'Justice done' as judge sentences Harris to life in prison for murder

Convicted murderer Malcolm Harris was sentenced Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting a man in the back of the head after a night of binge drinking and drug use.

Judge Benjamin Lewis handed down the sentence in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court in Jackson amid tight security.

Family and friends of Harris sat on one side of the courtroom, while family and friends of the victim, Domorlo McCaster, crowded into the pews on the other side of the aisle.

In September, a jury found Harris guilty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful possession of a firearm and tampering with physical evidence.

In addition to life in prison on the murder charge, Lewis sentenced Harris to prison sentences of four years for tampering with evidence, seven years for unlawful possession of a firearm and 30 years for armed criminal action. Lewis ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

Harris, shackled and attired in an orange jail uniform, showed little emotion after sentencing as officers led him out of the courtroom.

Harris, 26, was convicted of killing McCaster as they and two other men sat in a GMC Envoy in a driveway in a Cape Girardeau neighborhood May 14, 2016.

Lewis told the defendant he had “committed, cold, ruthless murder,” then tried to tamper with evidence to cover up the crime.

He added Harris previously had been convicted in another case of second-degree robbery. As a felon, it was illegal for Harris to possess a gun, Lewis said in reference to the unlawful possession of a firearm charge.

The judge said Harris had a pistol in his possession and was “ready to use it.”

Before sentencing, defense attorney Stephen Wilson argued his client deserved a new trial because two of the state’s key witnesses in the trial were held in the same jail cell and that fact was not disclosed to the defense.

Witness Terrell Hunt only gave a statement to police after spending time talking to the other witness in the jail cell, according to trial testimony.

“It very well could have affected the outcome of the trial,” Wilson told the judge.

But assistant prosecuting attorney Angel Woodruff said information the two witnesses were held in the same jail cell was contained in the police report, which was provided to the defense.

She told the judge Wilson’s argument was a “last-gasp attempt to drum up some allegation of misconduct.”

Lewis rejected Wilson’s argument before sentencing Harris.

Prosecutors asked the judge to impose a life sentence.

But Wilson urged the judge to hand down a lesser sentence.

“I don’t think he is beyond redemption,” he said of his client.

The defendant’s parents, Willie and Rose Marie Harris, pleaded with the judge to show mercy.

Willie Harris said he was “sorry” for the death of McCaster. “I ask that you have mercy on my son.”

Rose Marie Harris told the judge her son is “not a murderer. I know my son. He is not going to go out and just kill somebody.”

She added her son is “not a lost cause.”

But as the victim’ father, Eugene Lester Jr. of Cape Girardeau, left the courthouse after sentencing, he summed up the court action in two words.

“Justice done,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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