord. Learn more about A Call To Men: https://www.acalltomen.org/ Donate to NCMEC through my campaign! https://give.missingkids.org/campaign...  Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop This episode is sponsored by: +3 Day Blinds - For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/KENDALLRAE +Huggies +Dreamland Baby - promo code: TCKR Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you for joining me once again and if you are new then welcome. So happy to have you. So today we are talking about a case that man really pissed me off. And even though it is incredibly sad and frustrating and all the things, I wanted to talk about it because this family did such an amazing job. They knew that what happened to Christina Harris, the victim in this case, absolutely could not have been an accident as it was originally ruled. And they did not give up and fought for justice and ended up getting it.

And I'm sure I sound like a broken record when I say that fighting for justice should not be the responsibility of the family. However, with our justice system, oftentimes it falls on them. And I am always just so impressed and truly amazed at the strength that some people have. That when they are trying to grieve the loss of a loved one,

they're able to somehow muster up enough strength to fight for justice at the same time. And for all the times that I talk about cases where families are still in that fight and working their way towards justice and needing help from all of you, it's nice to talk about a case where all of that effort that they put in has already paid off

and justice has been served. And if you're anything like me, when I start going through the details of this case and how everything happened, your jaw is gonna be on the floor and there's a lot to go over. So let's just jump right in by starting to talk about Christina or Christie.

Christina Ann Thompson or Christiey as she's known was born on January 16th, 1978 in Flint, Michigan to her parents, Kathy and Harvey. Although I believe she was primarily raised by her mom and her stepfather Jim. She also had two sisters, two really amazing sisters I should say. And unfortunately I don't have a ton of information

about her super early life But I can tell you that Christy was an amazing person when I looked at who she was It was clear that she was a really good soul and the life of the party just a fun outgoing Outspoken individual who so many people loved she really liked to be sort of the center of attention Make other people smile and laugh and if there was an opportunity for the spotlight to be on her that girl definitely took it. She loved game nights with her family, scrapbooking, swimming, and above all else she loved her two beautiful daughters. In 1997, Christy met Jason Harris. The two of them met at a party and to say that

they hit it off instantly would really be an understatement. And the two of them were very different, truly a case of opposites attract. I mean, she was quiet, shy than he was, more reserved, but at first they really seemed like a great match. They got married in 2003, which was a night that her sisters say Christy absolutely shined. And in 2009, they welcomed their first daughter, Halle. Now being a mother was something that Christy was not only good at, but truly great at. And I really wanna give her all the flowers here because when you become a mother,

it can be so shocking and such a massive adjustment. It can be very difficult. I know from my own personal experience that it's not always the easiest transition, but for Christy, it was just something that came naturally to her. From the day she became a mother, her daughter was her world.

She was willing to make all the sacrifices in her life that she needed to, to ensure the wellbeing of her child and that she had the best life and care possible. And this was not only true the first time around, but it was true again in May of 2014, when Christie and Jason welcomed their second daughter, Kayleanne. And if there's one thing that I think Christy should be honored for, remembered for, it was her dedication to her daughters. Christy loved those girls with

everything she had, and it turns out that her dedication and effort to caring for her newborn ended up being a huge piece of key evidence in this case, but I will explain more about that later. So fast forwarding a few months to September of 2014, Christy was four months postpartum. She had given birth to her daughter via c-section and she was already back at work. And of course she was breastfeeding so she needed to pump and store a ton of breast milk so that whoever was watching her daughter could feed her while she was at work. And this is a process that can be very difficult, very challenging, and you really have to be dedicated to it. And from what I've learned, Christy absolutely was. She was super

regimented with her pumping schedule and super, super meticulous about making labels for when the milk was pumped. And this is a really key detail. Her loved one said that she was very, very careful to make really healthy choices in her own life because she knew that it would directly affect her milk supply and the health of her baby. And if any of this seems like random information to you,

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For a free no charge, no obligation consultation, just head to 3dayblinds.com slash Kendall Rae. That's buy one, get one 50% off when you head to 3dayblinds slash Kendall Rae. One last time, that's the number three, d-a-y, blinds dot com slash Kendall Rae. So again, it's September 2014, and specifically it was September 29th, 2014. And it seemed like a normal morning by all accounts. Jason drops his two girls off at daycare and Christy is supposed to be at home getting ready for work.

