Pedophile Jarvis Butts who murdered Naziyah Harris, 13, after 'getting her pregnant meets violent end in prison
A pedophile who murdered a 13-year-old girl after getting her pregnant has died in prison in an apparent suicide, officials said.
Jarvis Butts, 43, was found dead in his cell at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan on Wednesday.
He was just two weeks into a 35 to 60 year sentence for the murder of Na'Ziyah Harris.
Prison staff said they 'provided life-saving measures which were unsuccessful' and noted that state police are investigating Butts's death as a suicide.
He pleaded guilty to murdering Harris in January 2024 after impregnating her and prosecutors said he targeted the young girl after previously having children with her aunt.
Butts was also sentenced to ten to fifteen years for sexually assaulting other children.
Prosecutors said Butts groomed Harris for two years before murdering her, finding that he often sent her sexually explicit texts and grew close to her family.
In the weeks before the murder, Butts searched online for abortions and abortion pills.
Jarvis Butts, the man convicted of killing Na'Ziyah Harris, 13, and sexually abusing multiple other girls, was found dead in his cell at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan
Butts was weeks into his 35-60 year sentence for the murder of Harris before being found dead in his cell on Wednesday
Harris was last seen on the morning of January 9, 2024, getting off a bus in Detroit.
Prosecutors said they uncovered text messages showing she met up with Butts on the day she disappeared.
'He was a classic and expert groomer and pedophile,' Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said when he was charged.
In September 2023, Harris allegedly text Butts to inform him she had missed her period and by November 2023 'the evidence shows Butts knows that she is pregnant.'
Worthy said: 'His phone records show that he searches online about abortions, abortion pills and drinking red anti-freeze.'
The prosecutor also accused Butts of targeting and befriending women with intent to have sexual contact with their young daughters in a sickening campaign of abuse.
As part of the investigation, police reportedly tracked Butts' movements to the Rouge River in Detroit the day after Harris disappeared.
Police later recovered the clothes Harris was last seen wearing from the area.
Prosecutors said Butts groomed Harris for two years before murdering her in January 2024 and grew close to her family by having children with her aunt
Harris's body has never been found, but as part of Butts' plea deal he was required to provide details about the location of her remains.
Worthy said after he pleaded guilty, 'one of the most important aspects of the plea agreement was giving Na’Ziyah’s family some semblance of closure. The disclosure of the location of her body was crucial.'
Following his arrest for Harris's murder, he was additionally charged with sexually assaulting a number of other young girls aged under 13.
One of the victims, now 20, was abused between April 2012 and April 2014, Worthy said.
The second victim was abused between July 2015 and July 2017, prosecutors said.
The charges come after Butts was convicted for sexually assaulting two young girls in 2005.
