After a four-day long preliminary hearing, a judge ruled the man accused of murdering a missing Detroit teen will stand trial.
Na’Ziyah Harris went missing on Jan. 9, 2024. Jarvis Butts was charged in connection to her murder.
Related: Timeline: What we learned in Na’Ziyah Harris’ disappearance nearly 1 year later
36th District Judge Aliyah Sabree ruled on Jan. 9, 2025, exactly one year after Na’Ziyah went missing, there was enough evidence for Butts to stand trial in the murder of the Detroit teen.
Why Jarvis Butts was charged
Prosecutors said Butts was supposed to turn himself into authorities on a gun charge on Jan. 9, 2024, the day Na’Ziyah went missing, but that date was pushed back to February. Harris allegedly met up with Butts that day, and the two reportedly went to Ypsilanti before returning back to Detroit, where Butts checked into a motel.
Text records allege that Butts knew Harris was pregnant and that he began searching online about abortions, abortion pills, and drinking red anti-freeze.
Related: Court reveals disturbing messages ‘serial child rapist’ sent Na’Ziyah Harris before she went missing
Authorities believe Butts had been sexually abusing Harris since 2022 before killing her in January 2024. Prosecutors said he had a history of targeting and befriending women to get close to and sexually abuse their daughters.
It’s not the only sexual abuse case Butts is involved with. He also has been charged for reportedly sexually abusing two other young girls, as well as a conviction for sexual assault in 2005. Prosecutors called Butts a “serial child rapist,” who sexually assaulted an 8-year-old family member and a girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter, who reportedly caught chlamydia from the assault.
He was charged on Sept. 27, 2024, as a habitual fourth-time offender.
Butts and Harris had reportedly known each other because he was the father of her cousins. The abuse of Harris allegedly began in 2022 with sexually explicit texts and photos being sent to the child.
He was tracked to the Rouge River in Detroit the day after her disappearance, where police would later recover the clothes Harris was last seen wearing. Authorities said there was damage to the clothing that could indicate a struggle.
Butts was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, child sexually abusive material, and second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13.
Read testimonies in preliminary hearing:
“Several people failed her”
Before the ruling, Sabree said she wanted to speak on behalf of Na’Ziyah on “the community that failed her.”
Sabree said, based on what she heard in the last few days, “several people failed her.”
She began listing family members and school officials, accusing them of failing Na’Ziyah.
“I don’t know where her mother is,” Sabree continued, “I don’t know anything other than she was forced to live in a home where she was not protected or given adequate attention and love.”
“I don’t know who her father is; I don’t have any mention of him in her life—no presence.”
“All the men who saw Jarvis Butts hanging out and always around these young girls, including Na’Ziyah and his 9-year-old daughter, going up to the shop to clean up.”
“The school counselor who never showed up—or the person who was supposed to show up—if that counsel was absent after Na’Ziyah was on the floor on the day she went missing, saying she needed to speak to someone and speak to the counselor.”
She pointed out there was no mention of CPS and wondered about their involvement with them.
She called Na’Ziyah’s grandmother’s testimony questionable. She understood her grandmother’s testimony was used to establish where Na’Ziyah lived and her regular routine, and she understood she was not a runaway child. However, Sabree found it hard to believe that Butts never went to the home as the grandmother testified.
“Always sending those girls to the shop raises questions,” added Sabree regarding the grandmother’s testimony.
Butts co-owned an auto shop in Detroit, where Na’Ziyah was reportedly frequently seen.
“How were there two women in that house, who had birthed children themselves, who did not notice Na’Ziyah was pregnant—and I believe she was—and not having her period anymore?” said Sabree.
She said what stood out the most was that when the grandmother learned at around 6 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2024, that Na’Ziyah did not come home from school and said she looked around for her and decided to wait until the next morning to call the police, she appeared to not show emotion.
“I don’t know who else failed Na’Ziyah, but the community did,” said Sabree.
Sabree agreed with prosecutors that a body is not needed to establish first-degree premeditated murder.
“It would have been a much shorter exam if her body were found, but this is where we are,” said Sabree.
Judge rules Jarvis Butts will stand trial
“We may never know what happened, but from what I heard today and over the last four or five days, it appears he intended to perform what he thought was a do-it-yourself abortion on Na’Ziyah and went south. And instead of seeking medical attention for her, he intentionally killed her and tried his best to cover it up,” said Sabree.
“You’re just a true definition of a pedophile”
Before concluding the hearing, she told Butts to stand up and listen to her as she continued her statement directly towards him.
“At one point, I thought you were cognitively impaired,” she told Butts. “And then, maybe you had the brain of a 10-year-old, and that’s why you were doing such things. But as I heard more and more testimonies, you’re just a true definition of a pedophile.”
“You ruined Na’Ziyah; you played mind games with her. We all heard that,” she continued. “You controlled her emotionally. She was exposed to so much at such a young age. The text messages between you two were disgusting to hear.”
“Na’Ziyah deserved so much more. And while I mentioned that other people have failed her, Jarvis Butts, you are the monster in this whole picture.”
The murder trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 16, 2025.
Watch Judge Sabree’s full statement below:
