Highlights from the preliminary hearing in the murder case of Na’Ziyah Harris

A man will soon go on trial in the murder of 13-year-old Na’Ziyah Harris, a Detroit girl who disappeared in January 2024.

A preliminary inquest was held on 6 January 2025 to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring Jarvis Butts to justice in the suspected murder of Na’Ziyah, although she has never been found.

Background

On January 9, 2024, 13-year-old Na’Ziyah Harris got off the school bus in the area of ​​Cornwall Street and 3 Mile, which is near the intersection of Warren Avenue and Outer Drive on Detroit’s east side. She was never seen again.

Na’Ziyah’s grandmother said she started to worry when she found out she didn’t come home that night, but she waited until the morning of Jan. 10 to report her missing to authorities.

On the same day that Na’Ziyah disappeared, Jarvis Butts was scheduled to turn himself in to authorities on a weapons charge. However, this was pushed back to February.

The hearing lasted for days, and the judge ruled that there was enough evidence to put the Detroit man on trial.

Why Jarvis Butts was charged

Before we get into what happened in court, here’s what we know about why Butts was charged:

Prosecutors said Butts was to turn himself in to authorities on a weapons charge on Jan. 9, 2024, the day Na’Ziyah disappeared, but that date was pushed back to February. Harris reportedly met with Butts that day, and the two reportedly went to Ypsilanti before returning to Detroit, where Butts checked into a motel.

Text records claim Butts knew Harris was pregnant and began searching online for abortions, abortion pills and drinking red antifreeze.

Authorities believe Butts had sexually abused Harris since 2022 before killing her in January 2024. Prosecutors said he had a history of attacking and befriending women to get close to and sexually abuse their daughters.

This is not the only sexual abuse case Butts is involved in. He has also been charged with allegedly sexually abusing two other teenage girls, as well as a 2005 sexual assault conviction. Prosecutors called Butts a “serial rapist” who sexually assaulted an 8-year-old family member and a girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter, who allegedly contracted chlamydia from the assault.

He was indicted on September 27, 2024 as a fourth-time habitual offender.

Butts and Harris had reportedly known each other because he was the father of her cousins. The abuse of Harris allegedly began in 2022 with sexually explicit texts and images sent to the child.

He was tracked to the Rouge River in Detroit the day after her disappearance, where police would later find the clothes Harris was last seen wearing. Authorities said there was damage to the clothing that could indicate a struggle.

Butts was charged with first degree premeditated murder, child sexual abuse materialand second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under the age of 13.

A preliminary inquiry was held on 6 January 2025 for a judge to decide whether there was enough evidence to put Butts on trial. Within those four to five days of hearing testimony, lots of evidence was revealed in court that was not shown before.

‘Disgusting’ text messages revealed in court

Sergeant Shannon Jones, the officer in charge of the investigation into Na’Ziyah’s disappearance, read countless text messages exchanged between Butts and Harris from 2022 and the day she disappeared.

For context, Harris was 11 to 12 years old in 2022.

Most of the text messages were sexually explicit, discussing times the two would meet for Butts to sexually assault her, as well as the 42-year-old man allegedly asking Harris for nude photos and performing sexual acts on him.

The text messages also revealed that Na’Ziyah told Butts that she missed her period and talked about her pregnancy. Butts allegedly acknowledged that she missed her period by telling her to take a pregnancy test.

To read some of the messages read aloud in court, go to this article –> Court Reveals Disturbing Messages Suspect Sent Detroit Teen Na’Ziyah Harris Before She Disappeared

Butts’ search history

After Butts learned of Harris’ pregnancy, he allegedly searched online for abortions from December 8 to December 11, 2023.

He allegedly searched for information about abortion pills on Planned Parenthood’s website numerous times, as well as searching for over-the-counter abortion pills. He also looked at websites advertising herbal tea as an abortion method.

Evidence found near where Na’Ziyah disappeared

Na’Ziyah’s clothes

A pink inside-out jumpsuit, a black jacket, and a red and black shoe were found near the intersection of 7 Mile and Berg by a U.S. Border Patrol officer who testified that he and a team searched the river near the intersection in relation to Na’ Ziyah’s disappearance. He testified that the clothes he found had not been there for a long time, as there was no discoloration in the clothes and no signs of animals getting into them. He described the clothes as looking “fresh”.

Na’Ziyah’s school ID

A woman said on March 7, 2024, she found Na’Ziyah’s school ID on the sidewalk near her home at 7 Mile and Evergreen.

She testified during the preliminary hearing on January 7, 2025 that she stepped over the ID for 2.5 weeks from a nearby bus stop before deciding to pick it up. When she picked up the ID, which was face down, she recognized the girl’s name because she had heard about her disappearance on the news. She took the bus to a local gas station to put the ID on a lid to prevent more fingerprints and called the police.

Balder bound over for trial

“We may never know what happened, but from what I heard today and over the last four or five days, it appears that he intended to carry out what he believed to be a do- self-aborted Na’Ziyah and went south. And instead of getting her medical attention, he killed her on purpose and did his best to cover it up,” Sabree said.

Judge calls out family, community for ‘failing’ Na’Ziyah

Before the ruling, Sabree said she wanted to speak on behalf of Na’Ziyah about “the community that failed her.”

Sabree said, based on what she heard in the past few days, “several people let her down.”

She began listing family members and school officials, accusing them of failing Na’Ziyah.

“I don’t know where her mother is,” Sabree continued, “All I know is that she was forced to live in a home where she wasn’t protected or given enough attention and love.”

“I don’t know who her father is; I have no mention of him in her life – no presence.”

“All the men who saw Jarvis Butts hanging out and always around these young girls, including Na’Ziyah and his 9-year-old daughter who went up to the store to clean up.”

“The school counselor who never showed up – or the person who was supposed to show up – if that counseling was absent after Na’Ziyah was on the floor the day she disappeared saying she needed to talk to someone and talk to a counselor .”

She pointed out that there was no mention of CPS and wondered about their involvement with them.

She called Na’Ziyah’s grandmother’s testimony dubious. She understood that her grandmother’s testimony was used to establish where Na’Ziyah lived and her regular routine, and she understood that she was not a runaway child. However, Sabree found it hard to believe that Butts never went to the home, as the grandmother testified.

“Always sending these girls to the store raises questions,” Sabree added regarding the grandmother’s testimony.

The Butts co-owned a car dealership in Detroit where Na’Ziyah was reportedly seen frequently.

“How were there two women in that house who had given birth to children themselves who didn’t notice that Na’Ziyah was pregnant – and I think she was – and no longer had her period?” Sabree said.

She said the thing that stood out the most was that when the grandmother was told about call the police, she seemed to show no emotion.

“I don’t know who else failed Na’Ziyah, but the community did,” Sabree said.

Sabree agreed with prosecutors that an agency is not necessary to establish premeditated murder in the first degree.

“It would have been a much shorter investigation if her body was found, but this is where we are,” Sabree said.

Judge calls Butts ‘true definition of a pedophile’

Before ending the hearing, she asked Butts to stand up and listen to her as she continued her statement directly against him.

“At one point I thought you were cognitively impaired,” she told Butts. “And then maybe you had the brain of a 10-year-old, and that’s why you did such things. But as I heard more and more testimony, you’re just a true definition of a pedophile.”

“You destroyed Na’Ziyah; you played mind games with her. We’ve all heard that,” she continued. “You controlled her emotionally. She was exposed to so much at such a young age. The text messages between the two of you were disgusting to hear.”

“Na’Ziyah deserved so much more. And while I mentioned that other people have failed her, Jarvis Butts, you are the monster in this whole picture.”