Kansas Man Decapitated Man With Guitar String, Kept Head for Voodoo Ritual

A Kansas man stands accused of decapitating a Topeka resident with a guitar string three years ago and keeping the head as part of a Voodoo ritual.

James Paul Harris, 29, pleaded not guilty to the premeditated first-degree murder of James Gerety. Harris kept the head of Gerety, 49, after Gerety was killed in March or April of 2011. Harris pleaded not guilty Monday and his trial was set for June 23, according to The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Harris' former girlfriend, Bobbie Williams, testified during a preliminary hearing on March 14 that Harris told her he shot Gerety in the stomach, tortured him for two days and then cut off his head.

Detective Brian Hill of the Topeka police said Williams told him during questioning that Harris kept the head in a canvas bag so he could talk to it as a part of a Voodoo ritual.

Thomas Henderson, a lawyer who took care of Gerety's Social Security payments, testified at the preliminary hearing that he reported Gerety missing in April 2011 after he did not pick up his payments.

Henderson said Gerety planned to live with Harris in Carbondale, which is 18 miles south of Topeka.

Police report that Shirley Johnson, who lives with Harris' father in Osage County, Carbondale testified that she found the top of Gerety's skull outside on March 24, 2012. She said she brought it inside the house and showed it to Harris' father, who then called the police.

Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones said Tuesday that witnesses from the March testimony said that Harris buried, dug up, then reburied the body, and that part of Gerety's skull was found on top of grass near his father's house.

The rest of Gerety's body has not yet been found.

Harris was in federal custody on charges unrelated to the murder when a warrant was issued in October 2013 and he was held by Kansas authorities. He filed a request in January to have the hold resolved, and he was taken to the Osage County jail in March to begin court proceedings.