Post a reply || Back to NFA Class Memorial Page.. Alexis Olivia Harris - Class of 2010
Submitted by Anne Corbett Harris 68 <andaal926@yahoo.com> on 19/Jan/2016
Alexis Olivia Harris of New Windsor, NY a sales associate for Ralph Lauren/Polo at the Woodbury Commons, entered into rest Saturday, July 21, 2012. She was 20. The daughter of Anne Corbett Harris and the late David Harris, Alexis was born March 19, 1992 in Bolivia. Alexis is now at peace in the arms of her beloved father, David and was blessed to have so many who loved and supported her. Survivors include her mother, Anne Corbett Harris of New Windsor and her fiance, Bob Klein; brothers, Christopher Harris of San Diego and Kevin Harris and wife, Donna of Arkansas; uncles, George Harris and wife, Jean and Joe Corbett and wife, Linda, all of New Windsor; godmothers, Mary Beth Hand of Mountainville and Barbara Craft- Reiss of New Paltz; nephew, Matthew and nieces: Alexandra, Cindy and Rebecca, many cousins, and her beloved dog, Layla. In addition to her father, David, Alexis was predeceased by her grandmothers, Barbara Corbett Tighe and Margaret Harris Curry and sister-in-law, Kimberly Harris. Visitation for family and friends will take place Wednesday, July, 25, 2012 from 4 to 8 p.m. at White & Venuto Funeral Home, 188 North Plank Rd., (Rt 32), Newburgh, NY. Funeral service will take place 10 a.m. Thursday July 26 at the King of Kings Lutheran Church, 543 Union Ave., New Windsor, NY with Pastor Mary Lou Baumgartner officiating. Cremation will follow the service at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Burial of Cremains will take place at a time convenient to the family in Woodlawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, make donations in Alexis's memory to the following organizations: Walter Hoving Home, 40 Walter Hoving Rd., Garrison, NY 10524, Safe Home of Orange County, PO Box 649, Newburgh, NY 12551., Mental Health Association, 73 James P. Kelly Way, Middletown, NY 10940. Funeral arrangements under the direction of White & Venuto Funeral Home, 845-562-6550 or to send a condolence or for further information please visit www.whiteandvenutofuneralhome.com ******************************************************************* Harris killer gets 22 years Newburgh man sentenced in fatal beating of 20 year old girlfriend
GOSHEN — Her name was Alexis Olivia Harris, and she was 20 when a man who
was supposed to love her beat her to death. On Thursday in Orange County
Court, her killer, boyfriend Yannick Evina-Ze, 31, was sentenced to 22½
years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in her
July 21death in Newburgh. But before Judge Jeffrey Berry posed the sentence,
Alexis mother, Anne Harris, demanded that Evina-Ze look at her, to see the
pain he caused when he fatally beat Alexis. "My life was taken that night
and my world rearranged," she told him. "Seeing him and knowing what he did
to my girl brings me to my knees. I am sickened to my core." Harris was
accompanied by Alexis' close friends, Christine Pagliaro and Astrid Robles,
and a crowd of family and friends. Evina-Ze's mother and a handful of
supporters sat on the opposite side of the courtroom gallery. Harris spoke
about adopting Alexis as a baby from Bolivia, about raising her — their
"Alexis Olivia from Bolivia," stubborn and sweet, loving and loved. Alexis
wanted to help Evina-Ze improve his life, too, Harris said. A month before
he killed her, Harris said, Evina-Ze attended church with her and Alexis.
The sermon was about abuse."I remember him saying to me at the end of the
service, 'I got a lot out of that,' " she recounted. "I guess not. My
daughter was dead less than a month later." There is no justice for what he
took away, Harris said; Evina-Ze will end up serving about as much time in
prison as Alexis was alive. "I hope her killer is haunted for the rest of
his days by the smiling, brilliant and talented girl he took from her family
and friends, my girl, who never had a chance to live," Harris said. Senior
District Attorney Neal Haberman told the judge that the presentencing
investigation concluded that Evina-Ze was at high risk for violence, and
moderate to high risk to reoffend. The report called him "a formidable and
dangerous presence in the community," Haberman said. Evina-Ze's lawyer told
the judge his client regrets his actions, and that he has the potential to
become a better man. "I stand here remorseful and ashamed," Evina-Ze told
the court. "What I did was senseless, cruel and unimaginable. She didn't
deserve this. No one deserves this." Evina-Ze said Alexis Harris was the
most caring person he has ever known, and her mother was always kind to him.
"And in return, I brought you nothing but heartache and sorrow," he said.
"It makes me feel like the worst person on earth." He apologized to his own
family, "especially to my mother, who raised me to know better and to do
better." Berry imposed the 22½-year sentence, calling Harris' death one of
the most senseless and brutal cases he has seen. He encouraged Evina-Ze to
seek out other inmates in prison to tell them the terrible price of giving
in to the influence of jealous rage, alcohol and drugs; perhaps by doing so,
he can save someone else. After court, Anne Harris said there will be no
closure, but perhaps now her healing can begin. She'll advocate for victims
of domestic violence. "I'll forge through," she said.
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