Killer of Playboy model gets life in jail
NORRISTOWN >> A judge ensured that a man who killed a onetime Playboy model inside her Ardmore condo will never be released from prison.
“This man should never, ever be released from prison. The public must be protected from this man,” Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter said on Tuesday as he sentenced Jonathan Wesley Harris, 31, to life imprisonment in connection with the Aug. 22, 2018, strangulation death of model Christina Rose Kraft, 36, inside her residence in the 100 block of Sibley Avenue in the Ardmore section of Lower Merion.
During a trial in May, a jury convicted Harris of charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping,
possessing an instrument of crime and strangulation.
First-degree murder, an intentional killing, is punishable of a mandatory term of life imprisonment.
But Carpenter imposed 22½-to-45-years in consecutive prison time against Harris on the other charges.
The additional prison time, sought by Assistant District Attorney Brianna Ringwood and co-prosecutor Roderick Fancher is largely symbolic but makes it difficult for a future governor to ever commute Harris’s life prison sentence.
With the consecutive prison time, Carpenter said he wanted to “say loud and clear” that Harris should never be released.
Harris, who listed addresses in Johnstown, Cambria County, and in Pittsburgh, appeared unfazed by the sentence and told a packed courtroom he was prepared to accept his punishment.
“I believe that justice was served. I believe in the law and the commandments of God. I’m sitting here taking responsibility for the things that I’ve done,” Harris, wearing a red jailhouse jumpsuit and white sweatshirt, said as Kraft’s grieving boyfriend, Alex Ciccotelli, and other friends and relatives stared at him. “I want to apologize in the deepest way I can for what happened.”
Despite the jury’s finding that he acted intentionally, Harris claimed he was “high” on drugs at the time.
“This was never my intention. I never intended for this to happen,” Harris said.
Ringwood argued consecutive prison time was warranted because Harris murdered Kraft a month after he was released from prison after serving a sentence for robbery.
“This defendant didn’t just steal Christina Kraft’s life, he stole the last moments of her life when he brutally beat her and filled her last moments on this earth with pain and suffering,” Ringwood said.
During a dramatic moment, Kraft’s boyfriend addressed Harris in court.
“You killed a kind, loving gracious, amazing person. You murdered a 115-pound defenseless female. I can’t make sense of it,” Ciccotelli said as he looked at Harris.
Ciccotelli described Kraft as his “companion in life” and said people were drawn to her “captivating looks.” The grief-stricken man said he and Kraft were together for 15 years and that she “loved people.”
Kraft, a native of Margate, N.J., previously modeled in photo shoots for Playboy, Vanity Fair, Victoria’s Secret and Maxim.
“She was the center of any room,” Ciccotelli said.
Ciccotelli also addressed
“This man should never, ever be released from prison. The public must be protected from this man.” - Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter
the defense trial strategy and suggestion that Harris killed Kraft during a heated dispute about sex and cocaine and that the murder was not intentional.
“This wasn’t a drug deal gone wrong,” Ciccotelli said. “She didn’t do drugs. The notion of a drug deal gone wrong, absolutely ludicrous.”
Ciccotelli accused Harris of slandering Kraft and asked Harris to recant the “drug deal gone wrong” claim. Harris didn’t respond to the request.
In a statement to detectives, Harris claimed he met Kraft in the early morning hours of Aug. 22 in center city Philadelphia and the pair returned to Kraft’s residence so he could sell her cocaine and have sex. Harris claimed the pair drank several bottles of wine and that an argument ensued when Kraft thought having sex was sufficient payment for the cocaine but he still wanted $1,200 cash. Harris claimed Kraft struck him with a glass bottle on his left ear during the argument.
But testimony revealed detectives found no cocaine in Kraft’s residence and blood tests determined Kraft had no illegal drugs in her system. Kraft, testimony revealed, did have a bloodalcohol content of 0.25 percent, which is three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent for driving in Pennsylvania.
During the trial, Ringwood and Fancher argued Harris beat and strangled Kraft with “a specific intent to kill,” striking her so hard he crushed her sinuses and strangling her for 2-to3-minutes.
“We’ll never know the absolute truth about what happened because he killed the only other person who could tell us. Today, the defendant had an opportunity to tell the truth about what happened and he didn’t,” Ringwood said.
An autopsy determined Kraft died from ligature strangulation but prosecutors never specifically identified the item they believe Harris used during the attack.
Harris did not testify during the trial, but the jury heard his confession.
The investigation began about 9 p.m. Aug. 22 when Kraft’s boyfriend, who owned the condo at which Kraft resided, contacted Lower Merion police to report his concern that Kraft had not answered any of his calls or text messages.
When police forced their way inside the residence they discovered Kraft dead in her bed.
“In addition, the pillows, sheets and comforter surrounding her body, as well as areas of the bedroom carpet and walls were significantly bloodstained,” county Detective Gregory Henry and Lower Merion Detective Edward Sarama wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from the Sibley Avenue area and determined Kraft left the residence alone at 1:10 a.m. Aug. 22. Numerous cameras in downtown Philadelphia depicted Kraft meeting Harris about 2:20 a.m. in front of a pizza shop near 13th and St. James streets and the pair walking arm in arm along various center city streets before getting into a Lyft vehicle about 2:30 a.m. for the trip to Kraft’s condo.
Kraft, according to video surveillance footage, was observed at 3:05 a.m. in a first-floor lobby of her condo building returning with Harris, who entered the elevator with her, according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives alleged the apartment’s security system indicated a person exited from the back door of the residence onto a terrace around 5:19 a.m. Video surveillance showed a person, Harris, walking beneath Kraft’s condo terrace at 5:25 a.m. and later walking along Sibley Avenue to Church Street and later on Montgomery and City avenues, according to court papers.
Harris was apprehended in Pittsburgh where he traveled by bus on Aug. 29.