Also: Harrison prosecution to rest after big details

Jurors examined the contents of the suicide note of Mia Henderson today in the first-degree murder trial of Galareka Harrison, a former UA student charged with stabbing her freshman roommate to death in Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall last September.

University of Arizona Police Department officer Steven Mendoza presented the note to the jury.

“”I’ve thought over the whole weekend of just putting an end to life,”” the note read. “”I didn’t know how to tell my parents about the situation. I felt completely lost. I felt crazy.””

The note, which prosecutors claim was actually penned by Harrison, explained that Henderson was dissatisfied with her situation at the dorm and that stealing money was the only way she was able to gain satisfaction. Henderson allegedly confesses in the letter that she was jealous of Harrison and other girls in the dorm.

“”Galareka, she’s a nice enough girl,”” the note read. “”I could not take how much her family loves her.””

In the confession, it is stated that Henderson framed Harrison for crimes involving the theft of CatCards – that Henderson was the one who stole money from Harrison and also planned to steal from Analisa Valencia, a fellow dorm resident who testified for the court Tuesday.

Based on the letter, defense attorneys said prior to the trial that Henderson planned on murdering Harrison and that the death of Henderson was a result of self-defense by Harrison.

Wednesday in court, prosecutors wished to prove that Harrison wrote the note.

In a tape recorded at the hospital following the stabbing of Henderson, Harrison told UAPD detective Martin Ramirez that she went to the science library the night before the murder and wrote the suicide note.

She also confessed that she disposed of the packaging materials of the weapon that killed Henderson, an eight-inch kitchen knife, according to the tape. She said she threw the packaging away at the science library.

With Ramirez on the stand, prosecutors presented surveillance photos from the science library showing Harrison entering and leaving the building, where she wrote the fake suicide note, prosecutors said.

Later, the prosecution called Alicia Perkins, a Department of Public Safety latent print examiner, to provide expert testimony. Perkins testified that she examined the murder weapon, but although she was able to obtain fingerprint “”ridge detail,”” she was unable to establish clear prints that would confirm or disconfirm the identity of either Harrison or Henderson.

The knife was presented to the jury by Mendoza, the UAPD detective who collected the evidence after the incident. It was noted that the knife was covered in dried blood with hair still clinging to the blade.