Trial of ex-LTBMU chief’s accused murderer begins
By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee
In 1990, when his father was about to remarry, Andy Harris’ grandmother took him aside and told him there was something he should know about his stepmother-to-be.
Four years earlier, the grandmother told him, Colleen Ann Batten had been tried for murder in the shotgun killing of her first husband, James Batten. It was a sensational murder mystery, played out in 1986 in a Placerville courtroom as a trial headline in the local Mountain Democrat asked the question, “Colleen Batten – murderess or martyr?”
The jury found her not guilty. Andy Harris, now 51 and an attorney in Grass Valley, said he questioned his father, Robert Edward “Bob” Harris, a U.S. Forest Service supervisor, avid baseball umpire, traveler and conservationist. He said his dad had known Colleen as a high school teenager in Oakland and that they had reunited decades later.
Bob Harris told his son that Colleen had a “hard life,” that the shooting of her husband was “unfortunate.” But he said he cherished her and was determined to marry her. “He said, ‘I love her, and I want to provide for her.’ That was basically his response,” Andy Harris said. “That was about as much as he wanted to talk about it.”
Now Colleen Ann Harris – the former Colleen Batten – is facing a second murder trial for the shotgun killing of another husband.
Looks like she, and her very notorious defense attorney, the one who should be well known for never having seen a guilty murderer or client, obviously fooled them once and they let a murderer free to murder again. Now it is time for justice for this murderer who should never see freedom or the sun again as she should have been dealt with and given life at the minimum in 1986 and her next victim would not have been cowardly shot in his sleep exactly like she did to her other husband.
Remember when Robert Gonzales almost cut his wife’s head off in front of their child in the early 1980’s?
Some of the Forests Service big wigs act like Postal employees.
This headline is misleading, Old Long Skis, as it was a retired Forest Service official who was killed; he was not the one doing the killing.
This story is so tragic, as Bob Harris was a very fine man.
Passion4Tahoe, I made no comment about Bob Harris or anything regarding this sad story. Maybe you got me confused with somebody else. OLS
This headline should be “Murder trial begins for double murderer who was let out to kill again.”
Justice- You, of all people should know, that every person gets a lawyer to defend them – in this country. If she was not found guilty, it’s the fault of the prosecution- not the defense attorney.
If you don’t like our system, either work to change it or move to the middle east where there are no worries about people being provided a lawyer and a defense.
How in the world she got off the last time is the question and it is reported she made up a big story and she will try the lie again and I don’t like lying double murderers or lying defense attorneys who know their client is guilty.
Justice, how do you feel about SOME lying prosecuters that get convictions of innocent people to advance their career and conviction rates? That door swings both ways, doesn’t it?
It is way too common these days for an obviously guilty person to try to avoid their fate by a staged performance of lying and using an obviously lying attorney and a totally concocted story to sell to people who may be naïve and emotionally vulnerable to want to believe a live person in front of them putting on an act versus the murdered person who isn’t there to speak. It is along the lines of an epidemic of no personal responsibility seen too often today for actions that are intentional that a guilty person playing the victim game uses as a ruse on the stand. The sad part of it is sometimes people believe it and let someone go who kills again.
The fact is that the burden-of-proof lies with the prosecution. Guilty people have always lied and will always continue to lie. That’s why our system requires that they are found to be guilty by a jury of their peers.
This headline is in fact somewhat misleading, but nevertheless ‘sunriser2’ owes us and the Harris family an apology, as Bob Harris was certainly not a type to go ‘Postal’, a term overdue to be retired as of now…
As above, “Bob Harris was a very fine man”. . .I knew him very well. . .
The mans name was Robert Gonzales. He did kill his wife at a Cason City Dr. appointment.
She went to the police, the sheriffs office, the Catholic Church and no one believed good old Bob would hurt a flee.
Her murder led to amendments to HEPA. She was in hiding and her Dr. office gave out the date and time of her appointment.
The only name that was tarnished was the pres. of First Interstate Bank at Stateline who shared the same name. The original title to the story was misleading and implied Mr. Harris was on trial.
Justice: Look at your keyboard, next to the letter ‘M’ is a comma ‘,’.
Ooops! Sorry, Old Long Skis – I did mix you up with Sunriser2. I guess I hadn’t had enough coffee!
Sunriser2’s comment really bothered me.