he’s barred from guilty

By Molly Montagmmontag@siouxcityjournal.com

SIOUX CITY — Marla Stroman let out ajoyful whoop, ran down the street andnearly tackled several family members whowere standing outside the WoodburyCounty Courthouse in Sioux City.

Stroman, her teenage son and other fam-ily members locked arms in a group hug,happy that Lawrence Douglas Harris —Stroman’s former husband — had just beenconvicted of murdering her daughters.

“(I’m) just happy that he’s finally gettingthe justice that he deserves,” Stroman said.

She’d been waiting more than a yearsince the girls, Kendra Suing, 10, andAlysha Suing, 8, were found stabbed andstrangled to death inside their Sioux Cityhome.

Harris, 26, who had an interest in witch-craft, told police the girls had died when aspell he cast to protect their teenage brotherreversed itself, killing them. His attorneysattempted to prove he was legally insane.

But after two weeks of testimony, jurorstook only a couple of hours Thursday tofind Harris guilty of two counts of first-de-gree murder.

Woodbury County District Court JudgeJames Scott turned the case over to the juryat 12:05 p.m. Thursday. Word of a verdictwent out shortly after 2 p.m.

It was a relief to family members.“(The girls) probably suffered a great

deal, but they’re probably up there just ashappy as we are here,” said Salina Stroman,a cousin of Marla Stroman. “I’ll never for-get them and I’ll always love them, but nowwe can finally move on.”

Harris will be sentenced Feb. 18 tomandatory life in prison.

‘NO REMORSE’During closing arguments in court Thurs-

day, the prosecution said Harris killed thegirls to enact revenge on his wife for a sus-pected affair, setting a fire in the basementto cover up his actions and faking mentalillness in an attempt to avoid conviction.

“He intended to get away with thecrime,” Mark Campbell, an assistant

Woodbury County attorney, told the seven-man, five-woman jury.

Alysha Suing’s blood was found on Har-ris’ fingers and body and on the tip of along knife Harris called his “ritual knife,”which police found tucked inside his spellnotebook.

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VERDICT:

SENTENCING:

FAMILY:

Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr. (right) found guilty of murder inthe deaths of his former stepdaughters Alysha and Kendra Suing.

“I’ll never forget them and I’ll always love them, but now we canfinally move on,” cousin says of the Suing girls, below.

“He intended to get away with the crime,” prosecutorsays. Harris will be sentenced to life in prison on Feb. 18.

Journal photo by Tim Hynds / Find more photos and buy copies at siouxcityjournal.com

Marla Stroman, left, and her cousin Salina Stroman embrace after Marla Stroman’s ex-husband, Lawrence Douglas Harris,was found guilty in Woodbury County District Court Thursday.

VIDEO: Marla Stroman and other family members talk about the verdict,forgiveness and moving on.

BLOG: Read the transcript, which captured reactions of joy and sorrow after the verdict.

Coverage at siouxcityjournal.com/harristrial

‘Now the girls can rest in peace’

LAWRENCE HARRIS TRIAL

GUILTY

The first change that needs to be made for our country is toenact term limits for Congress. Once that is done we will seegreat and beneficial changes for America. - Fran Kingsbury,Ponca, Neb.

Alysha and Kendra Suing

Blagojevichtossed out of officeHe’s barred fromoffice in Illinois

By Christopher WillsThe Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov.Rod Blagojevich was thrownout of office Thursday withouta single lawmaker rising in hisdefense, ending a nearly two-month crisis that erupted withhis arrest on charges he tried tosell Barack Obama’s vacantSenate seat.

Blagojevich becomes thefirst U.S. governor in morethan 20 years to be removed byimpeachment.

After a four-day trial, theIllinois Senate voted 59-0 toconvict him of abuse of power,automaticallyousting thesecond-termDemocrat. In asecond, identi-cal vote, law-makers furtherbarred Blago-jevich fromever holdingpublic officein the state again.

“He failed the test of charac-ter. He is beneath the dignity ofthe state of Illinois. He is nolonger worthy to be our gover-nor,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, aRepublican from suburbanChicago.

Blagojevich’s troubles arenot over. Federal prosecutorsare drawing up an indictmentagainst him on corruptioncharges.

Outside his Chicago homeThursday night, Blagojevichvowed to “keep fighting toclear my name,” and added:“Give me a chance to showyou that I haven’t let youdown.”

“I love the people of Illinoistoday more than I ever havebefore,” he said.

Democratic Lt. Gov. PatrickQuinn, one of Blagojevich’scritics, was promptly sworn inas governor.

