The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the death sentence given to Jimmy Dean Harris for the 1999 murder of Merle Taylor.
Harris killed Taylor on the morning of Sept. 1, 1999, when he went to confront his estranged wife, Pam Harris, who worked at Taylor's AAMCO transmission shop in Oklahoma City. Pam Harris had filed for divorce and had a protective order placed on her husband.
Jimmy Harris went there to get his wife to remove a lock from a storage facility containing items from their house. She refused to talk with her husband, who then shot Taylor twice at close range. He also shot at Pam Harris and Taylor's daughter-in-law.
He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. The appeals court overturned the first death sentence and ordered a new hearing. A second jury imposed the death penalty for Harris, which the appeals court affirmed today. "Scott Cooper