But the thing is, she wasn't and Jason knew that, but he didn't want other people to know that he knew that. So then a little bit of time passes and then Jason kicks off his plan, which is to text a neighbor so that they can go to his house and find his wife's body, which I think we can all agree is so incredibly fucked up. And I mean, if you're willing to commit a murder, obviously you're not going to care much about other people's wellbeing and would be perfectly fine with someone going through the trauma of Finding a body but I'm getting ahead of myself

But anyway, this neighbor gets a text from Jason where he appears to be concerned about his wife He tells her that he's been trying to get a hold of her all morning without any luck and he is worried that maybe she slept through her alarm a A real standup guy. So this neighbor, like any good neighbor, asks him if she wants her to go over and check on Christy. And he of course says yes. And so she does. And what she didn't realize is when she went over there,

she was gonna find a really gruesome scene. She found Christy in her bed, cold to the touch and foaming at the mouth. And I've watched interviews of this neighbor talking about this experience and you can tell that it was truly traumatic for her as it would be for anyone, right? I mean, it was a truly horrific discovery. And so she did what anyone else would do and immediately called 911. She also ended up calling another neighbor who is a registered nurse.

And unfortunately, she didn't have anything to tell her that she didn't already know. Christie was gone and no life saving measures would bring her back. And that's exactly the conclusion that first responders came to as soon as they got to the house as well. I mean, it was very obvious. So they pronounced her dead and did a very brief and lackluster investigation. Now at the scene, it didn't seem like there was anything

that really stood out as being a potential cause for Christie's death. There was no sign of a struggle, no kind of weapon laying around, besides a few pain pills that she had been given from her C-section, there was really nothing to point to anything to explain this. And quite frankly, it looked like Christy, a perfectly healthy 36 year old woman, had just died in her sleep, which, of course, does happen.

But it's very rare. The only small clue there may have been, which I don't think was considered a clue at first, was the fact that she died with foam in her mouth. The implication being that maybe she had overdosed. But like I said, the belief, at least at first, was that she had just died in her sleep. So if she had overdosed, that wouldn't have been determined until after the autopsy was performed.

So while her body was being taken away and sent off for a medical evaluation, family and friends were left at the scene to grieve and question what exactly happened here. Many of them were just trying to you know wrap their minds around this. It just was so out of nowhere, made no sense, and was incredibly shocking to all of them as it would be for anybody. Like I said, Christy was only 36 years old. She was generally pretty healthy and had no pre-existing conditions or anything like that. Nothing to explain this sudden death, but Jason told police something different. At the scene, he was asked about his wife's behavior the night before and he specifically mentioned that she'd been acting sort of strange.

He told them that he'd made her a bowl of cereal late at night after she complained about being hungry, but said that she was practically falling asleep at the table while having her cereal. And when she could hardly stay awake at the table, he said he needed to carry her into bed, which is where she fell asleep for the rest of the night. And according to his story,

he was under the impression that she was completely fine when he left for work that morning. But guys, this was the extent of his conversation with the police. He wasn't brought in for further questioning, a more formal questioning, and he was never followed up with absolutely nothing. And honestly, had investigators done their due diligence

and really spoke to him or spoke to other neighbors, they would have seen this for what it actually was, which was a homicide investigation. They may have been able to collect evidence, particularly that cereal bowl or done a sweep of the house. Really anything would have been good, but they just took Jason at his word.

But his word to them and his word to his neighbors were very different. Because it turns out that very morning, Jason was going around talking to his neighbors saying that Christy wasn't the angel her parents thought she was and other defamatory statements like that, which is pretty bold and disrespectful if you ask me.

