BUFFALO, N.Y. — Roosevelt Jones and his brother are shocked to know that their niece no longer faces a murder charge for the death of her grandmother and their mother.
"If she has any conscience, it will eat her alive," said the son.
Roosevelt Jones says he feels betrayed by a judge's decision to dismiss the murder case.
Jamien Harris was charged with shooting to death her 90-year-old grandmother, Catherine Jones, who had dementia, in 2021.
Harris was living with her grandmother on Highgate Avenue in Buffalo. It's where the grandmother was found on a couch with a gunshot to the chest. Police say the granddaughter was frantic and naked inside of the house, and the front windows had been smashed.
The murder charge came months after she pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a firearm. The Erie County District Attorney's office attempted to charge her with murder along with the same weapon possession charge that she pleaded guilty to, and that, according to the defense attorney, is double jeopardy.
Defense attorney Nicholas Texido said "the law requires the district attorney's office to bring all of the charges from incident at once and not do them one after another and another."
Erie County Court Judge Case's ruling was based on a clause in the Fifth Amendment that prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.
The DA will appeal. The Jones family is hopeful.
"She's not being held accountable and she's walking around free as a bird," her uncle said.
The only way Harris can be charged with murder for this case is if the DA's office is successful in their appeal.
Jones described his mother as "a kind person, a loving person. She cares about people. She was a Jehovah's Witness. She went out in the ministry talking to people about the future. She did love her granddaughter."
He said he wants "closure and justice."
"This girl should not be walking free," Jones said prosecutors need to work harder. "A grand jury indicted her now let a jury make a decision and I can rest easy."