Blagojevich, 52, had boy-cotted the first three days ofthe impeachment trial, callingthe proceedings a kangaroocourt. But on Thursday, hewent before the Senate to begfor his job, delivering a 47-minute plea that was, by turns,defiant, humble and sentimen-tal.

He argued, again, that he didnothing wrong, and warned

BLAGOJEVICH, PAGE A6

Rod Blagojevich

HARRIS, PAGE A12

A01-12 1/29/09 10:31 PM Page 1

Kendra Suing’s blood wasfound on one of Harris’ shoes.

In videos shown in court,Harris told a Sioux City policedetective that he was responsi-ble for the girls’ deaths becausehe had cast the spell, but he de-nied murdering them and saidhe had a “memory hole” anddidn’t remember what had hap-pened.

After the verdict was read,Stroman told reporters she be-lieved there never was a spell.Harris killed her daughters tohurt her, she said, and knewhe’d accomplished his goalwhen he saw her reaction.

“He shows no sign of re-morse, and that again goes to hewanted to hurt me and him see-ing my reaction I think it, basi-cally ... as much as I tried hold-ing it back, it gave him the sat-isfaction he was wanting,” Stro-man said. “He knew he hurt mein the worst possible way bytaking my kids.”

While attempting to prove in-sanity during closing argu-ments, Assistant Public De-fender Mike Williams empha-sized that two highly respectedforensic psychiatrists — amongthe best in their field, he said —testified that Harris was legallyinsane when he attempted tocast a spell the day the girlsdied.

In the end, the jury did notagree.

‘WE KNEW’Stroman, Craig Suing — the

girls’ biological father — andother family members sat be-hind Harris in the front rowwhile the verdict was read. Sheand others cried quietly, hug-ging and holding each otherduring the short hearing.

They left the courtroom,hugged again, then left thebuilding and finally releasedtheir emotions, some letting outshouts of joy.

Included in the celebrationswere Harris’ siblings, Kyle Har-ris and Kathryn Harris. Bothtestified in the case but had re-turned to the courtroom to sitwith Stroman through much ofthe rest of the court proceed-ings.

Although they said testifyingagainst their brother wasn’t

easy, Kyle Harris and KathrynHarris said they believed theirbrother had been faking mentalillness for a long time.

“We’ve been saying since wewere kids he was faking,”Kathryn Harris said. “So weknew.”

Kyle Harris, who testifiedtwice during the trial, said hisbrother learned to fake seizuresby reading their mother’s med-ical books.

“As for everything else, helearned all the steps out of med-ical books and all the signs,”Kyle Harris said.

Williams, Harris’ attorney,could not be reached for com-ment after the verdict was read.

Campbell declined to speakto the news media Thursday,saying he was reserving com-ment until after Harris is sen-tenced

— Journal staff writer DollyA. Butz contributed to this re-port.

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Harris: Ex-wife says there was no spellFROM PAGE A1

Journal photo by Tim Hynds / Find more photos and buy copies at siouxcityjournal.com

Marla Stroman wipes away a tear while huddled with friends and family and talking on a cell phone afterher ex-husband was found guilty in the deaths of her two daughters Thursday.

By Kevin FrekingThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON — SenateDemocrats moved one stepcloser to handing PresidentBarack Obama an early healthcare victory Thursday, passinga bill extending government-sponsored health insurancecoverage to about 4 millionuninsured children.

The bill, which was ap-proved 66-32, authorizes anadditional $32.8 billion overthe next 4 1/2 years for theState Children’s Health Insur-ance Program. The Houseplans to take up the samemeasure next week.

Even with the added spend-ing, an estimated 5 millionchildren still would be withouthealth insurance. During hiselection campaign, Obamacalled for requiring all childrento have health coverage.

“When President Obamasigns this bill, the real victorywill belong not to politicians,but to kids,” said Sen. MaxBaucus, D-Mont.

The bill pays for expandingSCHIP by increasing the fed-eral excise tax on cigarettesfrom 39 cents to $1 a pack.Opponents argued that the taxwould hit the poor the hardest.

The Democratic majorityturned back Republicanamendments to limit expan-sion of the program. Amongthe failed amendments were aprohibition on using federalmoney to cover children ofnewly arrived legal immi-grants and a stricter incomelimit in some states for partici-pating families.

Current law requires a five-year waiting period beforelegal immigrants become eli-gible for coverage under Med-icaid and SCHIP.

Senate passes bill to expandchild health care coverage

A01-12 1/29/09 9:06 PM Page 2