In a hometown homicide that has dripped with irony from its strange beginning, Sgt. Scott Ansman of the National Guard this morning was ordered to stand trial on Thursday, Sept. 11, for allegedly murdering his girlfriend, JoAnn Crystal Harris, in the midst of a feud at the National Guard Armory, behind the Vets Auditorium.
The biggest irony of all remains to be publicly revealed.
Peering over his shoulder at the two grieving mothers of the victim and the defendant seated, as is their custom, at opposite ends of the spectator section, prosecutor Joe Markus said, “We all would like to get this case to trial.” Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of Ms. Harris’s bloody killing.
Mothers Who Never Meet
Wordlessly and without an external display of emotion, Martha Lou Harris, frequently accompanied by her niece, and Marilyn Ansman, always alone, have attended every hearing on the eighth floor of the Airport Courthouse
They are aware of each other, but they don’t know each other and they never have been known to address each other.
Neither is particularly mobile, which only compounds their discomfort.
Continuing to grieve, they arrive at separate times, another reason they never criss cross.
One is religious and talks freely of her faith in God to bring her through the most wrenching crisis of her life. The other mother is secular.
Both are intensely private women.
Long ago, they dedicated their lives to raising their families, Ms. Harris the mother of four, Ms. Ansman the mother of three.
Sgt. Ansman, who is married and became a father for the third time two months before the deadly showdown with Ms. Harris, who was pregnant, faces life in prison, if convicted.
A Matter of Timing
Fiesta La Ballona opens tomorrow afternoon in Vets Parks, and it was last year on a Friday afternoon in the final minutes before Fiesta started that Sgt. Ansman, according to Culver City police, killed Ms. Harris on the auditorium floor of the Armory after a spat over money.
Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of the murder.
Sgt. Ansman has been incarcerated since shortly after dialing police around 4:20 p.m., and turning himself in, minutes after the attack.
Arguing that the crime was premeditated prosecution witnesses have testified that the suspect was trying to recruit help in killing Ms. Harris.
Indeed, a colleague, National Guard Staff Sgt. Erik Hein, said he went to the Culver City police two weeks before the Aug. 24 murder to warn authorities what his co-worker allegedly was planning.
The police have declined comment.
It appears that Ms. Harris never was warned, and that she had no inkling that she supposedly was in peril.
