A 19-year-old UA student from Chinle was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the death of Mia Henderson, a Tuba City resident who shared a room with her at the Graham-Greenlee residence hall.
The jury also convicted Galareka Harrison of three counts of forgery and one count of taking the identity of another.
Pima County prosecutors believe Harrison stabbed Henderson to death on Sept. 5, 2007, just days after both girls moved from the Navajo Nation into a dormitory at the UA to start their freshman year.
Prosecutors Rick Unklesbay and Kellie Johnson told the jury there was plenty of evidence to convict Harrison of first-degree, premeditated murder.
They say Harrison killed Henderson, 18, because Henderson told university police on Aug. 28 that she had found her UA CatCard and Social Security card in Harrison's wallet and that $500 was missing from her checking account. A CatCard is a combination identification and charge card.
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Harrison confessed not only to stealing the cards and the $500, but to stealing the identity of another girl and to writing two other checks, according to testimony.
In a three-hour interview with police, Harrison told police a strange man had attacked both women in their room. She then went on to say Henderson attacked her. Later still, she said she stabbed Henderson as she lay in her bed after "thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking" about what Henderson had done and said to her.
Assistant Pima County Public Defender John O’Brien suggested that Harrison’s statement to police was involuntary and without it, the prosecutors had little evidence to support their theory.
No one knows what went on between the women in that room, O’Brien said.
Henderson could have provoked Harrison to act out in the heat of the moment, the defense attorney argued.
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