Baby buried as father faces trial

Services were Saturday for Alexander Xavier Harrell. His father, Alex Ware, 34, is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Alexander and his brother K-Von, whose remains haven't been found.

Police say Mr. Ware took the children to a remote part of St. Francis County, Ark., on June 16, 1999, and left them there. Alexander's body was found near Widener, but the body of K-Von, who was nearly 3, is still missing.

Mr. Ware is scheduled for trial Jan. 8. Mr. Ware waived his arraignment last fall and was scheduled for psychiatric testing. A defense lawyer requested a gag order in an effort to avoid tainting potential jurors.

At the time of Mr. Ware's arrest, police said he told officers that he and the boys' mother had abandoned Alexander at a lake June 16, 1999, and threw K-Von into a lake three days later.

The mother, Chantilly Harrell, was charged initially but was later cleared and released from jail.

St. Francis County sheriff's chief investigator Glenn Ramsey said the remains of the infant were only recently released to a funeral home by the Arkansas Crime Laboratory in Little Rock, where they had undergone DNA analysis.

Mr. Ramsey said the tests confirmed that the remains belonged to the child. The test results are expected to be introduced at the criminal trial next year.

Police found Alexander's body last September and drained a lake in an unsuccessful effort to find K-Von. Officers returned to the area in June with specially trained dogs in an effort to find K-Von. The dogs gave police no additional clues.