Calvin Harris and his daughters, Jenna and Cayla, walk to the Schoharie County courthouse from the adjacent lot during jury deliberations in last year’s third trial. On Thursday, the Harris children were not allowed to remain in the courtroom for proceedings, as the district attorney told the judge that he would be calling some of them to testify. (Photo by Wendy Post)
The prosecution and defense for 55-year old Calvin Harris, of Spencer, N.Y. painted two different pictures of what might have happened to his wife, Michele, after her disappearance in September of 2001. Calvin Harris remains charged with second-degree murder in connection with her disappearance and has seen three trials, although the body of Michele has never been found, nor a murder weapon.
On Thursday, and following Monday’s decision to waive a jury trial for the fourth trial, one thing was evident – that Judge Richard Mott has control of the courtroom in Schoharie and is going to keep things moving forward.
Wearing a red bowtie, and sitting sternly behind the judge’s bench, Mott was not allowing attorneys any extra time to look things over, and noted that things will just keep moving. This came after the district attorney, Kirk Martin, asked for an adjournment of proceedings. He stated he needed more time. Mott swiftly denied his request and told Martin to proceed with his opening statements.
Martin, in his opening, stated that Harris was waiting for her [Michele] at home and was the only person that wanted her dead. “She didn’t die in the hands of a stranger,” said Martin at the close of his opening statement – which lasted about one hour.
The defense painted a different picture.
“My client was wrongly accused and relentlessly pursued,” said defense attorney Bruce Barket during his opening.
Bartlet criticized the investigation into Michele Harris’ disappearance, noting that investigators focused on Calvin Harris and didn’t look outside of this. “The case at its core,” he added, “is fundamentally false.”
Both opening statements also focused on a phone call made from the Harris’ residence on Hagadorn Hill to Michele Harris’ cell phone on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, and after she did not come home from the previous evening.
The defense claims his client made the call and the prosecution stated that the babysitter, Barbara Thayer, was the one who made the call.
Although Thayer was at her own home, over two miles away at the time the call was made, the prosecution argued that it was Thayer that made the call, and not Calvin Harris.
The defense is claiming otherwise, noting that Thayer would not have had the time to get from her home to the Harris residence in time to make that call. The timeline, the defense argues, does not fit.
Thayer was the first prosecution witness on Thursday, and delivered testimony regarding her relationship with both Michele and Calvin Harris, and described the details of what she found at the home when she arrived and her perception of Calvin Harris’ behavior following his wife’s disappearance.
Thayer will be back on the stand on Friday for further cross-examination by the defense.
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