Harris Trial Returned to Jury Call in January

By Benjamin Cox on October 4, 2021 at 1:14pm

A Cass County murder trial is back on the jury docket.

71 year old Robert D. Harris of Virginia was given a jury trial date of January 18th at 9AM this morning in Cass County Court. Defense Attorney Denise Barr and Cass County State’s Attorney Craig Miller said that Dr. Terry Killian had completed and returned a report on Harris’ mental status. Barr indicated that the report was currently in the possession of defense counsel Kevin Wykoff who was not present in court today.

The details of the report was not discussed in open court. Killian’s evaluation comes after it was ordered by the defense on July 27th after Wykoff indicated in court that he learned that Harris may possess a mental disease or mental defect that caused him to lack substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct in the alleged January shooting deaths of Kathleen Wzientek and Brenda Crum both of Virginia in January.

Harris is next due in court for an omnibus hearing on December 15th with a final pre-trial conference on January 7th.