CHAMBERS COUNTY, Texas – Sarah Hartsfield, who earlier this month celebrated her 49th birthday behind bars in Chambers County, is scheduled to go to trial in just a few months for the January 2023 murder of her fifth husband.
According to Chambers County District Clerk records, a jury trial is scheduled to start May 20. A pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for April 8.
“I think it’s ambitious, I really do. Especially with the amount of evidence that we have from other states, from other witnesses,” Chambers County District Attorney Cheryl Lieck Henry said. “The judges set their docket. They set the cases for trial. I have no power over which one goes first. And they are going to be looking at, and rightly so, the older cases, the suspects or defendants who have been sitting in jail the longest because that’s only fair.”
Lieck Henry, the county’s top prosecutor on the Hartsfield case, is also up for re-election, in a primary race scheduled for March 5. In a campaign Facebook post, she touts a “100% conviction rate on murders.”
“Even when I have somebody on video committing a crime, I don’t ever consider it a slam dunk because you never know what a jury is going to do,” she said. “I never waltz into a courtroom and go, ‘Oh, I’ve got this.’ You know ... It’s a lot of work, a lot of preparation, and I’m a perfectionist, and I’m also very competitive.”
Hartsfield’s defense attorney, James Reeves, is currently running for the top prosecutor job in Lavaca County as a “lifelong Republican with strong family values,” according to his campaign website. Reeves claims to be “the only candidate with extensive felony trial experience including murders.” He’s challenging current Lavaca County Attorney Kyle Denney in the primary, also scheduled for March 5.
“They gave me the discovery in the case early enough that I’ve had plenty of opportunity to get through all the discovery. And I know what I need to focus on, and I have more than enough time after the March 5th primary to focus on going through the evidence and looking for any issues that I need to investigate,” Reeves said. “Any case can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. However, I have some very large concerns about their ability to prove a homicide.”
If Reeves wins the race, he said he will have to try Hartsfield’s case before the end of the year.
“I don’t have forever to try a case,” he said. “Miss Hartsfield is entitled to an attorney of her choosing. She’s chosen us. And I intend on trying that case.”
Hartsfield’s fifth husband, Joseph, died Jan. 15, 2023 in a Baytown hospital. Doctors and nurses suspected foul play, according to a search warrant.
The medical examiner ruled the diabetic’s cause of death complications of toxic effects of insulin. The manner of death is still undetermined.
Joseph Hartsfield’s family told KPRC 2 he was planning to leave his wife of approximately one year in the weeks leading up to his death, and several of Sarah Hartsfield’s exes have said their relationships ended under poor circumstances that left them concerned for their safety.
A Chambers County grand jury indicted Sarah Hartsfield in early Feb. 2023 for murder.
- Watch KPRC 2′s investigative documentary The Two Sides of Sarah, which digs deeper into Sarah Hartsfield’s past, revealing details about her background and the string of exes she’s left behind.
“If I was a betting man, which I am not, I would bet that this trial will not begin on this initial trial setting because that is ordinarily the default position in the criminal justice system,” KPRC 2 Legal Analyst Brian Wice said. “I would expect this case to be reset for trial at least once more before a jury is actually ushered into the courtroom to begin hearing testimony.”
Wice said Lieck Henry and Reeves’ election campaigns, combined with the possibility that older cases are ahead of Hartsfield’s on the trial docket, or issues with witness availability could contribute to delays in scheduling.
“She has a right to her day in court, and she’s going to get it. But she needs to understand that other people do, too,” Lieck Henry said. “In my opinion, she’s where she needs to be right now.”
Hartsfield, who has maintained her innocence in dozens of messages to KPRC 2, currently has a $2 million bond.
Last year, in a message to KPRC 2, Hartsfield wrote: “No matter how much elected officials use me and this case to further (their) own political aspirations, the real truth can’t be hidden forever.”
Lieck Henry responded to the claim, noting that she didn’t have an opponent when Hartsfield allegedly committed the murder.
“I’ve never done anything for political reasons,” she said. “Plus, you know, I just I have more integrity than that.”
Hartsfield’s case has made national headlines. Investigators said she lived in several states, and Lieck Henry said it’s the first case in which she’s had to ask the media for help in getting witnesses to come forward.
“She left crumbs everywhere she went. And it’s just us to it’s up to us to put all that together,” she said.
“Some may say that you’ve been trying to try the case in the media. What’s the difference?,” KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked Lieck Henry.
“Yeah, absolutely not. There’s a difference between talking about the facts of a case and talking about what is actual public record, which would be an indictment, and asking the media for help, for witnesses, to come forward,” she said.
With all of the attention the case has gotten, Reeves said there’s concern for a biased jury.
“Sarah’s case has been extremely well-reported in the media to the point that I think we may struggle to find people who don’t already have an opinion or haven’t heard something about the case,” Reeves said. “I’m not saying that media shouldn’t do their job, I’m just saying there’s consequences for it. And unfortunately, Sarah Hartsfield bears those consequences.”
Days after her Texas arrest, prosecutors in Douglas County, Minnesota re-opened a 2018 investigation involving Sarah Hartsfield, in which she fatally shot her fiancé David Bragg. His family has told KPRC 2 he, too, was making arrangements to end the relationship at the time and they believe the killing was pre-meditated.
Sarah Hartsfield was cleared of any criminal charges in that shooting as it was ruled self-defense. But after her indictment in Texas, Douglas County Attorney Chad Larson said new information came into the sheriff’s office which prompted moving the case back to “active” status.
A year later, his office has avoided questions about the status of a re-opened investigation and has not provided any substantive update on the status of the case.
An appeal on Hartsfield’s $2 million bond is currently pending with the First Court of Appeals, after she and her defense team have successfully fought at the district court level to lower it three times from the initial $5 million.
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