Yuma man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in son’s death

A jury never got to decide whether Daniel Harris intentionally killed his son. After opening statements began, the 38-year-old Yuma man pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder, ending a trial that had only just started and replacing a first-degree homicide case with a negotiated plea.

In open court, Harris admitted the factual basis of the charge, including that he knowingly pulled out a knife and stabbed Michael Patrick Reiter, 24. That admission ended the contest over whether the case would be decided by jurors. Jury selection had begun May 5, and opening statements were underway May 6 before the plea agreement shut down the trial.

The case began the night of Sept. 5, 2025, when Yuma County sheriff’s deputies were called at about 10:18 p.m. to a home in the 800 block of South Almond Avenue. The sheriff’s office said Reiter was unresponsive when deputies arrived. He was taken first to Onvida Health in Yuma, then flown to a Phoenix-area hospital, where he died. Investigators later identified Harris and Reiter’s sister, Danica Watts, 21, as suspects. Harris was initially booked on first-degree homicide per domestic violence, while Watts was booked on first-degree homicide per domestic violence and hindering prosecution.

The plea deal significantly changed the stakes. Second-degree murder is a class 1 felony in Arizona, with an ordinary sentencing range of 10 to 25 years and a presumptive term of 16 years. Harris is scheduled to be sentenced June 4, meaning the legal process is not over even though the trial is. The sentence will determine how much prison time he serves, and it will show whether the court accepts the deal that removed the case from a jury’s hands.

The plea also left important questions hanging for Reiter’s family and for the wider Yuma community. Prosecutors had described Harris as intentful, while the defense said the stabbing happened in the heat of a family argument, including an allegation that Reiter had been inappropriately touching an underage family member. That conflict over motive and responsibility has not been fully tested before a jury, and Watts’s separate case is still moving forward. She has a plea agreement hearing scheduled for next month, keeping the family’s criminal case active in Yuma County Superior Court even after Harris’s trial ended.