50-year sentence for murder of ex-LTBMU chief

By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee

Andy Harris came to the courtroom Friday with a lengthy prepared statement: a tribute to Robert “Bob” Harris, the former U.S. Forest Service supervisor for the Tahoe basin and the father he loved and idolized.

In his written text, the son was also going to ask the judge to show no mercy for his stepmother, Colleen Harris, 73, the woman who had “murdered my dad in cold blood.”

But after stepping up to the court lectern, Andy Harris, a Grass Valley attorney, couldn’t compose himself to read. His voice stammered. He began to weep. He junked the script and just started talking.

Colleen Harris would show no emotion minutes later when the judge sent her to prison for 50 years to life.

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