A Pima County Superior Court judge has decided to postpone the hearing of a woman convicted of stabbing her roommate to death in 2007 in Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall.
Galareka Harrison, a UA freshman at the time of the incident, is serving a natural life sentence for killing her roommate, Mia Henderson.
Harrison’s new attorney argued that her previous defense did a poor job of representing her and that the sentence was too heavy for a 19-year-old.
Judge Scott Rash postponed the hearing Thursday, and prosecutors have asked the state Court of Appeals to overturn the decision for a new sentencing hearing.
According to prosecutors directly after the investigation, Harrison had stolen Henderson’s CatCard, $500 cash and a pair of checks. After finding out that Henderson knew about the theft, Harrison stabbed her 23 times. Doctors later determined that seven of the stab wounds had struck Henderson’s major organs.
Both members of the Navajo tribe, the students were members of the American Indian First-Year Scholars program, housed in Graham-Greenlee. The program moved its members to the Kaibab-Huachuca Residence Hall the semester following the incident.