Boy's Body Found, Sex Offender Arrested
By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer
Originally published July 31, 2006, 10:22 PM EDT
BALTIMORE // An 11-year-old boy missing since last week was found slain early Monday on a golf course near his home, and a twice-convicted child sex offender was arrested in his death, police said.

An autopsy was being performed on the body of Irvin Harris to establish the cause of death.





Hours after finding the body, police arrested Melvin Jones Jr., 52, inside a downtown fast food restaurant after they got an anonymous tip that he was there. He was charged Monday night with first-degree murder and other crimes, according to Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman.

Col. Fred Bealefeld, the department's chief of detectives, described Jones as the Harris family's friend and said there was "every indication" that Irvin's mother knew about Jones' 2002 conviction for having sex with a teenage boy.

"I'm blaming myself right now," Irvin's mother, Shanda Harris, told WBAL-TV. "By trusting Melvin, now my son is gone."

Jones pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in 1989 and served about seven months in prison, said Joseph Sviatko, a spokesman for the Baltimore state's attorney's office. He pleaded guilty in 2002 to a sex offense involving a 15-year-old boy and was sentenced to a year in prison, Sviatko said.

The victim in the 2002 case met Jones when he was walking home from school, and the two had sex several times over a period of about 18 months, according to court documents. Jones told police while being questioned "that he was a pedophile who needed help," the court documents state.

Jones registered as a sex offender after his 2002 conviction and was on probation, Sviatko said.

Irvin was last seen by his family Friday around noon, when he left for his summer job at a nearby grocery store, Moses said. His body was found before daybreak in a densely wooded section of the Clifton Park Golf Course, out of the sight of golfers.







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By Julie Bykowicz and Sumathi Reddy
Sun Reporters
Originally published August 1, 2006, 9:45 PM EDT
Baltimore prosecutors Tuesday launched a child welfare investigation of the Harris family, saying possible charges against relatives and acquaintances of the 11-year-old boy who allegedly died at the hands of a registered sex offender could include child abuse and neglect.

Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for the city state's attorneys office, said the inquiry will be separate from the homicide investigation and will try answer the question of whether there was any other criminal wrongdoing that led to the death over the weekend of Irvin J. Harris.

"If we suspect a problem, we are required under the law to report and investigate it," Burns said.

A friend of the family, Melvin L. Jones Jr., 52, has been charged with first-degree murder in Irvin's stabbing death.

What could be of key interest to prosecutors is Irvin's mother's admission that she knew Jones was a convicted sex offender, and yet continued to allow him to be around her children and grandchildren. Prosecutors said they also want to determine whether any adults outside the family knew about Jones' status as a sex offender.

Standing on the porch of her Lawnview Avenue home in Northeast Baltimore Tuesday, Shanda Raynette Harris, 41, said she blamed herself for her son's death, saying she shouldn't have been so trusting.

But she also angrily said that police should have done more, given Jones' criminal record. And she said her family and friends have been supportive, insisting there is no one to blame but the man charged with the murder -- a man her family has called a friend for about four years.

Bertha Reid, Irvin's grandmother, said she was suspicious of Jones because he hung out with children often.

"I told her I thought something was wrong," said Reid, 59, of Shanda Harris. "I told her when I first met him. She had a drug problem, so she couldn't see."

Irvin, who would have been a fifth-grader this fall at Collington Square School, grew up in a Baltimore family strained by violence, financial problems and drug abuse, court records and interviews show.

His mother has struggled with a longtime heroin addiction; his father has been in prison for murder since Irvin was 3 years old.

Shanda Harris has been arrested and cited about a dozen times in Baltimore, according to court records.

She was found guilty last month in District Court of petty theft and put on yearlong probation.

The judge also ordered Shanda Harris to work or attend school regularly, to allow probation agents to routinely visit her home and to continue with regular drug screening and drug treatment, court records show.

She pleaded guilty in April 1999 to a drug charge and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but a day or two suspended and three years of unsupervised probation. Several forgery, theft, open container and disorderly conduct charges over the years have been filed against her but not pursued by prosecutors, court records show.

District Court judges ordered Shanda Harris to pay her delinquent insurance bills in 2000 and her Baltimore Gas and Electric bills in 2004, court records show.

Irvin's father, Aaron Rodney Harris, 45, pleaded guilty in January 1998 in Baltimore Circuit Court to second-degree murder and using a handgun -- convictions that brought him a 20-year prison sentence, court records show.

Enter Melvin Jones -- a man with a history of sexual abuse who admitted to police in 2001 that he is a "pedophile who needs help."

Jones made himself an important part of the Harris family by providing free babysitting for Irvin and other young relatives. He gave the family money and became a sort of male role model, taking Irwin to the library to show him how to use a computer.

Shannon Venable, 23, who is Irvin's sister, said Jones helped financially when the family needed money but would not pay rent or bills. Shanda Harris said she is not employed. She receives disability checks, said her mother.

"If she needed help, he'd help her with it," said Venable of Harris. "He helped out a lot and did a lot of things for the kids."

Jones also bought Irvin a cell phone, family members said, and he would frequently call and text-message Irwin on the phone.

Harris said she saw a text message that Jones sent to her son recently that said, "I love you."

She said she confronted her son and Jones about it. "I cussed him out and said he can't be around my kids," said Harris. "I told my son not to be around him by himself."

