Man who hit, killed kids in police chase gets 30-60 years

DETROIT — A parole absconder who hit five children, killing two, while driving up to 95 mph through a Detroit neighborhood in a police chase was sentenced Wednesday to 30-60 years in prison, authorities said.

Lorenzo Harris, 30, was convicted in a jury trial last month on two charges of involuntary manslaughter and six lesser counts in connection with the chase last June involving a stolen Chevrolet Camaro on the city's east side. The pursuit continued at high speeds on a sidewalk and front yards before the Camaro crashed into a porch.

Killed in the crash were siblings Makiah Jackson, 3, and Michaelangelo Jackson, 6, who had been "riding their little scooters up and down the sidewalk," playing with other neighborhood children at the time, their grandmother, Nicole Jackson said at the time. Three other children and a woman were injured.

The officers had said Harris fled a traffic stop June 24, 2015, with his 26-year-old passenger after someone in the Camaro was seen with a possible gun, according to previous police reports.

Alicia Gardner says she “can never stop crying” when she thinks about her kids, Michael and Makiah Jackson. Harris told a judge Wednesday that he prays for the family. He said he wasn’t prepared for the situation that led to the fatal chase, The Associated Press reported.

The other charges on which Harris was convicted include two counts of fleeing a police officer, three counts of reckless driving seriously impairing bodily functions, one count of unlawfully driving away, according to Wayne County (Mich.) Circuit Court records.

Records indicate Harris has a criminal history that includes resisting police, as well as weapons, assault and stolen property offenses. He went to prison in May 2006 on a drug charge and was denied parole that year, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Harris was paroled in 2007, fled parole in September that year and was picked up in November. That month, according to Wayne County court records, Harris was charged with weapons offenses and found not guilty by a jury in February 2008.

Harris was returned to prison and denied parole three more times — in 2008, 2011 and 2012 — before being paroled in 2013 to the Detroit Re-entry Center to do additional programming. On Feb. 25, 2014, Harris was released into the community and, the next day, he was listed as an absconder, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

After the incident in June, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said a police supervisor reported he tried to call off the pursuit, but officers never got the message.

Follow Robert Allen on Twitter: @rallenMI