A Detroit man pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually assaulting five girls and killing 13-year-old Na’Ziyah Harris, whose body still hasn’t been found after she was last seen two years ago.
Jarvis Butts, 43, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with Na’Ziyah’s 2024 murder and was given a sentencing agreement of spending 35 to 60 years in prison.
Butts was originally charged with first-degree murder, child sexually abusive commercial activity and two counts of sexual assault of Na’Ziyah, which were all dismissed in exchange for the plea to second-degree murder. Butts was dating Na’Ziyah’s aunt at the time he started sexually assaulting her niece.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the sexual assaults of five girls, ages 4, 7, 8, 8 or 9 and 13.
His attorney, Kendrick Riggins, did not respond Thursday for comment.
Butts’ plea agreement caps off a long ordeal for Harris’s family, who pleaded with local enforcement and the public to help find the young girl after she didn’t return home from school on Jan. 9, 2024. Some relatives said they’d called Child Protective Services multiple times on a man they suspected of having inappropriate behavior with children, including Na’Ziyah, but nothing was done. State officials said they couldn’t disclose an investigation.
“So many systems failed Na’Ziyah,” Jernell Smith-Holland, Na’Ziyah’s great-aunt, said in May 2024. “This whole thing is just wrong on so many levels.”
Butts is set to be sentenced on March 12 in Wayne Circuit Court. Before Na’Ziyah’s murder, he served seven years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with a child in 2004.
When teen was last seen
Na’Ziyah, a seventh-grader at J.E. Clark Preparatory Academy, was last seen getting off her school bus near Cornwell Street and Three Mile Drive on Detroit’s east side.
Prosecutors contended that Butts allegedly got Na’Ziyah pregnant after sexually assaulting her and then killed her. Her 9-year-old cousin testified during a preliminary exam in January 2025 that she saw Butts assault Na’Ziyah at his auto shop, and that Butts tried to have sex with the cousin, but she said no.
At the time, Butts denied having a sexual relationship with Na’Ziyah.
The two began texting in March 2023, Detroit Police Sgt. Shannon Jones testified in January 2025. Butts texted Na’Ziyah things like “stop messing with people and just be mine” and “I can’t stop thinking about you either.”
Na’Ziyah called him “babe,” told him she needed someone to talk to, and that he was the only person she really trusted.
Butts allegedly did multiple Google searches in early December 2023, looking up information about abortion pills, herbal teas that may prompt an abortion and whether someone could drink red antifreeze.
Tracking Na’Ziyah’s whereabouts
Butts’ auto shop partner, Cordell Wright, testified at the preliminary examination that he and Butts picked up Na’Ziyah after school on Jan. 9, 2024.
Detroit Police Department Sgt. Melanie O’Rourke testified that Butts’ phone was located at a Conner Street location, where his auto shop is, around 4 p.m. Jan. 9.
Butts’ sister, Tijuana Butts, said she saw a girl she later realized may have been Na’Ziyah get out of her brother’s truck at the auto shop between 4:30 and 6 p.m. Jan. 9. She didn’t see the teen’s face but recalled her “colorful” jacket.
The phone was in Ypsilanti around 7 p.m., O’Rourke said, where Talasha Moore said Butts came out to her home with Wright, her sister’s son’s father, to work on her mother’s car. Moore said Na’Ziyah came with Butts and the other man, and Butts introduced Na’Ziyah as his niece. Butts told police Na’Ziyah had not been with him in Ypsilanti.
They went back to the auto shop, and Wright and Butts split up.
“That is the last time that anyone who is not Jarvis Butts would see Na’Ziyah Harris alive,” Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Makepeace said at the preliminary examination.
Searching for Na’Ziyah’s body
O’Rourke said Butts’ phone was in the area of 7 Mile and Berg Road between 11:40 p.m. Jan. 10 and 1:34 a.m. Jan. 11, where several clothing items were found. It is also near where Na’Ziyah’s school identification was found lying facedown on the ground.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Wyatt Barnes said he found a pink “onesie” balled up in the brush at 7 Mile and Berg Road during a search of the area. Inside the clothes was a small Nike shoe, he said. Other searchers also found the second Nike shoe, a black hoodie, some gloves and a dirty towel, Barnes said.
Both Na’Ziyah’s and Butts’ DNA were found on the black hoodie, said Michigan State Police crime lab technician Erica Anderson. There’s “moderate support” that Butts’ DNA was on the stain on the black hoodie, Anderson said. Blood was also found on both the black hoodie and the pink jumpsuit, said Michigan State Police forensic scientist Rionne Greene.
After the preliminary examination in January 2025, Detroit’s 36th District Court Judge Aliyah Sabree called Butts a “monster.”
“We may never know what happened, but from what I heard today and over the last four or five days, it appears (Butts) intended to perform what he thought was a do-it-yourself abortion on Na’Ziyah, and it went south, and instead of seeking medical attention for her, he intentionally killed her and tried his best to cover it up,” Sabree said. “Na’Ziyah deserved so much more. … While I mention other people who failed her, Jarvis Butts, you are the monster in this whole picture.”
kberg@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit man pleads guilty to Na’Ziyah Harris murder, sex assault of 5 girls
Reporting by Kara Berg, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
