Category: Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr.

Jury convicts man in ‘spell gone wrong’ murder of two children

Lawrence Douglas Harris Lawrence Harris, 26, who had an interest in witchcraft, told police his two stepdaughters had died when a spell he cast to protect their teenage brother reversed itself, killing them. His attorneys attempted to prove he was legally insane.

But after two weeks of testimony, jurors took only a couple of hours Thursday to find Harris guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.

Family, jurors see pictures of young, battered victims

Lawrence Douglas Harris Officer Williams said Harris became more upset — hunching over, dry heaving — when firefighters brought the girls’ bodies out of the house.

Officer Charlotte Gorter testified that when she asked Harris what he thought could have started the fire, he told her it might have been a consequence of a spell.

Harris said he practiced witchcraft, Gorter said, explaining that a spell might have reversed.

Trial begins for man accused of killing daughters in ritual

Lawrence Douglas Harris After more than a year of preparation and several delays, a jury will hear from attorneys and witnesses today as the double-murder trial of Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr. begins.

Harris, 26, is accused of killing his young stepdaughters during some kind of ritual. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers will try to prove that he was legally insane when the crimes were committed.

Mother, community search for answers in death of two girls killed in ritual

Lawrence Douglas Harris In the basement, officers find candles, Larry’s ritual knife, stained with DNA from one of the girls, a symbol of Baphomet, representing Satan and believed to have occult power, bells and an amulet with an inverted pentagram — all items used in rituals described in “The Satanic Bible.”

Larry tells police he has a spell notebook in his and Marla’s bedroom closet. The notebook contains drawings from the book “Pagan Ways,” references found in the occult fiction book “Necronomicom” and page numbers corresponding to “The Satanic Bible,” including one specific spell.

Court documents claim man killed step-daughters in Satanic ritual

Court Prosecutors say 26-year-old Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr., who faces two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly killing his 8- and 10-year-old stepdaughters in January, was practicing satanism and carefully planned the killings as a part of a spell or ritual from “The Satanic Bible.”

Shortly after the girls’ deaths, police said Harris told them they had died during a spell that “had gone bad.”

Girls had many questions about witchcraft, pastor says

Two young sisters who were murdered during a ritual slaying Sunday knew more about witchcraft then they should have for their age, a local pastor said. Pastor Cary Gordon of Cornerstone World Outreach said Kendra Suing, 10, and Alysha Suing, 8, bombarded a bus driver for the church with questions after a summer lesson about the sinfulness of practicing witchcraft.