DETROIT (WXYZ) — After the final day of the preliminary hearing Thursday, the suspect in the disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Na'Ziyah Harris, Jarvis Butts, will stand trial. Butts is accused of sexually assaulting and killing 13-year-old Na'Ziyah, who disappeared exactly one year ago on Jan. 9, 2024.
Before binding Butts over to trial, Judge Aliyah Sabree gave a more than 10-minute speech admonishing Butts and the other adults who were in the courtroom.
"Several people failed her. I don't know where her mother is. I don't know anything other than she was forced to live at home where she was not protected," Judge Sabree said. "You are the monster."
Watch the judge's speech in the video below
When Wayne County's interim deputy chief medical examiner, Omer Rayes, testified, he said he was asked to review Na'Ziyah's medical records to see if anything in her health history would explain a cause of death.
Watch coverage of the previous day in court in the video player below:
The prosecution asked Rayes: "Did you see anything in there that would have caused Na'Ziyah to die naturally?"
Rayes replied: "No."
The defense took exception with that testimony since Na'Ziyah's body has not been recovered.
The defense asked Rayes: "So, if you don't have a body, you can't really opine this to whether a person is in fact deceased — fair to say?"
He replied: "Correct."
At the start of Jones' testimony, she explained how she inherited the case from Detroit Public Schools Community District's police department and the red flags that stood out to her from the start.
"No. 1, she had never been missing before. There's been no updates on any of her social media, which is very uncommon for a young child or a juvenile. They're addicted to those. There had been a last known contact that she had possibly met somebody, is what we were informed, that there was a text message," Jones explained.
The sergeant discussed the search of the River Rouge area where clothing items — like a shoe later determined to match one belonging to Na'Ziyah — were found.
Jones said investigators executed at least 20 search warrants in the case, including for electronic devices belonging to Butts.
They say they found questionable Google searches from December 2023, one month before Na'Ziyah disappeared.
The searches surround the belief that Butts impregnated Na'Ziyah and tried to cover his tracks.
"What's visited, it's 'drink me and abort your baby. The herbal abortion tea by Mya,'" Jones read.
She said he also visited Planned Parenthood's website and looked up further information about an abortion pill. Jones said Butts also Googled whether a person can use herbs to have an at-home abortion and if a person can drink red antifreeze.
The defense arguing that those searches cannot be tied to Na'Ziyah specifically, stating Butts had multiple girlfriends.
On the final day of the preliminary examination Detroit Police Sergeant read aloud disturbing alleged text messages between Butts and Na'Ziyah, talking about their multiple alleged sexual encounters and her pregnancy.
“I need you to bring me what I need tonight, it’s hard doing all this gym s*** with this baby," one of the alleged texts messages from Na'Ziyah to Butts read.
The prosecution also claimed human blood was found on a sweatshirt believed to belong to Na'Ziyah in the area of 7 Mile and Berg, along with both her and Butts' DNA. The defense claiming there may be evidence, but that nothing connects it to a criminal act.
Butts is expected back in court on January 16 at Wayne County's Third Circuit Court.
