SAN ANTONIO – The murder of Baby Girl Harrison, 19, could have been a retaliation killing, the lead detective in the case testified Thursday in a capital murder trial.
Devin Fields, 27, is on trial for triggering several shots through the door of an East Side apartment that Harrison shared with her boyfriend, Stephan Finnell, on July 4, 2013.
Earlier that night, Field's apartment had been burglarized. Fields' girlfriend testified that he forced her at gunpoint to drive him to the apartment that Finnell shared with the victim in the 2300 block of East Houston Street.
Fields told Harrison that he suspected Finnell was responsible for the burglary, and he was going to try to talk to him about getting "his stuff" back, she testified.
"It would appear that his murder could have been a retaliation for that home invasion," Detective Timm Angell of the San Antonio Police Department told jurors.
Angell said that the woman's killer may not have even seen his victim as she answered a knock on the door at about 1 a.m.
"Either the door was open at one point, or the shooter had actually reached his arm inside and fired a shot," Angell said. "But obviously, some (shots) went through the door."
Since both Harrison and her unborn child died, Fields was charged with capital murder when he was arrested two weeks later.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. A conviction would mean an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Testimony will continue in Judge Lorina Rummel's 144th District Court on Tuesday.