I mean, I think we can all agree that that's just a huge red flag that the morning your wife dies and you know what actually happened that you're going around saying things like that about her. But here's the thing about Jason. His ego is astronomical. I genuinely believe that he genuinely believed he was going to get away with this. That's why he was so comfortable talking smack about her right off the bat. And not just after her death, but also before, which I will get more into that. But first, let's talk about those autopsy reports.

On October 22nd, Davison PD received the results of the autopsy and it showed that Christie died as the result of the drug that starts with H and ends with N, toxicity. And I know I don't normally censor words like that. I feel like especially with true crime, it's important to just say the details as they are, but YouTube has been weirdly cracking down on certain things lately. And so to be safe, I'm just going to refer to it as that, or I will probably just say the drugs going forward or the drug. But that is what I mean. And I'm sure most of you know what I mean when I say the drug that starts with H and ends with N. Okay, and not just that, but they found that the drug was consumed orally.

Now, I personally didn't know this because I don't have a lot of familiarity with that drug, but that drug is just not consumed orally. It's just not a thing, which if that is true, and again, I'm not an expert, but you would think that the medical examiner would take that into consideration. Why was this drug consumed orally? Does that make any sense?

Shouldn't that send off some type of alarm bells to them? But it didn't and Christy's death was ruled an accidental overdose. That's right, you guys, the medical examiner just assumed that Christy knowingly orally consumed this drug. Even after her family went to the police to tell them that she was in no way, shape or form a drug user, never had been, they didn't do anything about it. At least not right away. The ruling was accidental overdose and it stayed that way for years, meaning that the

investigation into her death was not a high priority. And it also meant that Jason was free to live his life and he absolutely did so. It turns out that less than a month after his wife died, Jason moved a new woman into the home to live with him and his children. And I didn't mention this before,

but Jason actually had been married before Christie and had two children from that relationship. So he had partial custody of them in addition to full custody of his daughters from his marriage to Christie. And his life didn't just go back to normal after Christie's death, it actually significantly improved and it seemed like he was doing better than ever.

Jason collected more than $120,000 in life insurance policies, paid off some debt, bought a few cars for him and for his new girlfriend, and even bought a brand new home. And as you can imagine, this absolutely horrified and infuriated Christy's entire family. They just knew in their gut that he had something to do with her death. I mean her death made zero sense to them and here he is living this brand new life with a bunch of cash, his new girlfriend acting like he never even cared about Christy at all. And they were all aware, which we haven't really gone into, that he and Christy's marriage was on the rocks and for her to just die so

suddenly, not to mention in the way that she died made no sense to them and The way he was acting now told them everything they needed to know and what I haven't mentioned yet is Christie was open with them about the fact that Jason was cheating on her In fact, if you didn't already think this guy was a scumbag, which I am sure you already do Turns out this motherfucker was a scumbag, which I am sure you already do, turns out this motherfucker was texting another woman in the delivery room while his wife is being cut open and giving birth to his child via c-section. That part just blew my mind.

The audacity, the sacrifice that she is making for you. I mean, a c-section is no joke, it is major surgery, the recovery is extremely painful from what I've heard, and she is giving you a child and you have the nerve to be texting up your other side girl? What the fuck? Plus, and this tells me everything I personally need to know, Christy had told a coworker that if she turned up dead, that they needed to look into her husband. And how many times have we heard this story before?

Oh, and remember how I said his ego was absolutely through the roof and he seemed to have no problem just running around blabbing his mouth about Christie to everyone? Well, it turns out that before she died, he openly went to his brother and asked him to pay for a plane ticket for him to go visit the woman that he was talking to. So just was perfectly comfortable talking openly about cheating on the mother of his children who he was still married to. Yeah, he's that dude. Now his brother actually did book the flight for him and paid for it, but I do want to give him credit here because he completely ends up turning on Jason over time and he did end up

canceling that flight after he realized how fucked up the whole thing was. But overall it sounds to me like he would talk to just about anyone who would listen about how much he disliked his wife. And this will come up again later on, but just to give you another example, Jason openly talked to his coworkers about how he wanted his wife dead. One coworker even said that Jason had asked him for a tasteless odorless drug that would knock her out.

