Brothers charged with killing veteran get next court date
Two brothers charged with killing a U.S. Army veteran from Pontiac are scheduled for a preliminary exam Oct. 30 where 50th District Judge Preston Thomas will determine if the case moves forward.
Sean Porter, 51, and Steven Porter, 47, face seconddegree murder charges for the death of 52-year- old Omar Harland, who reportedly was homeless but most recently had been staying with a friend in Pontiac. Harland died at McLarenOakland Hospital two days after the Porters allegedly assaulted him on a Pontiac street Sept. 2.
The Porters had initially been charged with assault with intent to do great bodily less than murder or by strangulation. The charge was upgraded following Harland’s death.
Celica Thomas, one of
Harland’s seven kids, said the family is struggling to cope with their loss.
“I wish I could say that things are getting better by the day, but honestly we’re all still pretty torn up, just trying to find better ways of dealing with our pain,” Thomas said.
Harland, she said, “wasn’t just ‘ some guy.’” Besides his kids, he left behind eight grandchildren and a 90-year-oldmother, as well as “a host of other family members and extremely close friends who loved him very much,” Thomas said.
“It’s hard you know, holding
everything together when you feel like your world has fallen apart,” she said.
‘Multi-faceted call’
Some of Harland’s family and friends have questioned why Oakland County sheriff’s deputies didn’t locate him when they arrived on the scene shortly before 3 a.m. onAug. 2 inresponse to a report of a woman covered in blood in the 90 block of Poplar Street. Along with being assaulted, the woman had also been robbed of her purse, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies on the scene were made aware that Harland had been attacked, too. Yet Harland had left the scene and the injured woman provided no information to deputies when asked several questions about where he might have gone or where he lived, Oakland County Undersherif f Mike McCabe told The Oakland Press. She did, however, tell deputies that Harland didn’t have a phone, McCabe said.
Not long afterward, the suspects’ vehicle was pulled over as it drove by while deputies were on the scene. Sean Porter was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and allegedly admitted to attacking Harland, the sheriff’s office said. He and Steven Porter were subsequently charged for the assault, with the charge upgraded after Harland died.
McCabe said the incident was “a multi-faceted call” that involved tending to the injured woman, investigating a strong arm robbery, stopping and detaining suspects, and arresting one of them on suspicion of driving drunk. The scene hadn’t yet been cleared when Harland was located at 3:53 a.m., four minutes after a 9-1-1 call came in about a man who was vomiting blood and not responding. A deputy found him in a grassy area near Poplar and Baldwin streets, McCabe said, and Star EMS then transported him to the hospital.
It wasn’t until 7:01 a.m. — more than three hours after Harland was found — that the scene was officially cleared, McCabe added.
Recently, a woman who described herself as “a very good friend” of Harland’s, Patricia Denny, told The Oakland Press that Harland was someone who wouldn’t hesitate to come to the aid of a person in trouble, and suspects he was trying to help the injured woman when the assailants turned on him.
Both Porters have extensive criminal records dating back decades. They’re held in the Oakland County Jail, denied bond.