Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Bradenton Woman Found Guilty of Witness Tampering and Obstruction of Justice
Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that a federal jury today found Delexsia Harris (24, Bradenton) guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. She faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 20, 2016. Harris was indicted on May 25, 2016.
According to testimony presented at trial, Harris threatened and intimidated multiple persons who were scheduled to serve as witnesses in the trial of United States v. Nathaniel Harris et al., which occurred this summer. Harris threatened and intimidated witnesses in person and on social media, threatening to hurt and murder individuals cooperating with law enforcement and telling one victim that Ms. Harris’s family would kill her and her children. Testimony also demonstrated that Harris had helped a defendant in that case solicit a false alibi.
In addition, testimony and evidence showed that Harris had lied to law enforcement officers following the July 3, 2012, murder of Ceola Lazier. Prosecutors presented evidence that she participated in the murder, with her brother and another man, and later told police officers that the killers were two unknown men driving a white Mercedes Benz. Harris’s brother, Charlie Green, and the other man, Jerry W. Green, were convicted of the shooting death of Ceola Lazier following the trial of United States v. Nathaniel Harris et al.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, with assistance from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Natalie Adams and Shauna Hale.
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