A mother wailed ‘That was some bullshit! I can’t believe this!’ after a man accused of killing and dismembering her two year-old son was cleared.
Lanisha Knox gave a pained cry as Kamel Harris, 44, was acquitted of the September 2015 first-degree murder of Kyrian Cox by jurors in Chicago Thursday.
She grew increasingly distraught and stormed out of the courtroom before the verdict was complete.
Harris was babysitting Kyrian and his grandson for his daughter and Knox while they looked for jobs in Iowa around the time of the youngster’s death.
He claimed a man and two women came to his house and said they were there to pick up the toddler for Knox.
After speaking on a cellphone with a woman who said she was Knox, Harris said he handed the boy over.
He told jurors he was stunned to receive a phone call from his daughter a fortnight later saying that she and Knox were on their way home to pick up their children.
Prosecutors failed to win over the jury with their circumstantial evidence that Harris had killed Kyrian in a fit of rage after two weeks looking after him.
One theory claimed that Harris had snapped when Kyrian refused to stop crying after being given milk to drink.
After Kyrian’s death, his body was chopped up and tossed in Garfield Park Lagoon in Chicago’s West Side.
His hands, feet and head were later recovered, the Chicago Sun-Times later reported.
But police were unable to find Kyrian’s torso, arms or legs, and could not establish the toddler’s cause of death.
In February, Harris had been on the verge of admitting involuntary manslaughter in return for a seven year jail sentence.,
That offer was withdrawn after protests from Kyrian’s family. Harris’ team said he only made the plea deal over fears he’d be wrongly convicted and have to spend far longer in jail.
Harris was released from jail yesterday, and told a Sun-Times reporter that it ‘absolutely’ felt good to be out.
