'It was supposed to be over:' trial for ex-boyfriend who (allegedly) shot up house

UPDATE: Harris was found guilty Thursday of residential entry, criminal recklessness for shooting up the home and domestic battery with serious bodily injury. Sentencing is Aug.5. More details later'

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. --It was supposed to be over.

The 3-year relationship between Jeffery Harris and Kanikia Coleman had barely ended, however, when Harris turned up at her home one night in January 2022 and apparently went haywire.

Jeffery Harris

According to Allen County deputy prosecutor Matthew Skeens, Harris kicked in the back door, shot up the rooms and then followed his former beloved out to the street where he pummeled and kicked her into unconsciousness.

Harris, 32, went on trial Tuesday, in Allen Superior Court,  for burglary with a deadly weapon Level 2 felony; burglary resulting in bodily injury, Level 3; criminal reckless shooting into a building, Level 5; and, domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury, Level 5.

“He didn’t like the fact that there were guys at the house,” Skeens explained. “He’d been blowing up her phone that night.”

It’s hard to picture Harris with a baby-faced, wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly look to him showing up at the front door with his friend and angrily knocking, although Coleman said on the stand it was “banging” and demonstrated by thumping on the witness box. 

Harris knocked at the windows before going to the back of the house and kicking in the door, causing the occupants to scatter. The two men visiting Coleman and her sister went into Coleman’s 3-year old daughter’s room and shot back a couple of times when Harris allegedly went on a rampage that resulted in eight shell casings found inside and outside the home on Fay Street.

Coleman’s sister, not to be named by The Probable Cause, grabbed up the little girl and fled out the front door and ran about a block down the street before returning, she testified.

While Harris choked his one-time love, punched her and kicked her, neighbors were “blowing up” dispatch, reporting gunshots and the distressful scene taking place right in the middle of their street, according to Skeens.

Deputy prosecutor Tasha Lee interviewed an older neighbor who watched from the security of his home.

He described Harris as “the gentleman on top of her just going ‘boom boom’ he estimated “a good four or five times.”

It ended “when a lady police officer come and told him to get off.”

Lee asked him why he didn’t intervene. His reply was honest. “I didn’t want to interfere because I did not want to get hurt.”

Harris’ uphill climb from all the damning testimony also includes the size of bullets used in a Ruger 57 handgun police found on him later that night around 10:30 p.m.at a traffic stop.

According to the probable cause, Harris told police he needed the gun "because people are trying to kill me."

The ammunition is fairly rare - 5.7X28mm - and out of 10 shell casings found by crime scene, eight matched that size, Skeens said. 

“It’s a story,” defense attorney Jerad Marks told the jury after Skeens' opening arguments and urged them to look for discrepancies. “As the evidence unfolds, it’s just a story.”

Marks said if there are two reasonable interpretations, the jury must pick the one that lends itself to the defendant’s innocence. Marks also seemed to suggest that Coleman might have been pregnant.

It’s likely the trial will continue with testimony from Detective Daniel Peters who wrote the probable cause affidavit and Skeens promised a firearm forensic analysis.

Besides Skeens and Lee, deputy prosecutor Megan Carmichael is representing the state. Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull is presiding.