And that person actually sold Jason 10 Klonopin, which is a sedative, but he told another coworker that when he tried putting them in his wife's water, she detected them. So his plan didn't work. Which side note, who are these people that are completely fine talking about this with him and offering him drugs and listening to him babble

about this? I mean, it's just, it's mind blowing. drugs and listening to him babble about this. I mean it's just, ugh, it's mind-blowing. This episode of True Crime with Kendall Rae is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers. Now, Huggies knows that babies come in all shapes and sizes and their tushies do too. Huggies best fitting diaper is their Little Movers with its curved and stretchy fit and parents know that there's nothing worse than an ill-fitting diaper, truly nothing worse, especially when you have active babies. We love huggies in our house because we can rely on them

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And then it gets even worse because he tells someone that he paid a hitman $5,000 to get the job done for him. And then it didn't work out because that hitman was arrested and obviously wasn't able to do the job After that and because the hitman now wasn't able to kill her He was now asking a co-worker if they would do it for 10 grand and he literally told them I will be getting a hundred thousand dollars from her life insurance policy and I will pay you out as soon as I get that In fact that very morning morning that Christie was found dead, he called up her employer and was asking about the life insurance money right away.

What more of a red flag could you possibly put up? And then a week later, he goes to her office to ask again. I'm honestly speechless. I mean, how stupid can you get? Although I'm thankful that he is so stupid because it was his stupidity that helped this case to get solved. Anyways though, let's talk about the why,

or at least the why that Jason was telling his coworkers. Jason's whole issue, or so he claimed, was that Christie was lazy, not hardworking, and that she was constantly nagging him. He said he even questioned whether he was the father of their second daughter. And this is so frustrating to me because how obvious can it be that this guy was serious, but none of these coworkers thought he actually was so no one went to the police.

Or at least that's what they're saying. I mean, he was giving like direct examples of what he was going to do asking people for things. No one went to the police Who are these fucking people? And even his own sister didn't immediately report him to the police when he told her a year before everything happened That he felt the only way out of his marriage was murder Jason told her that he didn't wanna pay child support because he was already divorced from another woman and paying child support to her.

And so he didn't wanna have to do that again. And truly unbelievable, but he actually gave her a step-by-step plan of how he would kill Christie if he were to kill her. And it was exactly how he ended up doing it. And she never reported this to the police. No one said anything to anybody. And with how many people were aware of how he's feeling,

what he's saying, what he's talking about doing, it just truly blows my mind and infuriates me that no one said anything. I mean, ugh, it's stuff like this that just really makes you lose faith in humanity. And it's also just wild to me that the reason he did this was because he didn't want to have to pay child support. Listen, Jason, you big dumb dumb.

Just because you kill your wife doesn't mean you're off the hook for supporting your kids. And now you're doing it on a single income. Genius. Even with the 100,000 life insurance policy that he got through her employers and an additional 20,000 that he got through his employers, that still equates to like two, maybe three years of someone's salary. So they would have made more money as a family in the long run if Christie was still alive,

but considering how stupid Jason is, I'm sure math isn't a strong suit of his either. Now, obviously I've been very vocally frustrated about how horrible it is that no one went to the police about the very whack and threatening things Jason was saying leading up to Christy's murder But his brother Jeff and his sister Rachel did end up going to the police two days after she was murdered Which obviously isn't very helpful at that point point but at least they ended up doing that. But to make another long story short Rachel ended up telling Jeff everything that Jason had said to

her and Jeff was obviously super concerned but she called him back like a day later to say that Jason told her that he was kidding and thought that he would just get a divorce so Jeff pretty much forgot about it that is until Christie was actually found dead and he was Suddenly reminded of everything Jason had said he was going to do so they did go to the police and report this however Not much was done because even if it was true that information is Technically hearsay they didn't have actual proof that Jason killed Christy and investigators said that they didn't want to, you know, ruin their only shot at a conviction based on hearsay. They needed more evidence, they need more information. So what does that mean?