Harris said Monday that she found out about a year ago from her drug treatment counselors that Jones was a registered sex offender. But she said that when she confronted him about it, he told her he had engaged in consensual touching and had not served any jail time.

Elizabeth Bartholomew, spokeswoman for the state Division of Parole and Probation, said sex offenders seek out families such as the Harrises. "They tend to prey on single mothers in particular," she said. "They justify their behavior by saying that they're doing the woman a favor by helping them out."

A homicide detective said there are no signs that Irvin was molested. The boy's body was fully clothed when it was discovered early Monday morning in the woods not far from the Belair-Edison home where the Harrises live.






[Edited 8/2/06 14:46pm]

damn, poor little boy never even had a chance!

This make me want to vomit. I live in Baltimore.
That boy's mother should go to jail too for allowing that demon to have access to her children.
She KNEW a year ago that that monster was a predator and she did not keep him away from her family. did NOT report to the the police that he was associating with her children or sending text messages to her son on his cell phone. What the hell are people thinking when they allow this shit!
Her FIRST and only thought should have been with protecting her children. Not trusting that piece of shit. He should be burned alive. And she should go to jail for child endangerment.

Jesus Christ. that kid was only 7 when that creep started abusing him This is soooo sad

Disgusting. I don't know what to say.

I do know one thing. Most, if not all, sex offenders re-offend.


M

brownsugar said:

Yeah, his mom and dad were all fucked up. Too bad. The mother needs to be put to death just as much as the man directly responsible.

sometimes i wonder why the death penalty or life in prison is not an option for sex offenders. If the death penalty is going to be legal and if it's going to be used for murders then why not sex offenders, too? I feel like what they do is far worse.

that poor boy.

OH MY GOD!!!



Look @ him, he was so beautiful!!! I simply can't believe some people - why in the fucking hell would you let someone like that anywhere near your child???

we just had a resolution to a repeat peodophile taking two boys... they have been found in good physical condition but god knows what they have been through mentally

the reporter went to the small town where one of the boys was from
and asked a group of children if they had learned anything from this experience.
they all replied that you shouldn't talk to strangers or get into a stranger's vehicle

the majority of the time the offender has wormed their way into the lives of the children just like this story!!!
it's not the big bad stranger. it's the person who befriends our kids and tries to make the kid believe that the play tickling is normal.

we need to teach our children to listen to the voice in their heads
when someone, ANYONE... does anything to make them feel strange they need to give voice to it to someone trusted.

yeah, he's a cute kid, that monster needs to be punished, the mom is an ass.

emm said:

Are you talking about the case where the guy followed the tracks in the grass and discovered the pedophile's van?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

yes!! you heard about it all the way down in california??
it's the first time we've had an amber alert here

emm said:

Oh my God. We have those all the damn time

Yeah, I heard about it last night on the CBC

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

we are a bit of an innocent place here supa
and how the heck do you see cbc there??

i know hindsight is always 20/20 but someone failed this man and in so doing irrevocably changed these two boys' lives
what this article doesn't say is that he was also once found to be in posession of a "rape kit" - a backpack containing duct tape, those plastic ties you can use for handcuffs, rubber gloves, lubricant and photos of young boys. it also doesn't mention that the parole board said there was 100% chance he would reoffend




with these last two boys that is ten by my count... that we know about

emm said:[quote]

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Good lord I hear the CBC on public radio every night at 10:00. I always listen I'm a broadminded American, in case you hadn't already noticed

The tragic part of this (beyond the suffering of the victims), is that because of the actions of a sick miniority, they're making it virtually impossible for families to have extended relationships to nurture the home. Nobody can trust ANYBODY around their children anymore and we'll all pay for as a society.

I feel that I really grew up in the dying days of the community concept "it takes a village to raise a child". I didn't live near many extended relatives, but close neighbors were an intregal part to my mental and siritual growth as a child. They loved, coddled, and nurtured me in everything from storytelling, to having meals together, to learning cultural things to molding values and ethics...and though none of them acted as a disciplinarian for me per se, if I or any of the other kids in the neighborhood fell out of line for an INSTANT, our mamas and daddies knew about it before we even walked in the door, because a call would have been placed by the neighbors, and collectively the community acted as team and mutual support system for each other. These folks were serious about the welfare of children and trying to turn out better generations
of little human beings into the world to be productive. Not victimize and scar them....what happened????

Ottensen said:

exactly

ZombieKitten said:

When you think about it, do you ever feel like you're almost a dinosaur breed kind of human? In our lifetime, we are witnessing such an extreme shift in socity's values for human life...it feels like the entire world in the space of 30+ years is regressing rather than becoming more evolved. It's like everywhere you turn, there is bedlam; the schools and communities are a mess, people want to blow each other up every 5 minutes with bombs big & small: Humanity needs to go through another mind-culture-spirit revolution like "The Age of Reason" or "The Reannaisance"...something...ANYTHING. Otherwise, I'm telling you, the idea of retiring to secluded island in my old age (if I manage to make it that far away from the ills of the big city is starting to look more promising EVERY day .

Ottensen said:

secluded island
though honestly I don't really think worse things are happening now than ever before, we just hear/read about it more readily. But we are making it easier for things happen to our children by isolating our families from the broader community, people are only looking out for their own kid, not anyone elses. and by not knowing people well enough to gain mutual trust and respect. I know I am guilty of that.