The Louisville man accused of keeping his mother's dead body in his home for 6 months faced a judge for the first time Saturday.
Julius Harris is charged with fraud and abuse of a corpse.
Police say once his mother passed, he never did anything with her body. In arraignment court, 52-year-old Julius Harris didn't say a word.
Police say for the last 6 months he's had good practice at keeping his mouth and his home shut.
“He kept it really closed up. He always came out that side door and he would always shut the side door," said one neighbor.
Neighbors were growing more concerned when they hadn't seen 89-year-old Sila Harris for months. It turns out Harris was home but she wasn't fine.
Police say she died of natural causes in May and her son kept her decomposing body inside the house where they lived for 6 months, all while cashing in her income checks.
When police arrived Thursday night to check on the home, Julius barricaded himself inside for nearly 9 hours.
The standoff ended when he peacefully surrendered and then officers went inside to check it out.
They found the body of Sila Harris in the bed where she had died.
But it turns out; police were at that house just a month after the death.
We found out Julius was arrested at his home in June for wrecking his car right out front.
He was arrested for wanton endangerment and DUI after he tried to leave the scene of the accident. He had a blood alcohol level of nearly twice the legal limit but police never went inside his home.
Julius Harris is being held at Metro Corrections on a $25,000 bond.
He's scheduled to be back in court November 24th.