It means that unless something else fell into their laps, Jason was a free man, just living his best life with his new woman. So Jason was not going to be prosecuted, which brings me back to what I said at the beginning of this episode, that Christie's family was relentless in their pursuit of justice. From the day she died and into the weeks, months, and years that followed, her mom, dad, and sisters did everything in their power to keep Hope alive. And one thing I learned that just really impressed me, really blew my mind that they were able

to do this, but they decided to keep up a relationship with Jason because he had custody of the girls and they were terrified of what he could possibly do to them. I mean, he, who knows what this guy is capable of. So they kind of just put on a front, put on a smile so that they could remain as close to the situation as possible. They had to just pretend to be okay with him for years. They had to not let him know that they were onto him

when meanwhile, they were in contact with the police emailing them every single day. And I mean that truly. Christie's mom, Kathy, didn't miss a single day when it came to advocating for her daughter. She didn't let anyone at the police department forget that her daughter still needed justice and that it was their responsibility to make that happen. And like I said, though, investigators said there wasn't enough evidence for an arrest.

And so who got them that evidence? Their family did. It turns out that Jim, Christie's dad, was really good with computers. And one time when Jason was complaining about his computer not working, Jim of course told him he would help him. And so because he now has access to his computer, he pulls his hard drive and he uncovered a huge piece of evidence, an image, an image that was crucial to solving this case.

And it was an image of Jason holding what appears to be a straw with a tray on his lap. And on that tray are lines of a white powdery substance. And if it's not already obvious, this image is highly incriminating because it shows that Jason was not only a drug user, but also someone who would have had access to the type of drug that was found in Christie's system.

So as you can imagine, their family brings this evidence right into the police who had just uncovered some very interesting information themselves. And that was that just a few months after Christie's death, Jason had been fired from his job for failing a drug test. And not only that, they also learned about Jason's other conversations with his coworkers

about wanting his wife dead, about hiring someone to kill her, and about getting pills to do so. So obviously the evidence is really starting to stack up here and it's not looking good for Jason. But unfortunately just when things felt like they might be moving in the right direction, Jason lured up and refused to speak. Yes that picture was incriminating and the co-worker's possible testimony was damning, but apparently it wasn't enough. So then nothing happened for another two painful years.

And in that time, Christy's mother, Kathy, went hard looking for ways to get justice for her daughter, ways to hold Jason accountable in some way. And it was during her research that she figured out exactly what they needed to do. Rather than go after Jason criminally, they were going to go after him civilly through a wrongful death lawsuit. Kathy and Jim decided that a wrongful death lawsuit would be the only way to bring attention to the case and to help their family get some sort of action

taken against their daughter's killer, even if it was just monetarily. So they hired an attorney and once he heard the details of this case He thought what we are all thinking and that is why has this man not already been arrested? I mean there are a million reasons why this should have been investigated immediately, but the biggest glaringly obvious Reason is that the drug was ingested orally

and that is just not how it's done. Luckily though, this lawyer was like a dog with a bone and this lawsuit really ended up helping them move things in the right direction. Because even though Jason could lawyer up and not speak when it came to the criminal investigation, he did have to speak under oath during a deposition for the civil investigation. And through this, he had have to speak under oath during a deposition for the civil investigation.

And through this, he had to answer the questions that he was originally asked the day his wife died, among many other questions. Questions like if he cheated on his wife or was a drug user and his story was questionable at best. For example, he was asked if he texted his wife that morning after he left the house, which he of course answered, yes, yes I did. He told him exactly what he told the neighbor that he had texted her to make sure that she had woken up because he was worried when he hadn't heard from her. And then he was asked if it was normal for him

to text his wife in the morning to make sure she had woken up on time, to which he also said yes. But the thing is that wasn't true. Jason never normally texted his wife any other time asking if she had woken up, being concerned if she had slept in. I mean, that was just totally made up,

which obviously made the text that he did send her that particular morning seem very suspicious. I mean, Jason, what was so different about this specific day that you felt like you needed to text your wife and you were all worried that she had overslept? Nothing. I am so excited about today's sponsor,

