Cape man found guilty of raping 14-year-old girl

A Cape Girardeau County jury took less than an hour to find Fred L. Harris Sr. guilty of forcibly raping a 14-year-old girl after allegedly telling her that he was "looking for a wife" and that he wanted to get her pregnant with his twins.

The four-man, eight-woman jury found Harris, 53, of Cape Girardeau guilty of forcible rape Thursday at the conclusion of a two-day trial held at the county courthouse in Jackson in front of Circuit Judge Ben Lewis.

"This verdict shows that our community has zero tolerance for a man who would forcibly rape a stranger," said assistant prosecuting attorney Julie Hunter. "The jury found it necessary to only deliberate for one hour here before convicting this man. This verdict will serve to protect our community from predators like Fred Harris."

Harris is to be sentenced on July 25 and faces a range of five years to life in prison. The defendant remains in custody at the Cape Girardeau County jail, where he has been since his arrest.

Harris' attorney, public defender Jacob Zimmerman, declined comment except to say he believes it was a case of mistaken identity. During closing arguments, Zimmerman pointed out that the girl had not positively identified Harris when shown the photographic lineup immediately after the rape.

The victim testified that she had been walking on Morgan Oak Street in Cape Girardeau on May 28, 2004, at about 3:30 p.m. when she was approached by a man she did not know. The man told her he was looking for a wife and thought she was the one and wanted her to "have his twins," the girl said.

After a brief conversation, he pulled her into an alley and to an old junk car lot where he raped her, the girl said. Immediately after, she fled home and told her grandmother what had happened, she said.

After her grandmother called police, prosecutors said that Harris was apprehended less than two blocks from the scene.

Later, prosecutors say the girl picked his picture from a photo line up, though she said she didn't see a blemish on his face that she remembered from the rape. Officers had seen the blemish themselves, but say that it did not show up on the photograph, so they brought Harris to be viewed by the victim through a one-way mirror. She then identified him as the rapist.

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