Man pleads guilty to murder of Na'Ziyah Harris, other sexual assault cases

A Detroit man has pleaded guilty to the murder of missing 13-year-old Na'Ziyah Harris and to five separate sexual assault cases, Wayne County prosecutors said Thursday. 

Jarvis Butts entered a guilty plea during a pretrial conference on Thursday in the Third Circuit Court, court records show. In all, Butts entered pleas to settle six separate cases involving the sexual assault of four different minors, with one victim as young as 4 years old.

The agreement presented to the court includes 35 to 60 years for second-degree murder, 10 to 15 years on four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and 10 to 15 years for third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The terms will all be served concurrently. 

As part of the plea agreement, additional charges of criminal sexual conduct will be dismissed. 

He also has agreed to "provide truthful statement regarding the body of Na'Ziyah Harris," court records show.

Butts is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Na'Ziyah, who was last seen getting off her school bus at the corner of Cornwall and Three Mile Drive in Detroit on Jan. 9, 2024. Her body has never been found.   

In January 2025, Wayne County prosecutors argued that Butts allegedly started exchanging sexually abusive texts with Harris as early as 2022. 

During an earlier hearing on the investigation, prosecutors said there was evidence through testimony from one of Butts' business partners, cell tower tracking data, testimony from someone who claims to have seen Butts and Na'Ziyah together the evening she disappeared, and several of Na'Ziyah's belongings in areas investigators tracked Butts in the days following her disappearance to prove that Butts murdered Na'Ziyah.  

While investigators testified to finding shoes and clothes she was last said to be wearing during a search of the Rouge River near 7 Mile and Berg shortly after she went missing, they still have not found Na'Ziyah.

"It's almost hard to grasp for air to realize that it's actually happening because with it being so long in a two-year stretch, it almost seemed like it was never going to happen," said Na'Ziyah's cousin, Roxy. "It's a rush of so many feelings right now, but it's unimaginable because we never thought that it would actually happen."  

Butts will be sentenced on March 12.