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Na'Ziyah Harris murder: Man accused in teen's disappearance in court Friday

By Jack Nissen
Published  November 1, 2024 11:02am EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 2 Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Testimony from the prosecution's first witness was given in court on Friday, which can be watched in the YouTube player above. FOX 2 will have a recap of the full day in court later today. 

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The man accused of killing and sexually abusing a teenager is expected in court Friday for a preliminary examination. 

Jarvis Butts, 41 of Highland Park, was charged with murder and first-degree sexual assault of Na'Ziyah Harris in September, more than nine months after the teenager went missing.

She was last seen getting off a bus at Cornwall and Three Mile in Detroit on Jan. 9, but never made it home. 

While prosecutors believe the teenager is no longer alive, they have not recovered her remains. However, they are confident that Butts is behind her disappearance.

During his arraignment, he was also charged in the sexual assault of two other children, including his own daughter and the daughter of an ex-girlfriend. 

"It’s disgusting, it’s despicable. It's worse than I thought it was," Jarnell Holland, a family member of Harris said after the court hearing. "I've been trying to bring attention to him since 2022 and I did not realize it was this bad."

Horrific details revealed during Jarvis Butts arraignment

The defendant stood mute during the hearing, waiving the formal reading of the charges while in court. Already serving time for a separate conviction, his defense attorney did not object to prosecutor's request that he remain in custody. He is facing various criminal sexual conduct charges from three separate cases.

Na'Ziyah Harris disappearance timeline

The prosecutor's office provided a rough timeline of the day Harris disappeared.

  • Na’Ziyah took the school bus to school.
  • She had her hair in two braided puff balls, clear framed glasses, a white sweater with a black jacket over it, a colorful Rugrats puffy jacket, with a fur lined hood, with light blue jeans and Nike shoes.
  • There is video of Na’Ziyah getting on the school bus.
  • Na’Ziyah used a DPS issued tablet that she used to communicate and communicated with an app.
  • She took one last picture of herself on the tablet.
  • Using her tablet, she sent a message to a device associated with Butts, indicating that they would be meeting up after she got out of school that day.
  • There is video of her getting out of school at the end of the day in the same clothes.
  • She meets up with Butts and a co-worker and goes back to their auto repair shop on Connor in Detroit.
  • Na’Ziyah is seen by Butts’s sister at the shop.
  • Butts, the co-worker, and Na’Ziyah were together in the co-worker’s car when they went to Ypsilanti and then returned to the shop on Connor. Butts’s phone places him at these locations.
  • At 9:30 p.m. to 12:20 p.m. Butts checked in to a motel. There is a receipt confirming this as well as his phone placing him at that location.
  • Na’Ziyah is never seen again after January 9, 2024.