Man gets 35 years in Colorado killing
Body in suitcase dumped in Arkansas
An Arkansas man has been sentenced to 35 years behind bars in Colorado after he admitted to killing a woman there before driving around with her body in a suitcase and dumping it in Arkansas, according to the district attorney in Weld County, Colo.
David Houston-Harvey, 26, of Jacksonville was sentenced Wednesday and will serve time in the Colorado Department of Corrections for the shooting death of Laramie Cline, 23, of Ozark, Ala.
A grand jury in Colorado indicted Houston-Harvey last year on first- and second-degree murder charges, as well as charges of robbery and aggravated theft in Weld County, which is just northeast of Denver.
Houston-Harvey was already serving a 12-year sentence in the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Tucker Unit after pleading guilty to felonies related to the dumping of Cline’s body.
As part of a plea agreement, Houston-Harvey pleaded guilty in June in Weld County District Court
to second-degree murder. The parties agreed to the 35-year sentence in Colorado and five years of mandatory parole.
The Colorado sentence will run concurrent with the Arkansas sentence.
Houston-Harvey told Colorado investigators that he and Cline were traveling through Weld County on their way from Wyoming to Denver in August 2017 when the slaying occurred, according to a news release from the Weld County district attorney. Houston-Harvey said Cline wanted to stay in Colorado, but he wanted to return to Arkansas or Alabama.
Houston-Harvey said he and Cline had traveled to Colorado and had spent several days there, according to the news release. He told investigators that Cline tried to rob him at gunpoint as they traveled along an interstate, and that Cline was shot when the gun went off during a struggle over the weapon, according to court records.
Colorado investigators said Houston-Harvey later told his current girlfriend that he shot and killed Cline when she was sleeping, the news release said.
Houston-Harvey told police that he placed Cline’s body in a suitcase and took her remains to Arkansas, courts records said.
The Arkansas State Police was notified Aug. 20, 2017, that Cline was missing and was last known to be with Houston-Harvey, an affidavit states. That same day, authorities traced Cline’s cellphone to Pinnacle Mountain State Park, west of Little Rock, where Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies found Cline’s car later that day.
A search of the vehicle revealed a large amount of dried blood in the spare-tire compartment area, authorities said. State park rangers maintained surveillance on the car, and about 6 p.m., Houston-Harvey returned along a hiking trail, according to an affidavit.
Houston-Harvey led police to a levee of Lake Pickthorne in the Holland Bottoms Wildlife Management Area north of Jacksonville. Agents found a large black suitcase with decomposing human remains inside in a wooded area near the levee, according to the affidavit.
“When she was taken from me, a part of me died along with her,” Cline’s mother, Kim Cline, said in the news release from Weld County. “Laramie could light up a room with her smile. She was beautiful but had no idea that she was. Laramie was a sweet soul.”
Weld County Chief Deputy District Attorney Anthony Perea said the case was especially hard to prosecute.
“No amount of prison time will ever bring this victim back nor will it bring peace to her grieving family,” Perea said in a news release. “This murder was completely senseless, and the defendant robbed this young woman of the rest of her life. He took away a part of her family that they’ll never get back.”