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| Tuesday, May 15 2007 6:46 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 15 2007 8:09 PM
It has been nearly four years since the Harpers were killed in their P Street home. Here are just a few details of who they were.
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Earnestine Harper, 70, was a longtime crusader in Bakersfield for civil rights and a deeply religious woman. She became particularly prominent when she took up the cause of Offord Rollins IV, a man accused of killing his sometimes girlfriend, Maria Madera Rodriguez in 1991.
After a jury could not reach a verdict on the Rollins case, the prosecution decided not to seek a second trial. Harper felt the sheriff’s department focused on just one suspect when they should have been pursuing other possible leads.
Joanie Harper, 39, was a former Bakersfield High School basketball star. She married Brothers in January 2000. She worked security at local schools. Her marriage to Brothers was annulled in September 2001.
The couple remarried in January 2003. They had three children together.
Marques Juwan Harper was 4 years old, Lyndsey Michelle Harper was 2 and Marshall Harper was 6 weeks old when they were found shot to death in bed with their mother, Joanie.
Marques had just graduated from the McKinley preschool program on June 4, 2003. Marshall made his first appearance in church on July 6, 2003, the day the prosecutor believes the family was killed.