HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Jury selection began Monday in Michael Paul Ownby's murder trial.
Ownby, 27, is accused of beating and stabbing Fred Harris, 19, who died a few days after the attack at the Harris County Jail in October 2021.
According to court documents, Ownby and Harris, who had special needs, shared a cell at the jail. Harris' mother said she begged for her son to be moved out of general population because he was special needs and weighed 98 pounds.
Dallas Garcia ended up filing a federal lawsuit against Harris County and the Harris County Sheriff's Office over the incident in which her son was killed.
"Had he just been in another cell, which he was supposed to be in, (his death) defiantly could have been prevented," Garcia said at the time the lawsuit was filed in September 2022.
Harris' family claims the jail knew about his disabilities and doesn't understand why they left him in a cell with Ownby, a 240-pound violent offender who had just attacked a guard two days before.
Harris was in jail because he showed a knife to someone he was afraid of, the family's attorney said. He said the teen had never been in trouble before and was a well-liked special education student when he attended Stratford High School.
"He was accused of showing someone a knife. He had never been convicted of a crime in his life, and based on the facts as we know it, would probably not have been convicted of this crime," attorney Randall Kallinen said.
After he died, Harris' organs were donated. His heart was given to a child.