Pennsylvania man who beat Playboy model to death over drug payment, convicted of first degree murder
A Pennsylvania man has been convicted in the death of former Playboy model Christina Carlin-Kraft. Jonathan Wesley Harris was arrested in August 2018 after he was accused of strangling the model in her Philadelphia apartment. The New York Post reported that the man is said to have killed the woman when she did not pay him for an ounce of cocaine. The 31-year-old has been found guilty of first-degree murder. "I believe justice was served," Harris said as he left the Montgomery County court on Wednesday, May 8. He had pleaded not guilty to the killing but did describe the incident in detail in court, the report said.
Harris, who is reportedly an ex-convict, is said to have fled the area after the incident and was on his way to Pittsburg. He was arrested as soon as he landed there. Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele at the time had said, "Christina was beaten, and the beating was substantial. Her nose was broken, she had black eyes, there was a lot of blood," according to WPVI. "Then she died of strangulation. Something was put around her neck."
The 36-year-old model met with Harris on August 22, 2018, in the early hours of the morning following which they came home together around 3 am. Harris claimed in court that they had consensual sex and then they started to fight after she refused to pay for the drugs. He admitted to covering her with a blanket after beating her because he knew "she was hurt really bad". "I covered her with a blanket because I didn’t want to see her like that," he reportedly told the court. She had been found bundled up in clothing.
Carlin-Kraft was found dead in bed with her face broken and had sustained a lot of bruising. The autopsy report confirmed that she had no drugs in her body.
"I slapped her in the face and she fell to the floor," he said. He allegedly also admitted that he had tied the model's hands so she couldn't fight back after carrying her to the bed. He then punched her, according to a report in The Mercury. During the course of the incident, the model tried to call 911 for help at which point, he allegedly started choking her because he "panicked". "I panicked. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do," he told authorities.
He then escaped through the back door and reportedly made a run for it off the balcony. "I never meant for this girl to die. When I left the apartment, she was not dead. I would do anything to take this back," he also reportedly said.
The prosecutors said that he had left the woman to die and that his explanations "make no sense". Harris' defense claimed that he was under the influence of ketamine, "high out of his mind", and that he didn't mean to murder her. "His story was that it was over cocaine, but given the circumstances around this murder, it makes no sense that this was about drugs," Assistant District Attorney Roderick Fancher told jurors. "Was it over sex? Was it over money? We won’t know, because the only person who did know was killed in that bedroom that night."