Somer Thompson Murder Update: Did Mom Cover for Sex Offender Suspect?
ORANGE PARK, Fla. (CBS/AP) Somer Thompson's accused killer, convicted sex offender Jarred Harrell, told police he was at his mother's home the afternoon investigators say the 7-year-old died, according to police reports and other records.
But newly released records also show that Harrell's mother told him she'd provide his alibi during a jail phone call. According to The Florida Times-Union, the records, released Thursday, mostly involve unrelated child pornography charges against Harrell, but also included new details about Somer's case.
The little girl vanished while walking home from school in north Florida in Oct. 2009. Her body was eventually found in a Georgia landfill. Investigators worked the case for months before arresting Harrell in Mississippi on child pornography charges. They soon pinned him for Somer's murder.
But Harrell says he didn't do it. Authorities redacted portions of Harrell's statements to investigators, but the documents show he told police he was with his mother at her Orange Park house in the hours after Somer disappeared on her walk home from school.
But in a jail call between them months later, she told her son she'd give him an alibi in Somer's disappearance, the records show.
The State Attorney's Office cited several public records exemptions for the redactions, including one protecting details of confessions.
Harrell, a 24-year-old unemployed restaurant worker, is being held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually assaulting and killing Somer Thompson.
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