Harris brothers' defense teams receive mountain of discovery

[December 04, 2009]  The two brothers accused of murdering the Raymond Gee family of Beason in September -- Christopher Harris, 30, and Jason L. Harris, 22 -- were in the circuit court of Judge Thomas Harris yesterday morning.

The status hearings were part of both defense teams' requests for discovery of evidence.

In the case of Christopher, the hearing began at 10:46 a.m. His brother Jason's hearing began at 11:17 a.m.

Jason appeared in court wearing McLean County Jail clothing.

At both hearings, Assistant Attorney General Michael Atterberry advised the court that 1,097 documents, seven DVDs and one CD were turned over to defense teams.

Judge Harris, noting some documents were in black-and-white as well as color, advised the prosecution to make sure copies of both are submitted to the defense.

More than 35 members of the Gee and Harris families as well as media were in court for the hearings.

Another status hearing is set for Christopher Harris on Dec. 22 at 11 a.m. The hearing will be to determine if by that date an agreement between the state and his defense has been made as to the procedure for the state to perform DNA tests on evidence: testing that might by its nature destroy the samples.

Jason Harris' defense team has a similar motion and a further status hearing regarding the DNA testing in his case. It is set for Dec. 23 at 1:15 p.m.

The prosecution in both cases agreed to the dates and times.

[By MIKE FAK]