‘I forgive you’ daughter tells mother’s murderer

The daughter of a woman murdered in 1990 stood in a Dale County Courtroom to face the man who had just pleaded guilty to the crime at a hearing Monday, July 6.

“I forgive you,” a visibly emotional Carolyn Azmavour said to Jeffery Arnold Beasley, who stood with his head bowed, handcuffed and shackled, during the hearing in Ozark before Thirty-third Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge William Filmore.

The Ozark man was sentenced to 30 years in prison and given a $5,000 fine by Filmore after pleading guilty of causing the death of Tracy Harris some three decades ago.

Beasley, 54, stood silently with his head bowed as Azmavour told him that she forgave him. “But honestly, I can’t forget,” she said, pausing to wipe tears from her eyes. “Forgiveness is a huge step and I’m willing to take that step even as much as you have taken from me.”

Harris’ body was discovered on March 14, 1990 near Woodham's Bridge in the Choctawhatchee River just off County Road 20 in Dale County. The case eventually turned cold and went unsolved until January 2015 when Ozark police investigators reopened the cold case.

On Sept. 13, 2016, Tracy Harris’ former husband, Carl Harris of Daleville, was arrested in South Carolina and returned to Ozark for the crime based on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony, Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker said at a press conference Jan. 13 this year in Ozark.

Harris’ trial had been scheduled for Jan. 13 and he had been free on $75,000 bond.

Walker, Thirty-third Judicial Circuit District Attorney Kirke Adams and Thirty-third Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Jordan Davis held the press conference to outline events leading up to murder charges against Carl Harris being dropped the day his trial was set to begin and to announce the arrest of Beasley for Harris’ murder.

“In preparation for the upcoming trial, (Davis and Adams) uncovered new evidence which was forwarded to the Ozark Police Department,” said Walker at the press conference held at the Ozark City Hall Council Chambers.

Walker said that Beasley had been in Ozark since the 1990 death of Tracy Harris and that he had confessed to the murder.

“This was a strong circumstantial case. However, as a result of our continued bidding to seek truth and justice, today I have dismissed the murder case against Carl Harris,” Adams said. “But that’s only the beginning of this story.”

“Police investigators traveled more than 180 miles to interview this new witness who gave the investigators reason to conduct an interview with a person of interest,” Walker explained, adding that “the person of interest” gave details about the crime that only a person involved would know.

“During the lengthy preparation for the trial of Carl Harris which was scheduled for today, my assistant Jordan Davis and myself reviewed a witness statement from March 1990,” Adams said. “We believed that witness to be important to the case.”

“There were so many witnesses in this case and we had gone through relentlessly and interviewed each one,” Davis said about the female witness whose statement ultimately led to Beasley’s arrest.

Azmavour, who lives in Texas, was among those present at the January press conference announcing Beasley’s arrest. At that time, she thanked those involved in getting some closure for her mother. A four-year-old at the time of her mother’s death she only remembered her mother through pictures, she said.

“My oath is unique in the criminal justice system,” said Adams. “My oath is to seek justice and not merely convictions. Nobody else in our justice system has this burden, which is to seek justice for every citizen, defendants and victims.

“It is an ethical obligation to seek truth and not convictions,” Adams said at the January press conference, thanking the law officers involved in the case. “But especially I want to thank Jordan Davis, in her role as prosecutor and truth finder. Without her relentless pursuit of truth, we would not be standing here today.”