19-year-old found guilty of murder in death of St. Joseph County jail officer
MISHAWAKA — A man who was 17 when he killed 28-year-old Rhema Harris in a drive-by shooting last year has been found guilty of murder and criminal recklessness.
St. Joseph County judge Jeff Sanford ruled Tuesday that Braxton Bird, now 19, did knowingly kill Harris when Bird fired shots toward a Mishawaka home in June 2022. Bird faces a minimum of 45 years in prison and will be sentenced later this year.
The June 26 incident stemmed from "bad blood" between Bird's girlfriend and the teenaged daughter of a woman who lived in the home, according to court documents. Bird asked a friend to drive him, his girlfriend and his nephew to "a friend's house" in the 1900 block of Milbourn Boulevard.
On the car's second pass through a back alley, Bird leaned out the window from the passenger's side front seat with a rifle, prosecutors say. He fired multiple rounds from a rifle toward the back of the home, striking Harris, who was standing in a doorway, in her torso.
A U.S. Army veteran and a St. Joseph County jail officer, Harris was visiting her girlfriend at the home when the car stopped in the alley and shots began ringing. A firearms expert found that Bird had used steel-tipped, military grade ammunition meant to inflict greater damage.
Bird's nephew Braelyn Rios, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, is also charged with murder as an accomplice. He's being tried as an adult. A jury trial is scheduled next month to determine his guilt.
Prosecutors say that Braelyn was in the backseat of the same car and shot multiple rounds from a handgun. Police claim that witnesses heard Bird ask Braelyn "Are you ready?" just before the pair opened fire, to which Braelyn allegedly responded that he was.
Bird was also charged with attempted murder, but the court was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he showed the specific intent to kill Harris.
St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman, Harris' boss since she'd joined the county police department in 2021, said the conviction was "very bittersweet." Justice was served, he said, but Harris' family and county police still grieve her loss.
"Her life was taken from us way too soon as the result of senseless violence committed by children barely old enough to drive," Redman said in a statement. "The youth gun violence in our community must stop."
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Teenager guilty in murder of St. Joseph County jail officer
