{"id":10834,"date":"2012-04-03T16:48:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T23:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=10834"},"modified":"2012-06-30T12:08:43","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T19:08:43","slug":"man-pleads-not-guilty-in-roommate-shooting-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/04\/03\/man-pleads-not-guilty-in-roommate-shooting-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Man pleads not guilty in roommate shooting death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Nicholas Brian Harper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER\u00a0 – A 24-year-old man charged with murdering his roommate pleaded not guilty Tuesday in an Antelope Valley courtroom.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Brian Harper<\/strong> was arraigned before Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Robert McSorley and was represented by Deputy Public Defender John Cho.<\/p>\n

After pleading not guilty to a single count of murder, Harper was ordered back to custody on $2 million bail with a preliminary hearing set for April 18.<\/p>\n

Harper stands accused of shooting and killing his roommate, James McElroy<\/strong>, 21, on Feb. 7 inside their apartment at the Parkwood Patio apartment complex in the 38000 block of 20th Street East in Palmdale.<\/p>\n

Deputies from the Palmdale Station responded to the apartment complex around 8:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, after receiving a call about gunshots coming from a residence, according to Lieutenant Mary Leef of the Sheriff\u2019s Headquarters Bureau.<\/p>\n

McElroy was discovered at the location with a gunshot wound to the upper torso, Leef said.<\/p>\n

He was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead at 9:44 p.m., according to Coroner\u2019s Assistant Chief Ed Winter.<\/p>\n

Harper was detained at the scene and the firearm believed to be used in the shooting was also recovered from the scene, officials said.<\/p>\n

Harper reportedly claimed the shooting was accidental and was originally arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n

He was briefly released from custody on Feb. 14, and then re-interviewed by detectives, and re-arrested for murder that same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found conflicts with his statements and conflicts with the forensics examination, which is still ongoing,\u201d said sheriff\u2019s homicide detective Dan McElderry at the time.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 16, Harper\u2019s bail was raised to $2 million, and he has since remained in custody.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
James McElroy, 21, (shown with his 2-year-old daughter Izabella).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McElroy\u2019s relatives and friends have insisted from the outset that Harper murdered McElroy over jealousy. Read the family\u2019s story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tuesday several of McElroy\u2019s family members sat in the courtroom to witness Harper\u2019s arraignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of hurt me that he said not guilty because we know he did it,\u201d said McElroy\u2019s mother, Clemmie Graves. \u201cI\u2019m waiting for the preliminary hearing so they could put everything on the table and then they\u2019ll see that it really is true, that he really did do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper is due back in court on April 18 for a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER\u00a0 – A 24-year-old man charged with murdering his roommate pleaded not guilty Tuesday in an Antelope Valley courtroom. Nicholas Brian Harper was arraigned before Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Robert McSorley and was represented by Deputy Public Defender John Cho. After pleading not guilty to a single count of murder, Harper was ordered back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}