Googie Rene Harris Jr. entered the sixth-floor courtroom at the Riverside County Hall of Justice a free man and left it a free man, for now, much to the dismay of his own relatives.
On Thursday, Sept. 26, Superior Court Judge Gary Polk ordered Harris, who had pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony in the 1998 strangulation murder of his stepmother and framed an innocent man by his silence, to serve a little more than eight months in jail.
Harris Jr. must report by Jan. 8 to serve his one-year sentence that was trimmed to 248 days after receiving credits for time served. He was also sentenced to two years of probation.
“You got off easy,” one of Harris’ stepbrothers, Altheria Weaver, said via a remote audio link to the courtroom. “You get to walk around and breathe air. No one snatched air from your lungs.”…