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I really can't recommend it enough. It's truly one of my favorite products, a total necessity. We even bring it with us when we travel anywhere. And if you want to try it for yourself, go to dreamlandbabyco.com and enter my code TCKR at checkout to receive 20% site-wide, which is a huge deal. And you also get free shipping. And what's even cooler is this offer is for new and existing customers. So definitely take advantage. even cooler is this offer is for new and existing customers. So definitely take advantage. Another lie that they think he told was about whether or not he had slept in bed with her that night. He told them that he did,

but when investigators looked at the bed initially, it didn't look like anyone had slept on his side of the bed. It looked completely undisturbed. And it was little discrepancies like this that made investigators question him more and more. But at the end of the day, they weren't really looking for little discrepancies. So they brought out the big smoking gun that they had, which was the photo that was found on his computer, the photo of him doing drugs. Typically, I'm just gonna say math. I'm sure you know what I mean by that, but gotta be careful these days, I guess. But his excuse for

this, which is honestly just so stupid that it's kind of funny, was that he was only doing it so that he could show his daughters not to use drugs. Make it make sense. Come on. to use drugs. Make it make sense. Come on. Have you used drugs? Just prescribed. What are you holding in your right hand? Do you know?

A straw. And what is that? There's a tray that's situated in front of you. What is the substance on the tray? Methamphetamine. And the bag that's in front of you that contains white powder, is that also methamphetamine? Yes. And I wish I could show you more video from his deposition, but unfortunately a lot of it is copyrighted.

But if you look it up yourself, you can see, but I can just tell you overall he was not doing well during this. I think he knew the walls were caving in big time. His body language just really says it all. He went from sitting straight up to bent over covering his face with his hands. I mean it was just it was a bad look and everyone saw straight through the lies including a jury. And finally, Jason Harris was ultimately found responsible for Christie's murder in the wrongful death lawsuit in order to pay her family $2 million. But it wasn't the deposition alone

that led them to that verdict. It was the other smoking gun they had, which I mentioned vaguely earlier, and that was Christie's breast milk. That's right, you guys, Christie's breast milk was the saving grace in this case. Thanks to the hours that she spent pumping and freezing her breast milk and thanks to her family who had the foresight to save it, they were able to solve this case. When Christy died, there were upwards of 50 bags of her breast milk frozen.

And her family saved it because they knew that testing that milk should show that Christy was not a drug user. And if they could show that Christy was not a drug user, that would show that she didn't intentionally consume this drug. And I mean, I think anyone can see that. Going from no history of drug use at all

to eating it out of nowhere. It was just a huge stretch that made no sense. And just a side note, that's another thing that really pisses me off about Jason is that he was willing to disparage the mother of his children that way, who was working that hard to provide her children with breast milk. I mean, breastfeeding is not easy. Pumping is not easy. I know from experience, I didn't last long with that myself. It's really hard. I mean, I did have a breast reduction and that's part of the issue I had. That's totally besides the point. But I know

from other people's experience in the short time that I did it, that pumping is really difficult. And for her to have put in all that effort to feed your child and then you disparage her that way and say that she was consuming drugs that she knew would harm her baby, it's just, oh, it makes me so angry. It's so fucked up. And if you're thinking, why wasn't it tested right away if it was such a crucial piece of evidence? Well, it was tested right away.

But even though it showed no traces of the drug, nothing was done about it. An investigator with Davis NPD was supposedly working the case, but this was the first homicide case that he had been on. And quite frankly, Christie's family didn't feel like he or anyone at that police department was equipped to handle this investigation, which is why they spent two years pushing them to bring in state authorities. was equipped to handle this investigation, which is why they spent two years pushing them to bring in state authorities. Michigan State Police did end up picking up the case in 2016.

