John Harris Interview Reveals Fall From Grace

By Kelly Ogle, NEWS 9

LEXINGTON, Oklahoma -- John Harris was a high school kid with movie star good looks and head turning, athletic talent, but he committed a terrible crime and his trial would make history in Oklahoma.

The Southeast High School baseball team has a legacy of greats, Bobby Mercer, Darrell Porter, Mickey Tettleton, and Harris wanted to follow the same path.

"I had all the dreams of a young man playing in the major leagues," Harris said.

Harris now plays in the prison softball league at Lexington, his latest home on a long tour of the Oklahoma Correctional system.

A stretch of 18 years of subconscious abuse built up to one subconscious act, which came to a head one night, changing Harris' path forever.

"He had a parent, a mother who absolutely created the monster that John became as far as this incident occurred," NEWS 9 Legal Analyst Irven Box said.

Police found 40-year-old Tommie Kaye Harris strangled in her closet at their apartment near NW 23 Street and Meridian Avenue.

John Harris had killed his mother.

"As soon as it was over, I don't know how to make sense out of all of that," Harris said. "It was like I left my body."

Harris confessed they were arguing and when she yelled she wished he'd never been born he snapped and strangled her with a necktie.

His grandfather hired well-known local defense attorney Irven Box to represent him.

"The first thoughts I had were, 'This is hopeless,'" Box said.

But as Box dug deeper into Harris' childhood a pattern emerged.

"He was really treated the worst that I've ever had a client treated by someone who was supposed to love, nurture and care for him," Box said.

Box called on Harris' high school friends, their parents and others to describe the abuse they'd seen.

"She wouldn't say anything good about him, but if he messed up, she'd cuss out loud in front of everybody and embarrass him and say, 'He's stupid' and 'I ought to have him committed,'" Box said.

During the trial, the jury was visibly shaken by the abuse testimony they heard, and ultimately decided the defendant, John Harris, was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Having his grandfather in prison and his mother deceased, a juror took the young man home that night.

In an interview the day after the jury found he was temporarily insane when he strangled his mother, he said he hoped to go play college baseball.

Instead, within weeks, he started experimenting with drugs. He was busted with pot, followed then by harder drugs and just a year after being given a second chance he was sent to prison.

He served 10 years, got out for eight months, and got into drugs and trouble again; this time tying up a man he claimed was a child abuser and stole his truck.

Harris will turn 40 this year and has five more years in prison. He works in the prison's computer center, and is seemingly popular with the other inmates.

"He would be one of the guys I'd like to see get out and have another chance at freedom," said inmate Greg Barber.

Harris counts the days on his cell wall, days wasted to be forgotten until he gets another chance.

"I'm a lot different than that kid," Harris said. "I'm still that kid in my heart who still wants to go take BP though, but as far as the hurt and the pain I've caused a lot of people, yeah, I'm a lot different."

Harris said when his mother was in her right frame of mind she was the best mom in the world.

He also believes that because of his faith and experience, he'll make it on the outside when he's released again.