Edward Harris is a killer from Florida who would be convicted of the murder of Brittany Steier
According to court documents Edward Harris and Brittany Steier were in a relationship that was plagued by domestic violence. Just months before the murder Harris had threatened Steier with a hand gun. On the day of the murder Brittany would go to the home of Harris to pick up her kids and she would be fatally shot in the head by Edward
Edward Harris would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to life
Edward Harris Now
| DC Number: | N25624 |
|---|---|
| Name: | HARRIS, EDWARD M |
| Race: | BLACK |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 04/10/1987 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 01/10/2023 |
| Current Facility: | CENTURY C.I. |
| Current Custody: | CLOSE |
| Current Release Date: | SENTENCED TO LIFE |
Edward Harris Case
A Wakulla County man was convicted Friday of the 2020 murder of the mother of his children and sentenced to life in prison.
Edward M. Harris Jr, 35, was convicted after a two day trial of the first-degree murder of Brittany Steier, child neglect, fleeing and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On July 18, 2020, Steier arrived at Harris’ house in Wakulla County to pick up the couple’s two children. Then he shot her three times, twice at point-blank range.
Detectives found the couple’s then one-year-old child covered in blood.
Harris, who has a long history of domestic abuse and threatened Steier with a handgun just months before the incident, fled the scene. He fled law enforcement while driving near 100 mph through Crawfordville, running one vehicle off the road, before he was taken into custody.
The murder rocked Wakulla County and North Florida domestic violence advocates, who pointed to an alarming string of domestic violence-related homicides during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Steier was remembered as a loving mother, daughter and sister, “full of light and love and compassion.”
Steier’s sister, Christy Bertera and her husband Jeff adopted Steier’s two young children in late 2020 adding to their three children and growing their family from five to seven people overnight.
“I just want her to be remembered for the amount of love that she showed,” Christy told the Democrat in a July 2020 interview. “If there’s nothing else that she taught them, it was how to love.”
Edward Harris News
Six months before Edward “June” McNeil Harris Jr. allegedly murdered Brittany Steier, the mother of two of his children, he threatened to kill her in Sarasota County.
Edward Harris, 33, was arrested on false imprisonment and aggravated assault charges on Feb. 11 after an incident at a Sarasota County residence where the two stayed.
Steier had moved out the week before and was residing in nearby Manatee County. But Harris reportedly texted her that day, asking her to come over and watch a movie.
The 31-year-old agreed, and the two ended up on the couch together in front of the TV.
While the two were talking, Edward Harris asked if Steier was ever going to come back. When she tried to leave, Harris became agitated, pulled a small revolver from his pocket and paced around the room with it in his hand.
“I’m going to put two bullets in your head and then I’m going to kill myself,” he said.
After several hours of pleading, he finally let her leave.
“Harris explained to her that he was never going to hurt her, but only wanted her to feel dead inside like he did,” the report says.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and asked for a jury trial, but the charges were dropped three days later.
Five months later, he allegedly made good on his threat. He was arrested and charged with first- degree murder for Steier’s death on July 18 on Hill Green Road in Crawfordville.
Court records chronicle the father of seven’s history of domestic violence dating back as far as 2011
Steier was not the first woman Harris threatened to kill.
On Aug. 23, 2011, a Wakulla County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a “possible disturbance” at the same Hill Green Road address where Steier died.
There, he spoke to a woman who had red marks on her arm and face and dirt in her clothes and hair.
The victim said she had kicked her live-in boyfriend, Harris, out of the house the night before. When she woke up the next morning, and he was inside after picking the lock, she told him he needed to leave.
“That is when Mr. Harris proceeded to grab her… started pushing and pulling her to get her out of the residence,” the report reads. “Mr. (Harris) hit her in the face then dragged her out of the residence while continuing to hit and push on her.”
As he dragged her down the driveway, he said he was going to take her into the woods and kill her, according to police.
She was able to free herself and call 911 while he fled the scene.
But he threatened to return.
“Mr. Harris informed her that if he did not get her now, he was going to get her later and that he would be back,” the report says.
About a month after the attack, Edward Harris was arrested on Sept. 21, 2011, for charges of aggravated assault and misdemeanor battery. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to six months in jail, followed by two months of probation.
Nearly nine years later on July 18, Steier was worried about picking up her two kids from their father by herself. She called a friend to go with her.
That friend became a witness to her alleged murder.
When they arrived in the Hill Green Road driveway, Steier went to get the 2-year-old and 1-year-old and the friend stayed in the passenger’s seat of the van.
While Edward Harris and Steier were putting one of the children in a car seat, the mother began yelling ‘What are you doing!'”
Because Steier moved, the friend couldn’t see what was going on.
Then, she saw Edward Harris “aimed a rifle or shotgun and fired an unknown number of shots,” according to police reports. He moved to the front of the van and fired again.
In a panic, the friend jumped into the driver’s seat of the van and took off with only one of the two children inside, not knowing where the other child or Steier was. She immediately drove to Steier’s sister’s home and told her and her husband about the horror she had just witnessed.
The sister and her husband drove to the scene where they met police and picked up the child.
Edward Harris drove off after the shooting but was later intercepted by Wakulla County Sherrif’s deputies and taken into custody.
He is being held in Wakulla County Jail without bond.
