Left: Iesha Harris (Detroit Police Dept.). Right: Harmoni Henderson (GoFundMe).
A 31-year-old woman in Michigan may spend the rest of her life behind bars after admitting to killing her friend’s 3-year-old daughter, viciously beating the child to death while babysitting last year after the victim threw up on herself.
Appearing in Wayne County’s 3rd Judicial Circuit Court on Monday, Iesha Harris formally pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the 2024 slaying of young Harmoni Henderson, The Oakland Press reported.
Harris had initially been charged with one count of felony murder and one count of first-degree child abuse. In exchange for her pleading to the lesser murder charge, the district attorney’s office dismissed both remaining charges.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, officers with the Detroit Police Department at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, 2024, responded to a residence in the 15700 block of Southfield Freeway, which is about 12 miles southwest of Detroit. Prosecutors said that Harris was a longtime friend of Harmoni’s mother and had been babysitting the child when the victim suffered her fatal injuries.
Harmoni was privately transported to a local hospital for treatment, but succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead. Authorities say that the cause of Harmoni’s death was “blunt force trauma caused by the defendant.”
Harris was formally charged and arrested on Wednesday, March 20, 2025.
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Capt. Laurie Carter, the head of the Detroit Police Special Victims Unit, provided some additional details about the investigation into Harmoni’s death in an interview with Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV.
Carter was one of the officers who responded to the hospital where Harmoni’s mother and Harris had taken the victim.
“When I arrived at the hospital, the child had already been conveyed by the mother and also the friend,” Carter told the station shortly after the tragic incident. “The child was deceased when I arrived.”
Carter added that the details of Harmoni’s death left her “very disturbed.”
“Nothing like this should ever happen to a child,” she said.
Harmoni’s mother told WDIV that Harris “slammed” the toddler’s head into a bathtub, ultimately killing her.
“She was having a hard time. My baby is autistic, nonverbal,” the mother told the station. “I think she got frustrated with her, plus her own daughter, and she slammed my baby’s head against the tub.”
Authorities reportedly told WDIV that Harris was watching Harmoni for the night and at some point locked the toddler in a room with her own 1-year-old child for about three hours while she smoked marijuana. When she returned to the room, she allegedly found that Harmoni had thrown up on herself and became irate.
“Ms. Harris allegedly admitted to police she poured scalding water on top of the 3-year-old and slammed her head against the side of the bathtub,” Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Douglas told WDIV.
The scalding water was allegedly poured on Harmoni’s head and face, Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK reported. The station also reported that when Harmoni’s mother called Harris to check in on her daughter, Harris told her that the child had fallen down the stairs and bumped her head, but was otherwise fine. The following morning, Harmoni’s mother reportedly came to pick her up and found the child in bed unresponsive.
“She was already dead from the moment that I got there,” the mother told WJBK. “She was gone.”
Harris is currently scheduled to appear before Circuit Judge Kelly Ramsey on May 29, for her sentencing hearing. She faces a maximum penalty of life in a Michigan state prison.
The Wayne County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Law&Crime.
