i hear on a local news station, they interrupt to say that there is a downtown murder in a law office. reporter: attorney prem burns was on her way into work. which, of course, alerts me. initially, my my gosh is it an attorney? reporter: the office, now strung with yellow crime scene tape, belonged to an up-and-comer named chiquita tate. a local woman just a few years out of law school, but already making a name for herself in the competitive, pads and helmets, arena of litigation and criminal defense. she had recently won a half-million dollar jury verdict. that s pretty good for somebody out such a short time. reporter: chiquita was one of seven, her father, absent, raised by her grandma in a tired neighborhood of boarded-up houses. smart and determined, she rose above her impoverished early years and once her fuse was lit, she became a rocket.
their back files and proceeded to check out the tipster. they traced her call to a town in texas. they even drove there and after questioning a few locals, managed to reach a woman by phone with an oddly familiar voice. i immediately recognized her as the voice that i heard that had called the office that time. and i asked her how did she know chiquita tate. and she said, well, chiquita tate used to be married to my brother. reporter: this was greg harris sister. yes, that s correct. greg harris sister. reporter: so the tip that sent detectives off to texas had led them right back to greg, the husband. was greg or maybe his sister trying to plant a false lead? prem burns added that to her list of concerns about greg harris. she was also discovering that greg had a bad history with some of the women in his life. her investigators found greg had control issues and a temper according to chiquita s family members and some old girlfriends. he just wanted them within his eyesig
Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline 20211212 07:23:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
but the hair had come from a woman s hair extension or a weave. so the scenario that occurs to me is that this is a woman that s in this assault exactly. two women are fighting and she s gotten a bit of this weave and yanked it exactly. reporter: the theory of two women in a death struggle didn t make sense to the cops. the attack seemed too violent, too overwhelming. but with homicides, you never know. in the early hours of the investigation though, they did catch a major break. a report had come into dispatch. a woman driving through a high-crime area known as gardere lane called police to say she d found a wallet. and it belonged to chiquita tate. she s driving down gardere lane and she sees the wallet on the side of the road. reporter: amazingly enough, the finder of the wallet knew chiquita. the young attorney had given a speech at her daughter s school and made quite an impression. that prompted her to call the police and advise us that she she located this
Rising Star Criminal Defense Attorney Meets Her Own Tragic End In Louisiana
“She was butchered,” prosecutor Prem Burns said of seeing Chiquita Tate brutally stabbed to death on the floor of her Baton Rouge legal office after working late one night on an upcoming murder case.
Chiquita Tate a rising defense attorney in the Louisiana legal scene had been working late in February 2009 to prepare for an upcoming murder trial when she tragically became a murder victim herself.
The 34-year-old was stabbed 43 times in a brutal attack at her Baton Rouge law office, and left splayed out on the floor with pieces of long dark hair clutched in her hand.