Floyd Mayweather's ex-girlfriend Josie Harris, 40, found dead in car just outside her California home
Floyd Mayweather's ex-girlfriend Josie Harris was found dead at her Valencia, California, home on Monday, March 9, police sources have confirmed.
Law enforcement was reportedly called to Harris' home at around 9:30 pm, and on arrival, found the 40-year-old unresponsive in her car. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police sources said there doesn't appear to be any foul play involved in the death, and that the case is being treated as a death investigation as opposed to a homicide probe.
Harris, who had three children with Mayweather, was an aspiring actress and had a tempestuous relationship with the featherweight boxer. They were together between 1995 and 2010. On September 9, 2010, he was sought out by the police for questioning after she filed a domestic battery report against him.
Harris claimed he had entered her Vegas home while she slept, pulled her hair and then attacked her in front of their children. She said she was saved after their eldest son, Koraun, snuck out of the home and alerted a security guard to call the police.
Mayweather was taken into custody the next day, though he was released after posting $3,000 bail. He was initially charged with felony theft in connection to the disappearance of Harris' phone but was later hit with two felony coercion charges, one felony robbery charge, one misdemeanor domestic-battery charge, and three misdemeanor harassment charges.
In December 2011, a judge sentenced the boxer to 90 days in county jail for battery upon Harris after he reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty o misdemeanor battery in exchange for the dropping of the felony battery charge. He also pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor harassment, stemming from threats to his children.
In addition to the prison sentence, he was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, a 12-month domestic-violence program and to pay a fine of $2,500.
It wasn't the first time he had been accused of battery by Harris either. She had accused him of the same five years prior in 2005, but those charges were dropped after she testified that she lied and that Mayweather had not battered her.
She was back in the limelight again in 2015 following Mayweather's bout with Manny Pacquiao. She sued him for $20 million for defamation, claiming he had lied during an interview with Katie Couric in April where he called her a drug abuser.
He had made the comments while discussing the 2010 domestic-violence incident and said, "Did I restrain a woman that was on drugs? Yes, I did. So if they say that’s domestic violence, then, you know what? I’m guilty. I’m guilty of restraining someone."
The outcome of that lawsuit is still pending.