AURORA | A 22-year-old woman who helped kill an Aurora couple in 2010 will spend the rest of her life behind bars after jurors last week convicted her of murder.
Janelle Kimberly Harris, 22, was convicted of several crimes — including two counts of first-degree murder — for the November 2010 slayings of Tiffany Durst and Terrence Scott George. The first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Police and prosecutors say Terrence McNeal plotted the slayings because he believed Durst “snitched” on him in a 2008 burglary case. They say he recruited Harris and her friend, Tiera Homes, and the trio kidnapped Durst, threw her in a trunk and drove her to an Aurora field where McNeal strangled her. Police say Homes drove the car that night and waited in it while Harris and McNeal walked Durst into the field and McNeal killed her.
The trio then returned to Durst’s apartment and waited for her boyfriend, George, to return home from a graveyard shift at a nearby fast-food restaurant.
When George walked in, McNeal killed him. Prosecutors said when investigators found George’s body, he was laying face down on a picture of he and Durst.
Police found George’s body a short time after the slayings, but didn’t find Durst’s body until six months later.
Prosecutors considered seeking the death penalty against McNeal, but announced last fall that they would not. He was convicted of murder last summer and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. Homes cooperated with investigators and reached a plea deal last year with prosecutors. Under the terms of the plea, she testified against Harris and McNeal in exchange for prosecutors dropping the first-degree murder charges, among others, and agreeing to a 32-year-sentence.
Prosecutors said in court last year that they were working toward plea agreements with Harris too, but those negotiations failed ad Harris took her case to trial.
In court, police said Harris cooperated with police early on, and gave them some items she stole from Durst the night of the slayings, including a small purse. Police also testified that Harris kept Durst’s purse as a memento after the crime.
In a statement announcing the conviction, prosecutors said Harris also kept the belt McNeal used to kill Durst as a memento of the crime.
“These vicious murders orchestrated by McNeal and assisted by Harris, devastated two families,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brett Cochran said after the verdicts.