Student killed roommate, police say

TUCSON, Ariz. – Upset that her roommate had accused her of theft, a University of Arizona freshman bought a knife, returned to their dorm room and stabbed the woman as she slept, according to court papers filed Thursday.

But before 18-year-old Galareka Harrison killed Mia Henderson, she forged a note in which the victim purportedly admitted falsely accusing her roommate and “mentioned ending her own life,” university police Officer Mario Leon wrote in a sworn statement.

Harrison entered the room, left the note on her roommate’s desk and stabbed her “numerous times,” according to the probable cause statement filed in Pima County Justice Court.

Harrison is jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail on a first-degree murder charge in Wednesday’s stabbing. A judge entered a not guilty plea on her behalf.

Police would not say what Harrison had been accused of stealing and would not release the police report her roommate filed Aug. 28. But Lee Ann Dejolie, a Northern Arizona University student who described herself as a close friend of Henderson’s, said Henderson had complained this week that her roommate had been going through her purse and taking things.

“So Mia was really ticked off,” Dejolie said.

Both girls were residents of communities on the Navajo Indian Reservation – Henderson from Tuba City and Harrison from Chinle, about 100 miles east of Tuba City near New Mexico.

After Harrison’s initial court appearance Thursday, her mother, Janice Harrison, said her daughter has no history of violence. Noting the teen was injured and briefly hospitalized, she said her daughter must have been defending herself.