A Tennessee grand jury has indicted 16-year-old Malakiah Harris on first-degree murder charges in the stabbing death of 13-year-old Savannah Copeland. Harris, who was 15 at the time of the October 2024 incident near Knoxville, allegedly stabbed the girl 93 times along a trail. He will be tried as an adult, a judge ruled earlier this year.
Malakiah Harris faces trial as an adult after a grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder in the death of Savannah Copeland. The attack occurred in the early morning hours of October 22, 2024, when Copeland sneaked out of her home to meet Harris and his brother for a vape. Detectives determined that Copeland, who was just over 5 feet tall, posed no threat to Harris, who continued stabbing her even as she tried to flee and fell to the ground. Harris and his brother then left her body on the trail and walked home, according to investigators cited by WBIR, a local NBC affiliate. Harris allegedly told his brother, 'All you need to know is it was self-defense.' He claimed to detectives, 'I turned around and she was coming at me.' The next day, Harris attended school and told his then-girlfriend, 'I got my first body,' while texting a friend that 'the deed is done' the night of the slaying. Copeland's mother reported her missing that morning. Savannah's twin brother and Harris' brother were friends, police said. No motive has been identified for the killing. Savannah's father, Michael Copeland, expressed heartbreak to WVLT, a local CBS affiliate, saying, 'I have — I guess you can say — a horrible, horrible fear that there's not gonna be any kind of real motive and so there's not gonna be a good answer to any of this, and that part breaks my heart as much as anything.' Copeland attended Powell Middle School and aspired to study forensic anthropology at the University of Tennessee. Her obituary noted that she loved her family, friends, and art.
