Nicole Harris, 23, was charged with murder in the Saturday death of Jaquari Dancy. She remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bond. Prosecutors said Harris left the boy and his 5-year-old brother home alone as she did the laundry. She discovered the boy outside when she returned about 45 minutes later, beat him with a belt and sent him to his room, prosecutors said. When he would not stop crying, she wrapped a sheet from the top bunk of a bunk bed around his neck and strangled him until he stopped moving, then returned to the coin-operated laundry, according to prosecutors. The boy's parents reported finding Jaquari on the floor next to a bunk bed, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about two hours later. Harris was represented in court by a public defender. A phone message seeking comment from the public defender's office was not immediately returned. Investigators originally thought the death was a hanging because part of the sheet was still on the top bunk, but Harris told them she strangled the boy, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney. The boy's father was apparently sleeping in the home when the child was strangled but did not notice he was dead until Harris returned, Simonton said.
Nicole Harris, 23, was charged with murder in the Saturday death of Jaquari Dancy. She remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bond. Prosecutors said Harris left the boy and his 5-year-old brother home alone as she did the laundry. She discovered the boy outside when she returned about 45 minutes later, beat him with a belt and sent him to his room, prosecutors said. When he would not stop crying, she wrapped a sheet from the top bunk of a bunk bed around his neck and strangled him until he stopped moving, then returned to the coin-operated laundry, according to prosecutors. The boy's parents reported finding Jaquari on the floor next to a bunk bed, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about two hours later. Harris was represented in court by a public defender. A phone message seeking comment from the public defender's office was not immediately returned. Investigators originally thought the death was a hanging because part of the sheet was still on the top bunk, but Harris told them she strangled the boy, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney. The boy's father was apparently sleeping in the home when the child was strangled but did not notice he was dead until Harris returned, Simonton said.
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