By Nikki G. Bannister
For The Town Talk
MARKSVILLE -- It took a jury only 25 minutes to unanimously find Terry Day of Cottonport guilty of second-degree murder in the January 2010 stabbing death of his longtime girlfriend.
Day, 39, gave a slight smile and then put his head down as he listened to 12th District Judge William Bennett read the jury's decision Wednesday. The slight smile was a constant show of expression throughout the two-day trial that included graphic and detailed testimony from autopsy reports, law enforcement authorities and close friends of Day and the stabbing victim, Aime Marie Harris, 33, of Cottonport.
Joe Harris, Aime Harris' brother, said of the conviction, "I'm not surprised, because I always knew he was a loose cannon, that's just the type of person he is, so I knew this. Not only when he was dating my sister, but before. But I was just praying the jury would make the right decision, and it did."
During the trial, Myles Johnson and Allen Smith, Day's attorneys, argued that the state couldn't prove Day killed Harris, despite him being with her when she died.
"We admit that Terry Day was there when the victim died," Smith said. " ... (But) even the state doesn't have an eyewitness ..."
Autopsy reports showed Harris had been stabbed eight times to the upper body, including the neck area, and two of the stab wounds were at least 7 inches deep.
The Avoyelles Parish District Attorney's Office prosecutors played lengthy video and audio recordings of cell phone calls made by Harris and Day, beginning with a 911 call made by Harris on Jan. 12, as Day was trying to run her off La. Highway 1. As the jury was shown gory pictures of the stabbing crime scene and autopsy throughout the trial, members of Harris' family periodically wept aloud and left the courtroom.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Kelly described the case as a "cover-up" and provided evidence that supported that on Jan. 12, Day chased Harris along La. Highway 1 until she met police at the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff's Office.
"When you try to think of what his evil intent was, you couldn't have anything more evil," Kelly said.
On Jan. 17, Harris went to the Cottonport Police Department seeking to have Day removed from her house. A neighbor, Julian Kyle, testified that six days later, on Jan. 23, he had his fiancée, Hope Landry, call 911 after Day chased Harris into his yard.
The next day, prosecutors said, Day chased Harris and stabbed her in the neck and elsewhere multiple times, then transported her body to a barn in Marksville and buried it under feed bags.
Prosecutors showed jurors evidence, including testimony from an AT&T engineer, that proved Day made seven 911 phone calls on Jan. 24, all within one hour.
The first call that came from Day's cell phone was made at 12:09 p.m., when an unnamed caller asked if "... anyone say anything about a body ..."
The second, third and fourth calls came shortly after when Day called and claimed to be his mother "Laquita Day," a person prosecutors claimed didn't exist. "Laquita Day" initially told 911 dispatch supervisor May Rose Dupas that " there was a girl that fell on a knife." The caller later said her son, Terry, had told her that he had fought with Harris. The caller then proceeded to give Dupas detailed information about the location of Harris' body.
The fifth call was made at 12:44 p.m., from Day's cell phone and was someone claiming to be the victim's brother. According to 911 records, he said, "This is Joe Harris, did they find my sister's body?"
The sixth call was at 12:54 p.m., and Day asked if authorities had found Harris' body. He tells another dispatcher that Harris "was running down the road, and it just jiggered through her throat ..."
The seventh and final call was Day questioning again if Harris' body was found. He then spoke with Marksville Police Department Detective Eric Jacobs, who asked Day to turn himself in.
Kevin Ferris, a close friend of Day from Jena, testified Day told him that he had killed Harris.
Prosecutors used the calls and photos in a timeline to construct events that led up to Harris' murder.
" We were following a trail of deception ...," Kelly said. "A trail of deception by Terry Day. ... He was the one who called 911 within one hour. ... It was a lie on top of a lie, on top of a lie ..."
Judge Bennett will sentence Day at 9 a.m. Nov. 9. The conviction on second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
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