A 40-year-old Little Rock man who killed his wife with their two children in the house, has accepted a 65-year prison sentence after dropping his legal challenges to murder and gun charges.
Sentencing papers filed on Monday show that Quincy Alcinda Harris pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in exchange for the 65-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson.
Under the conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by chief deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward and defense attorney Harrison Tome, the murder charge was reduced from capital murder.
Kimeisha Renee Harris, 36, was found shot dead in the family home on Longcoy Street, at the 28th Street intersection, late in the afternoon the day after Christmas 2021, 19 days after their ninth wedding anniversary. Quincy Harris had called for an ambulance, then hung up, with officers arriving to find him standing in the driveway calmly with his hands in his pockets in front of the residence, according to the investigation overseen by Detective Rick Harmon.
Asked if he had called police, Harris mutely pointed to the front door of the home. He would only point at the door when officers asked if anyone needed help. "Yes" was his only response when asked if anyone inside was hurt or dead. Police found Kimeisha Harris dead on the dining room floor of the 954-square-foot home. She'd been shot in the head with a shotgun. Harris refused to answer any questions about what had happened, beyond admitting he was the one who called 911 when asked. Harris was arrested at the scene and has been jailed ever since.
Also inside the home was the couple's 17-year-old son, who said "the gun just went off," when asked what had happened. Asked about the weapon, the teenager directed them to the murder weapon leaning against a wall in a bedroom.
The boy said he had been playing video games in his bedroom with the door shut when he heard what sounded like a gunshot. The teen said he walked out and found his mother dead in the dining room with his father nearby.
The senior Harris told him and his 16-year-old sister to go back into their rooms, which they did, the boy said. But the boy said he stepped out of his room a few moments later and saw his dad with a shotgun.
A friend playing online with the boy told police he heard what sounded like a gunshot followed by the boy saying that his father had fired a gun before disconnecting from the game.
The daughter told police she'd been in her room with the door closed but could hear her mom vacuuming then a "pow" noise so she opened her door and looked out. The girl said she saw her mother on the floor and knew she was dead. She said she saw her father who told her to go back into her room. She said she had seen him lying on the couch earlier while her mother was vacuuming
The teenager told police that two days earlier, on Christmas Eve, her mother told her that if Quincy Harris ever killed her, the girl should jump out of her bedroom window and run to call for help.
The girl said her mother had been trying to get her father medical help because he had mental issues.
The teen described for investigators how Harris sometimes talked to himself and acted paranoid, although she said he only acted that way at home and not when other people are around.
Jaquisha Allison of Benton, the victim's 28-year-old sister, was also at the home, and she showed investigators text messages between her, Kimeisha Harris and their mother, 55-year-old Wanda Williams, from Christmas Eve. The texts from Kimeisha Harris stated, "I have been threatened numerous of [sic] times from Quincy ... he load his gun. I don't know what it may bring thru night next year. If nothing is done to my kids, then please take care of them PLEASE. I HAD A GOOD TI.E WITH YALL AND LV U SOOO MUCH."
A mental evaluation by state doctors, conducted at the request of Quincy Harris' lawyers, found he was not mentally ill but rather addicted to marijuana, with Harris describing how he had smoked almost daily since he was 16.
Court records show Quincy Harris had not been in serious trouble with the law for years before the murder. His first felony arrest occurred in December 2002 in Little Rock with a felony quantity of cocaine and a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. He pleaded guilty to the charges in July 2003 in exchange for three years on probation.
His probation was extended in December 2004 for using marijuana and not paying his fees and fines, then extended again in August 2006 after he had tested positive for marijuana on several occasions. Harris was next arrested on a felony marijuana possession charge in July 2009, pleading guilty in January 2010 in exchange for another three years on probation, conditioned in part on him undergoing drug treatment.