Jury to begin deliberations in dismemberment case

Defense attorney Carrie Allman made her case to the jury Monday by blaming the stabbing deaths and dismemberment of a Penn Hills couple on the defendant’s sister.

Frederick Harris III, 49, is accused of killing his mother, Olivia Gilbert, 73, and her husband, Lamar Gilbert, 76, on Dec. 13, 2014, in their home. Three days later, police were called by Mr. Harris’ sister, Angela, who said she’d become concerned when her mother didn’t return her calls. Police met Angela at the home on Sunset Drive. They found Mr. Harris breathing but unresponsive in his mother’s bed, curled up under a comforter.

The couple’s bodies, which had been dismembered, were found in six garbage cans in the garage.

Mr. Harris’ trial on charges of homicide and abuse of a corpse began on Wednesday before Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski. The jury, which heard closing arguments Monday afternoon, will begin deliberating this morning.

During her closing, Ms. Allman reminded the jury that the prosecution failed to present any motive

for the crimes, and instead focused on the gruesome nature of it.

“The terribleness of the crime alone doesn’t let you use your emotions in deciding this case,” she said.

Ms. Allman then focused on evidence presented at trial that Angela Harris has a history of strangling two cats when she was not properly taking her medication for mental illness, expanding on a suggestion she’d made in her opening arguments.

“I don’t say this to you to be sensational,” she said. “I don’t say this to you to degrade the mental health issues that Ms. Harris has. I say it to you because it’s relevant.”

Strangling a cat, which would struggle and fight back, would be difficult, Ms. Allman continued.

“That is a violent act, and she has done it on more than one occasion.”

Ms. Allman said that Angela Harris called police to the home on purpose that day.

“She wanted the police in that house because she knew what they would find. Because she knew what she had done.”

But assistant district attorney Lisa Pellegrini told the jurors that Ms. Allman putting the blame on the defendant’s sister was “ludicrous.”

“All this finger-pointing at Angela Harris is ridiculous,” the prosecutor began. “You saw that woman. She’s a broken woman.

“Did anything about Angela Harris appear to you that she could have carried out the brutality of this crime?”

Ms. Pellegrini quickly recapped the couple’s injuries — they both died from stabbing. The autopsy revealed Mr. Gilbert had stab wounds to his neck, shoulder, chest and back. Mrs. Gilbert had a stab wound to her cheek, a defensive wound that went through the palm of her left hand and out the back, as well as a stab wound in her thigh.

Police did not find some of the victims’ body parts. The prosecution believes the missing parts were picked up in trash collection the morning of Dec. 15, 2014.

During her closing, Ms. Pellegrini outlined the evidence against Mr. Harris, including that he bought four large, rolling garbage cans in the days after police said the couple were killed; that he bought a new knife set — she said to replace the one destroyed in the crime — and bought new sneakers. He also was seen in surveillance video withdrawing money from an ATM with his mother’s card, she said.

The prosecutor also reminded the jury Mr. Harris’ prints were found on the knots sealing two garbage bags that contained body parts, as well as on the packing tape found wrapped around it.

“Who is found in the house with the dismembered bodies?” Ms. Pellegrini asked. “Who had the means to inflict these vicious wounds?

“He was one garbage pickup away from getting away with this murder.”