DETROIT (WXYZ) — The prosecution called their final witness Wednesday in the preliminary hearing for Jarvis Butts. He's accused of sexually assaulting and killing 13-year-old Na'Ziyah Harris, who disappeared Jan. 9, 2024.
Sgt. Shannon Jones, the officer in charge of the case, was that witness and will continue testifying Thursday.
When Wayne County's interim deputy chief medical examiner, Omer Rayes, testified, he said he was asked to review Na'Ziyah's medical records to see if anything in her health history would explain a cause of death.
Watch coverage of the previous day in court in the video player below:
The prosecution asked Rayes: "Did you see anything in there that would have caused Na'Ziyah to die naturally?"
Rayes replied: "No."
The defense took exception with that testimony since Na'Ziyah's body has not been recovered.
The defense asked Rayes: "So, if you don't have a body, you can't really opine this to whether a person is in fact deceased — fair to say?"
He replied: "Correct."
At the start of Jones' testimony, she explained how she inherited the case from Detroit Public Schools Community District's police department and the red flags that stood out to her from the start.
"No. 1, she had never been missing before. There's been no updates on any of her social media, which is very uncommon for a young child or a juvenile. They're addicted to those. There had been a last known contact that she had possibly met somebody, is what we were informed, that there was a text message," Jones explained.
The sergeant discussed the search of the River Rouge area where clothing items — like a shoe later determined to match one belonging to Na'Ziyah — were found.
Jones said investigators executed at least 20 search warrants in the case, including for electronic devices belonging to Butts.
They say they found questionable Google searches from December 2023, one month before Na'Ziyah disappeared.
The searches surround the belief that Butts impregnated Na'Ziyah and tried to cover his tracks.
"What's visited, it's 'drink me and abort your baby. The herbal abortion tea by Mya,'" Jones read.
She said he also visited Planned Parenthood's website and looked up further information about an abortion pill. Jones said Butts also Googled whether a person can use herbs to have an at-home abortion and if a person can drink red antifreeze.
Court resumes with Jones on the stand Thursday morning.
