Madison man sentenced to just over 7 years in prison for selling drugs while on bail in homicide case
Kendal Harris is awaiting a trial in August for a 2018 homicide in Madison. Kendal J. Harris, a Madison man awaiting trial for the 2018 shooting death of DeAnthony Miggins, has been sentenced to just over five years in federal prison for selling drugs to an undercover police officer while free on bail in the murder case and under federal supervision. U.S. District Judge William Conley also sentenced Harris an additional two years in prison after he revoked his federal supervision for a prior weapon-related conviction. Harris is charged with first-degree intentional homicide as party to a crime for the shooting of Miggins in August 2018. His co-defendant, Kem L. Davis Jr., was convicted in April 2019 and sentenced to life in prison and may petition for release after serving 33 years. After his release from prison on Feb. 21, 2023, Harris was sent to the Dane County Jail to await a trial on the homicide charge.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Ed Treleven | Wisconsin State Journal, ed treleven in General
A Madison man awaiting a trial later this year for the 2018 shooting death of a man on the city's Southwest Side was sentenced Thursday to just over five years in federal prison for repeatedly selling drugs to an undercover police officer while free on bail in the murder case and while under federal supervision after serving an earlier prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge William Conley also sentenced Kendal J. Harris, 27, to an additional two years in prison after revoking his federal supervision for a prior weapon-related conviction, for which Harris had served a prison sentence.
Harris is charged with first-degree intentional homicide as party to a crime for the Aug. 25, 2018, shooting death of DeAnthony Miggins, 23, whose body was found by a passing motorist in the 2000 block of Cameron Drive on Madison’s Southwest Side.
Harris was charged with the homicide well after his co-defendant, Kem L. Davis Jr. , now 30. Davis was charged in April 2019 and was convicted in January 2020. He was later sentenced to life in prison and may petition to seek release after serving 33 years.
Davis' trial did not reveal a motive for the shooting, but evidence produced at the trial tied both Davis and Harris to the crime.
Harris was indicted by federal prosecutors on Sept. 12, 2018, for possession of a firearm by a felon on Aug. 27, 2018, two days after Miggins' death. On that day, according to court documents, Madison police were looking for Harris at an apartment building, spotted him and arrested him after a brief foot chase.
Inside a backpack Harris was carrying police found a Ruger 9mm handgun. Harris, who as a felon was not allowed to have a gun, pleaded guilty in February 2019 to a federal gun possession charge and was sentenced to 4½ years in prison .
On Jan. 2, 2020, while he was in prison, Harris was charged with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide for Miggins' death.
Harris first appeared in court on the homicide charge on Feb. 26, 2020, where his bail was set at $250,000. After his release from prison to federal supervision on Feb. 21, 2023, he was sent to the Dane County Jail to await a trial on the homicide charge.
On Feb. 23, 2023, Harris' attorney, Zaki Zehawi, sought a reduction in his bail to $25,000, arguing that federal probation agents could effectively keep tabs on Harris. Circuit Judge John Hyland agreed to the reduction, and Harris posted the bail and was released from jail.
According to a sentencing memorandum in Harris' drug case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Anderson, after Harris was released from custody he began selling drugs, including on five occasions in July and August to an undercover police officer. During a search of Harris' Coho Street apartment on Aug. 24, police found 542 fentanyl pills in a drawer in a child's bedroom and another 1,013 fentanyl pills in a kitchen closet.
In court on Thursday, Conley said that during his previous sentencing hearing in 2019, Harris "put on a really good show" about the changes he would make in his life, "but then you're back selling fentanyl in the street."
Harris said that when he was released from prison, he wasn't given any help for his own drug addiction. Conley said while Harris did not have the benefit of initially living in a federal residential re-entry center upon his release, he could have turned to his federal probation agent for help but instead chose to fall back into old patterns.
Harris is scheduled to stand trial in the Miggins homicide case in August.
Topics: Crime, Murder