This story, originally published at 5:36 p.m. on Jan. 3, 2024, was updated at 7:20 p.m. on Jan. 3, 2024, to add comments and quotes from the sentencing hearing and press conference after.
Dr. James Ryan, 50, a dentist and oral surgeon in Clarksburg, was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday for providing anesthetic-grade drugs to his girlfriend, Sarah Harris, 25, leading to her fatal overdose in 2022.
“I will be very pleased if he never walks around as a free man. He doesn’t deserve to be free,” Tina Harris, Sarah Harris’ mother, said at a press conference after the sentencing. “He took my precious star. She will never walk again free. She’s gone. She will never give me grandchildren, she will never achieve things in her life now and this man is to be held accountable.”
Rachel Harris, Sarah Harris’ sister, also spoke at the press conference, saying that it means a lot to her family that justice was served.
“This is a prime example of the justice system doing exactly what it was designed and intended to do,” Rachel Harris said. “Our main goal is justice for Sarah, and we feel that we have won that for her.”
Ryan will get credit for the time served since his arrest. The maximum sentence for his conviction was 55 years, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
In August, Ryan was convicted of second-degree “depraved heart murder,” involuntary manslaughter, possession with the intent to distribute midazolam and distribution of ketamine and diazepam.
According to Justia, one of the largest online databases of legal cases, a depraved heart murder, “also known as ‘reckless indifference’ murder, involves a level of extreme recklessness or indifference to human life that leads to death. It typically involves actions that create a high risk of death, even if the perpetrator did not intend to kill anyone.”
During the sentencing, Ryan’s current attorney, Paul Kemp, emphasized that her death was unintentional and that the judge should take that into account, but Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Dietrich said that even though he didn’t intentionally kill Sarah Harris, Ryan was “giving her the loaded gun.”
Also, Ryan spoke at the sentencing, expressing his apologies and regret, saying he deserved to be punished for what he did.
“It was the most terrible mistake of my life,” Ryan said. “I want to apologize to Sarah’s family and ask for forgiveness.”
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl McCally acknowledged all of this at the sentencing hearing and spoke for almost an hour about the truly horrific nature of this case. She recounted and discussed the story of what happened, calling it “the march to Sarah’s death.”
Harris “went from a radiant beauty queen to an emaciated skeleton in less than six months,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Harrison said on day one of the trial.
Ryan’s attorney at the time, Tom DeGonia, argued during the trial that Ryan was just a “flawed individual” who fell in love—taking Harris on trips and buying her a car—and did not have “murder in his heart.”
Harrison outlined the timeline during the trial: Harris met Ryan when he performed her wisdom teeth surgery in the fall of 2020, and she began working for him as a surgical assistant. They continued to get closer and started dating in January 2021.
Over the course of their relationship, Harris moved in with Ryan and confided to him about her struggles with depression and anxiety. Ryan said to alleviate her mental health struggles, he provided her with IV injections of anesthetic-grade drugs, Harrison said.
DeGonia said that Harris experienced bipolar disorder, a diagnosis she received after she began dating Ryan.
Throughout the next year, Tina Harris said she repeatedly found her daughter in a disoriented state where she was slurring her words, exhausted and not eating—and had multiple needle marks and bruises on her arms from being injected with IVs.
“What I saw was very, very alarming,” Tina Harris said during the trial.
Harrison brought up the text message exchanges between the couple during the trial, discovered on Sarah Harris’ laptop.
These text messages included Sarah Harris writing to Ryan, asking “Can you get more versed and ketamine?” and him replying in the affirmative, and her telling him “I feel like I’m floating,” when he asked how the drugs made her feel, and he said that was a good thing, Harrison said.
On one occasion, Ryan administered ketamine to Harris while she was asleep, Harrison said.
