Dearborn Heights Mom of 4 Slain Kids Attends Husband’s Hearing

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI — Faith Harris-Green was in a Dearborn Heights courtroom Wednesday for a hearing for her husband Gregory Green, who is accused of torturing, tying up and forcing her to watch as he killed her teenage children and killing the couple’s young children by carbon monoxide poisoning.

The children — Chadney Allen, 19; Kara Allen, 17; Koi Green, 5, and Kaleigh Green, 4 — were buried last week after a huge outpouring of support from the Metro Detroit community.

Green, 49, an ex-con who was paroled after serving 16 years of a sentence of up to 25 years, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and six other felony charges. The other felonies include torture and felonious assault for the attack on his wife, who was shot in the foot and slashed in the face with a box cutter in horrific rampage that took place in the family’s Dearborn Heights home on the 4400 block of Hipp two weeks ago.

In a wheelchair and wearing a veiled hat to cover her face, Harris-Green said nothing during the hearing in 20th District Court and left without speaking to reporters, the Detroit Free Press reported.

See Also

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• Accused Family Annihilator Forced Mom to Watch As He Shot Children: Prosecutor
• Funeral Home Donates Services for 4 Slain Dearborn Heights Kids
• Dearborn Heights Mom Thanks Community for Love and Support

The accused family annihilator also was silent during the brief hearing that lasted less than two minutes.
Chief Judge Mark Plawecki has ordered him to undergo an examination at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry to determine if Green is mentally fit to stand trial and to waive his Miranda rights.

The examination, which has not been scheduled, was ordered after Green’s attorney, Charles Longstreet II, filed a notice of intent to assert the insanity defense, according to court records.

Green was paroled from prison in 2008 after serving 16 years of an up to 25-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to a second-degree murder charge in the fatal 1991 stabbing his first wife, who was six months pregnant at the time. Before he pleaded no contest in the case involving his first wife, Green had planned to use an insanity defense, according to media reports.

Green and Harris-Green were married two years later, and she had filed for divorce three times — in 2013, 2014 and again in 2016, about two months before the children were killed. A 2013 request for a protection order against Green had been denied.

Green calmly called police early on the morning of Sept. 21 and informed them that he had killed the children and was standing in the driveway with his hands in the air when they arrived, police have said. He had exhibited similar demeanor after stabbing Tanya Green and their unborn child, police have said.

Father-In-Law Lobbied for Green’s Parole

In a bizarre twist in the cruel story story, Harris-Green’s father, Southfield pastor and civil rights activist Fred Harris lobbied a decade ago for Green’s parole after he served 16 years of a sentence of up to 25 years for killing his then-wife and unborn child, according to documents obtained by The Detroit News from the Michigan Department of Corrections.

In an Aug. 17, 2005 letter to parole officials, the now 76-year-old pastor at the Church of the Risen Christ Ministries International in Detroit wrote that he and Green “were friends before his mishap and he was incarcerated.”

“I feel he has paid for his unfortunate lack of self control and the damage he has caused as much as possible and is sorry,” Harris wrote. “This will not restore the lives that were taken; he will carry that with him for the rest of his life.”

Green wrote another letter a year later, The Detroit News said.

“I’ve noticed a great deal of growth and his understanding has matured quite a bit as well as his processing skills,” the pastor wrote. “If he was to be released, he would be welcomed as a part of our church community, and whatever we could do to help him adjust, we would.”

Green was denied parole four times before an early release was granted in 2008, according to parole officials.

The letters from the pastor did not indicate whether Harris-Green knew Green before he was paroled.

“My dear babies, I Love You All”

Harris-Green has not spoken publicly, and on Wednesday, she asked the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to inform reporters that she will not be making any statements.

In a statement last week, her sister, Niki Harris, said:

“Words cannot describe the horrific tragedy our family is experiencing over the untimely deaths of Chadney, Kara, Koi, and Kaleigh. We are devastated by this loss and at this time we are asking for privacy during this extremely difficult time.

“We are relieved to advise Faith Harris-Green is home and on the road toward recovery ... As a family – we don’t understand every experience we encounter in life, but we do know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.”

The children were buried last week after a funeral at the Detroit First Church of the Nazarene in Farmington Hills. The services were donated by O.H. Pye III Funeral Home in Detroit.

Their grief-stricken mother gave Pastor Ben Walls a letter to read.

“My dear babies,” Harris-Green wrote. “I love you all. You were always unique in your own way. I always encouraged each of you to be your own person ... to be a leader and not a follower and stand up for what’s right.”

The older children’s father, Chadney Allen Sr., said their deaths were “more overwhelming than I could ever imagine.”

“They were going to be powerful individuals. But I know they're in a better place. They're not feeling any pain, or any sorrow anymore.”

Outpouring of Support

Nearly $53,000 raised in a GoFundMe campaign that had been set up to pay for the children’s funeral will now be used to help offset Harris-Green’s medical expenses. Another GoFundMe campaign stated by a coworker of Harris-Green has raised almost $13,000.

Also this week, the Dearborn Heights school district, where three of the four children had attended school at one point, raised $7,000 to help Harris-Green in her recovery.

Photo via GoFundMe