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Witnesses describe recovered ID, pink onesie and surveillance video; prosecutors show January 9 text exchange
Summary
Border Patrol and local witnesses testified about a pink onesie and shoe found near the River Rouge, a resident turned in a school ID found March 7, and surveillance and carrier records show a Jan. 9 exchange between a TextNow/Instagram account for the child and the number 313‑585‑8719.
Court witnesses described several physical‑evidence items and digital messages connected to the investigation.
Border Patrol agent Wyatt Barnes testified that while searching the River Rouge bank near 7 Mile and Berg he recovered what he described as a pink onesie “mostly balled up in the brush with the shoe inside of it.” Barnes told the court he photographed the item, bagged it and reported coordinates to incident command; he provided decimal coordinates in testimony.
Valerie Louise Smith, a neighborhood resident, testified she found a school identification card in a grassy easement near her bus stop and turned it over to police on March 7, 2024. On the record she read the name on the card as “Zenaida Harris.” The court admitted the ID as People's Exhibit 40.
Lieutenant George Harris (Detroit Public Schools Police) and other investigators testified about digital‑account returns obtained by search warrant. The court record includes a January 9 message exchange extracted from a TextNow/Instagram account investigators associated with the child. Lieutenant Harris read the exchange into the record and summarized the three highlighted messages: a text from the target number 313‑585‑8719 to the account that read, in part, “Don't forget to be there before 3,” a reply from the account that said “okay if you send the message so I can delete your number,” and the carrier timestamps that show the messages on Jan. 9, 2024.
Detectives also introduced surveillance video extracted from a residential Ring system at 4803 Bedford; the surveillance extraction detective calibrated the video time against the world clock and said the footage depicts a girl walking eastbound down Cornwall toward 3 Mile Drive. The prosecutor published the video in court as exhibits and the extracting detective described the camera orientation and timestamp calibration procedure.
Detective Jason Mayes, who conducted a recorded interview with Jarvis Butts, testified that the defendant provided the phone number 313‑585‑8719 to police and consented to the interview and digital search; Mayes said the interview lasted “a couple of hours” and was recorded. The defense will have the opportunity to cross‑examine about the circumstances of that interview and any statements recorded.
Why it matters: The combination of recovered physical items, admission of a school ID, surveillance footage and the Jan. 9 message exchanges form part of the prosecution’s timeline and factual picture. Investigators and the lab will use those items and the phone‑mapping evidence to develop links among locations, messages and recovered materials.