However, they didn't make much progress until 2018, when the civil case was in full swing and when that breast milk came back into play. And once it was retested and showed that Christy was not using drugs in the days, weeks, or even months leading up to her death, they had their slam dunk and won the civil case. But for as great as that win felt,

at the end of the day, it wasn't enough because Jason was still free. Yes, of course, he is $2 million poorer, but who really cares because he's still a free man. But luckily, it wasn't like that for much longer because in 2019, the medical examiner changed his ruling on the manner of death from accidental overdose to homicide, which opened the doors

for the criminal investigation to move forward. When it came to the criminal investigation of Christie's murder, investigators knew they had probable cause to make an arrest. I mean, just between the breast milk, the photo of Jason, the testimony from friends, family, co-workers, they felt positive they had enough to get a conviction. And so an arrest was made.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Layton said Christina Harris's husband, Jason Harris, had a history of seeing other women outside of their marriage. Harris even allegedly told his coworkers he wanted his wife gone. The prosecutor says he even hired a hitman. Jason Harris had paid $5,000 to a guy to kill Christina. And while this particular alleged hitman was doing surveillance on her, the hitman was caught by police with a firearm.

The alleged hitman was on parole and sent back to prison. So investigators say Harris took matters into his own hands. However, two years after the medical examiner ruled her death an accidental overdose, a key piece of evidence was found at her parents house. Police were able to secure three plastic packages of Christina Harris' frozen breast milk that were placed in a cooler. All three of those were submitted to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab. In each instance, no controlled substance was detected. We believe Jason Harris murdered his wife.

We believe he put heroin into her cereal and milk the night that she died. Pre-trial hearings took place in August of 2019, and during that time, the judge heard a lot of damning testimony. And this included testimony from Jason's own brother, Jeff, who was someone who supported Christie's family from day one. He knew with every fiber of his being that Jason was own brother, Jeff, who was someone who supported Christy's family from day one.

He knew with every fiber of his being that Jason was her killer, and he didn't let the fact that he was his brother stop him from sharing the truth. And we've got to give him major props for that. Not a betting man, but if you are for this purpose, you had a thousand dollars. How much would you bet that your brother Jason Harris killed his wife? I would bet $1,000. His former co-worker also took the stand and talked about the hitman that Jason told him he hired and what he believed was Jason's motive.

He was just saying that Christina wasn't wanting to go back to work, that he believed the child she had wasn't his, and that she was just laying around the house, not doing anything, and he was just getting tired of it. Zacharias Shustock also testified Harris tried to hire him as a hit man. There was a situation where he had asked me if I would kill her for him. All of this was evidence in the prosecution's favor, and their case only got stronger when the actual trial began. Prosecutions favor and their case only got stronger when the actual trial began Jason's trial began in November of 2021 and he was facing a total of three charges first-degree murder

Solicitation of murder and delivery of a controlled substance Causing death the defense would try to argue that Christie was a drug user who knowingly ingested this drug But the evidence that disproved this was obviously way too strong. Not only was the breast milk solid proof that she wasn't doing drugs, but even before that she had no history of drug use at all. And when you give birth, they give you a talk screen to determine if you had done drugs during your pregnancy, possibly putting your child's life at risk, and hers came back completely clean. And so did every drug test

that she had ever done for work in her past. She literally had zero history of drug use at all. So no matter how hard the defense tried, they could not paint Christie in a bad light. Jason, on the other hand, looked real bad, especially once the prosecution laid out his motive. And I know we've sort of gone over this before, but let's go over this motive in more detail now.

It was really a combination of a few things, and this included the affairs, the fact he didn't wanna get a divorce and have to pay child support for the second time, and to avoid that, he poisoned her cereal with the drug. Now, personally, I was wondering about this, and I'm sure some of you may be asking yourselves this question too and that is if the drug was in the cereal, how did she not detect it? How did she not taste it? Well, apparently the experts said that the

milk would have masked the taste of it and I don't really understand how that works. I don't know how strong it would taste, but that is what they said. They said she absolutely could have consumed it without even knowing at all. But one thing I couldn't find out was how Jason acquired the drug. And maybe investigators couldn't figure that out either because that was never brought up in trial, but I mean they were able to prove that he knew several people who could have gotten it for him. Of course, there was that photo of him doing drugs himself, but also the conversations he had with coworkers about acquiring pills.

