ORTING, Wash. — The man who admitted savagely beating to death an Orting mother of two now says he doesn't know if he killed her or not.
A little less than one month after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Nicole White, Jonathan Harris fired his public defender and, acting as his own attorney, says he wants to change his plea and face a jury.
On Wednesday, Harris was not allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. Harris is scheduled for sentencing in late September.
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The 30-year-old Harris granted an interview with KIRO 7 inside the Pierce County jail and I asked directly, “Did you kill Nicole White?” Harris’ answer: “I don’t know.”
See raw interview footage here.
White disappeared while she and Harris were on a date in June of 2015. Harris met the 29-year-old mother of two through an online dating website. She was last seen with Harris at a Spanaway bar. Her body was found days later wrapped in a tarp in a wooded area near Kapowsin Lake.
She had been stomped and beaten to death.
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In the jailhouse interview, Harris repeated his claim that he didn’t know whether or not he killed White.
"How can you say that?" I asked Harris. "How do you not know?" "Well, because it's still a case that's going on. There's no determinings (sic) or anything," he answered.
"Do you believe you may have killed Nicole White?" I asked. "I don't know," Harris maintained.
Harris refused to talk about more broadly about the case and he refused to give any details during the jailhouse interview, or admit guilt.
"That's not for me to determine," Harris said. "It's for the judge and prosecutors to say allegedly if I did or did not."
"But you can't say that you didn't?" reporter Kevin McCarty followed up.
"I can't say that I did and I can't say that I did not," Harris responded.
In the motion Harris filed to change his plea, he claimed his public defender forced him to plead guilty against his will. He wrote, “my attorney, Mark Quigley, came up to the jail and yes, he threatened my life."
“He threatened, pretty much he threatened my life, says if I didn’t sign this I’d pretty much spend my whole life in jail, and that’s, you can’t say that to somebody,” Harris said.
During our conversation, I pressed Harris on his claim that he doesn't remember whether or not he murdered White, and his plan to act as his own attorney at trial.
"I know how to take risks, I'm going to take a risk," Harris said.
"This seems like a huge risk," McCarty followed, "because even you say you don't know whether or not you killed Nicole White."
"I don't," Harris responded.
"What if you find during the trial that you did?" McCarty asked.
"Then I guess I'm doing some time in jail, or prison," Harris said.