Editor’s observe: This story contains graphic particulars and language.
MERIDIAN — After three and a half years, Marsha Harbour’s household acquired the one factor that might make a dent within the ache they’ve felt since her homicide: justice.
Truitt Tempo was convicted on Thursday of first-degree homicide for the loss of life of Harbour, his spouse. His trial was rescheduled eight instances for causes starting from COVID-19 delays, adjustments within the public defender’s workplace and “time to analyze,” together with different imprecise explanations listed in courtroom data.
“It’s been a very long time for us to attend,” mentioned Courtney Kirkman, Harbour’s sister. “We lastly acquired justice, and she will be able to relaxation in peace.”
Whereas the household is relieved on the end result, it got here at a value. They needed to pay attention because the protection attacked Harbour’s character — and sit via days of testimony, post-mortem pictures, ugly and graphic shows of their cherished one’s homicide.
READ MORE: A life taken and a childhood lost: The devastating effects of domestic violence
Over the past three and a half years the household has waited, haunted by the information Tempo was strolling round a free man. Within the time between Harbour’s homicide and the trial, Tempo was residing in Alabama the place he ran a roofing and building enterprise and acquired concerned with a Pentecostal church. A number of church members attended the trial.
In the course of the 4 day trial, Tempo usually wandered across the courthouse. As a result of there was just one door out of the courtroom, he would sometimes breeze by Harbour’s household on his approach out.
After Harbour died within the early morning hours of June 16, 2018, Tempo, who was initially charged with second-degree homicide, bonded out of the Lauderdale County Detention Heart. His bond was set at $100,000 by a justice courtroom decide — a comparatively low bond, based on the rules that dictate bond ranges for sure crimes.
The state supplied proof and witnesses exhibiting Tempo shot Harbour behind the top at a distance of greater than 2-3 ft whereas their 9-year-old daughter was in the home.
Post-mortem pictures revealed she was overwhelmed earlier than she was shot. Former State Medical Examiner Dr. Mark LeVaughn testified that in his opinion, the black eyes and abrasion on her proper cheek have been resulting from blunt pressure trauma — not the gunshot wound.
The protection technique from public defenders Katie Curren and Chris Collins included making an attempt to poke holes within the state’s case, suggesting it was all a horrible accident. They supplied particulars about Harbour’s private life in an effort to discredit her.
An try to achieve Curren and Collins for remark Friday was not profitable.
They introduced up medicine she was on, a beauty process she’d had and a part-time job with a modeling company the place she attended banquets for hunters. Harbour’s former supervisor testified she used the job to complement her predominant supply of earnings as a clerk at a medical clinic.
“Marsha’s job was to look fairly and serve males favors whereas feeding them alcohol,” Curren mentioned in her closing argument, a last-ditch effort at convincing the jury Tempo acted unintentionally or in self protection.
And since nobody really witnessed Tempo abuse Harbour, Curren urged that possibly she acquired the bruising and black eyes jurors noticed in pictures from the “rowdy, drunk males” she noticed at her job.
She identified Harbour visited a home violence shelter to provoke paperwork for a home abuse safety order “solely after” a divorce legal professional informed her to — insinuating it was a part of Harbour’s plan to win huge within the divorce, regardless of the legal professional’s prior testimony that Harbour expressed she wished a no-fault, or uncontested, divorce.
After Curren concluded, District Lawyer Kassie Coleman, who for eight years prosecuted crimes towards girls and youngsters, stood in entrance of the jury for the ultimate portion of the state’s closing argument.
Her response to Curren defended not solely Harbour, a mom of 4, however all girls in her place.
“Sufferer shaming. Sufferer blaming,” Coleman mentioned. “And we marvel why home violence victims don’t come ahead and are afraid individuals received’t imagine them.”
Testimony from witnesses painted an image of a historical past of home violence. A number of recalled seeing accidents on Harbour, and Harbour had requested her ex-husband to maintain footage of her accidents from two separate events on his cellphone.
Previous to her loss of life, Harbour confided in a couple of individuals in regards to the abuse she endured by Tempo. The jury noticed pictures of accidents she incurred on a few events — black eyes and bruising on her arms — however she by no means adopted via with urgent any expenses. She informed one buddy she didn’t need him arrested, a standard chorus heard from victims.
She additionally informed them she was afraid involving police would make issues worse for her and her kids — one other widespread sentiment.
Coleman defended Harbour and positioned the main focus squarely again on Tempo, reminding the jury they’d seen “no proof or testimony” he shot her unintentionally.
Advocates for victims of home violence say these narratives about victims as loopy, unable to be believed, unstable or money-hungry are a serious drawback contained in the courtroom and out.
“This sufferer blaming is so tough for victims. They’re already going via such feelings with the abuse from somebody who supposedly loves them and affected by an avalanche of feelings,” mentioned Sandy Middleton, government director of the Heart for Violence Prevention, which gives assets and shelter to home violence victims. “To be blamed for the habits of an offender is simply the worst of all.”
It will probably additionally downplay the hurt the abuser is able to inflicting, Middleton mentioned.
“After we speak to those native prosecutors in municipal and justice courts on this state, we attempt to persuade them how deadly a few of these offenders are,” Middleton mentioned. “We’ve to start out wanting significantly at these misdemeanor home violence circumstances … and placing these individuals in jail earlier than persons are terribly harm or killed.”
Beth Meeks with the Nationwide Community to Finish Home Violence mentioned these narratives are sadly exceedingly widespread” and have an effect on whether or not girls report their abuse.
“Sadly these actual narratives about battered girls by the abuser are exceedingly widespread, even by batterers who haven’t killed their companion,” Meeks mentioned. “What the offender is usually making an attempt to do is erode the sufferer’s credibility in order that expenses received’t go ahead or in order that they’ll invoke sympathy and get a lighter sentence. Sadly this tactic usually works.”
Since Harbour is now not alive, it was her members of the family within the courtroom who bore the brunt of that narrative.
They listened to the accusations, unable to say a phrase to defend her. Graphic particulars of her homicide have been placed on show, together with physique digicam footage from regulation enforcement exhibiting Harbour mendacity on a mattress, gurgling and wheezing her final breaths.
Her family members needed to watch because the prosecution confirmed the jury her post-mortem pictures, together with an image of the within of her cranium that the medical expert used to find out that she was overwhelmed earlier than she was killed.
They heard the recording of Tempo making the 911 name that came about earlier than the officer arrived — once more, with the horrific gurgling breaths audible within the background. Tempo wasn’t frantic, or apologetic, and so they didn’t hear him communicate any comforting phrases to Harbour as she laid there. They heard Tempo inform the dispatcher he hit Harbour “with my fucking fist” and to get an ambulance over as a result of she was “fixing to die.” They heard testimony from the primary sheriff’s deputy on scene describing Tempo as “calm and impassive.”
Harbour’s brother Robbie Spears mentioned when he heard the irrelevant and generally unfaithful statements introduced up by the protection, he was incredulous.
“Marsha had nothing to be ashamed about,” he mentioned, noting each he and his sister suffered from anxiousness and despair after they misplaced their mom at a younger age, then three extra members of the family years later.
Kirkman, Harbour’s sister, was offended.
“Nobody deserves what occurred to Marsha,” she mentioned. “She was handled so cruelly, not solely that evening however her whole marriage to Truitt.”
Ultimately, the jury agreed.
After lower than an hour of deliberations on the fourth day of the trial, jurors returned their verdict: responsible.
Tempo will spend the remainder of his life in jail with no likelihood of parole.
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