So I mean, there obviously were plenty of ways he could have gotten a hold of it, especially when you think about how rampant drugs are in our country. But it's safe to say that all that evidence points in one direction. And on November 17th, 2021, Jason Harris was found guilty on all three charges by a unanimous jury. And I can't even imagine the relief that must have washed over this family when they finally got justice after all these years. I mean, I'm sure they had moments where they thought, is he truly going to get away with this? Are we ever going to get there? And to finally have that justice must have just felt, I mean, there are no words.

It would feel incredible. Jason finally being seen for exactly who he is, which is a lying scumbag who is willing to kill the mother of his children must have just been worth all of the struggle that they had been through all of those years. And that's basically what the judge said to him during his sentencing.

It feels so nice to say this, but Jason was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And the judge did not hold back when it came to speaking his mind on everything. Life in prison with no possibility of parole. That was a sentence handed down today to Jason Harris in the murder of his wife, Christy Thompson Harris. That happened seven years ago. I was in the courtroom this morning as the judge told Harris, justice may have been delayed, but it is not denied.

Now, the jury didn't believe your lies, and now we're finally exposed for the selfish, murdering, lying monster that you are. What you wanted, all the stuff, you sacrificed your daughters. You took away their mother. That's the first thing you did. You took away their mother. And I really loved seeing this. I find it so humanizing to see a judge kind of break

character and get to really say how they feel, really pack a punch to that criminal at the end. I mean, it's just satisfying to see. But at the end of the day, yes, justice was served, which is fantastic. I'm sure it was just such an amazing moment for this family. But justice does not bring Christie back. It doesn't give her poor daughters, their mother back, and her family, their daughter back or sister back, or anyone who loved Christie will forever have that pain. Yes, Jason will rot in prison until the day he dies,

but their family will carry that pain forever. They have quite literally spent the last decade fighting for Christie and that didn't end when the trial ended. Because of course, Jason appealed his conviction. However, that appeal was denied, thank God, and the conviction was upheld in January of 2024. But unfortunately, it's possible that he keeps trying. I mean, likely in my opinion.

And if he does and every time he does, it's going to re-traumatize this family. And the fact that they have to go through that just breaks my heart. Now, when learning about this case, obviously a lot of things came to mind when it comes to domestic violence in general. And it made me think of that saying that goes,

don't teach girls not to be victims, teach boys not to victimize. And I know that it goes both ways and men and boys can absolutely be victims of domestic violence as well. It happens very often. Women can certainly be the perpetrators as well. But when it comes to this case,

Christie was the victim and Jason was the perpetrator. And so I started doing some research on different domestic violence organizations which I have donated to a couple you know over the years and I found a new one that I thought was really cool it's called a call to men. It's a non-profit and I think what they're doing is incredibly important work and I'm going to just read a little blurb directly from their website because I think they put it best when describing their mission. A call to men offers an invitation to men, not an indictment of manhood.

We let men and boys know that their ideas about manhood, women, and girls have been shaped by their collective socialization. The messages that the media and culture bombard us with tell us that women are objects, that the media and culture bombard us with tell us that women are objects, property, and have less value than men. Our job is to raise men and boys consciousness about their collective socialization so that they can think critically about how they might be reinforcing or passing on these harmful beliefs and so they can challenge those beliefs in other men. Because we address the root of these problems from domestic violence and sexual assault to sexual harassment and workplace discrimination, we are paving the way for gender equality. And I think

this really embodies the idea of rather than teaching people not to be victims, teach others not to victimize. Helping boys and men understand how to become allies rather than enemies is deeply important work and I think this organization is doing something truly amazing. And that's why this week I want to make a donation to them in Christy's name and I will have their website linked below of course if you also would like to make a donation as well. I know I have a predominantly female audience, but I also have a lot of men in my audience as well which I'm sure a lot of you are really amazing. I mean there are so many so many good men out there who are setting good examples for others,

but we all probably have men in our lives that could benefit from something that this organization offers. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.