Registered sex offender charged with staying near childcare facility
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 16, 2024
SALISBURY — A registered sex offender has been charged after deputies said they discovered him living within 1,000 feet of a child-care facility.
Larry Sylvester Harris Jr., 54, was charged with felony failure to notify of a change of address and felony living near the premises of a child-care facility as a registered sex offender on Tuesday.
Harris was released from prison on parole on April 3 and notified the sheriff’s office on April 9 that he would be changing his address to a house on Clancy Street in Salisbury, said Captain Mark McDaniel, the public information officer for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. Harris was in prison after being convicted of felony obstruction of justice in July of 2023.
During a conversation with Harris’ mother, his parole officer learned that Harris had not been staying overnight at the house, according to McDaniel. The officer reported this to the sheriff’s office, who began an investigation.
That investigation reportedly discovered that Harris had been staying with his girlfriend at a residence in the 1100 block of North Jackson Street. McDaniel said that Harris admitted to deputies that he had been staying at the house. Harris received the additional felony charge because deputies reportedly discovered that the residence was within 1,000 feet of a child-care facility.
Harris was placed on the sex offender registry in 2004 after being convicted of indecent liberties with a minor in Rowan County.
Harris was also convicted of felony indecent liberties with a child in 1989 and 1990, according to North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records. Both of those offenses predate the establishment of the sex offender registry, which began in 1996.
Harris was placed in the Rowan County DetentionCenter and given a $20,000 bond.