Elizabeth Hatfield

LAKE MARY- One of the men connected to the 1995 murder of 18-year-old Elizabeth Hatfield in Okeechobee has passed away.

Ryan Harris died on June 18, according to a post from a funeral home in Lake City. Ryan’s status was also updated to ‘Deceased’ in the FDLE Sex Offender Registry. The cause of death is unknown at this time. Harris was 50 years old.

Harris was convicted along with his friend Kevin Cutts, for the murder of Elizabeth Hatfield back in 1995. Harris was Elizabeth’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her baby. Ryan and Elizabeth had a volatile history, with Elizabeth eventually seeking a restraining order against him following their breakup. Harris had been arrested for violating that restraining order only a few weeks before Elizabeth was killed.

Harris convinced his friend, Kevin Cutts, that Elizabeth was abusing his baby, and that the pair needed to kill her to put a stop to it. On March 15, 1995, Ryan picked up Kevin and drove to Elizabeth’s trailer, before handing him a 9mm Ruger handgun and telling him to “just do it”. The murder weapon was later found in Ryan’s home.

The 17-year-old Cutts entered the Okeechobee mobile home of Elizabeth and shot her multiple times in the head and face with the handgun as she slept. Elizabeth’s 8-month-old baby was lying near her. But the baby was miraculously unharmed.

Ryan Harris looks back during his trial. [Photo by Katrina Elsken/Okeechobee News]

Cutts agreed to testify against Harris at his trial. In exchange for testifying against Harris, the death penalty was taken off the table for Cutts. Harris was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder, which was reduced to manslaughter on appeal, resulting in just seven years in prison.

Kevin Cutts testifies during the trial of Ryan Harris. [Photo by Katrina Elsken/Okeechobee News]

Harris served that time and was released but was arrested and convicted for having sexual relations with a 16-year-old boy in Tallahassee. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on that conviction. He also served time for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

Now, over 30 years after he was convicted in the murder of Elizabeth Hatfield, Harris is deceased.

The other man responsible for Elzabeth’s death, Kevin Cutts, was sentenced in 1997 to two consecutive life-without-parole terms. But following the U.S. Supreme Court's Miller v. Alabama ruling, which prohibited mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles, he was resentenced in 2016 to life with a 25-year judicial review on Count 1, First Degree Murder and consecutive to 24 years on Count 2, Armed Burglary with Battery.

Cutts's 25-year review triggered around 2023, and he was granted a judicial review hearing. His legal team argued he has been rehabilitated and is fit to reenter society. He also filed an amended motion seeking to have the sentence modification apply to both counts.

The hearing on rehabilitation proceeded on May 22, 2026, with the court hearing testimony from witnesses. Kevin Cutts himself also made an allocution statement to the court.

After the hearing concluded, the judge did not rule from the bench. The defense had until June 26 to file a post-hearing memorandum. A post-hearing memorandum is a document submitted to a decision-maker after all evidence has been presented in a trial or administrative hearing. It serves essentially as a summary of the case.

Following that the State will have two weeks to respond to that memorandum.

The central question before the court is whether Cutts has demonstrated sufficient rehabilitation to warrant release. The outcome hinges on Judge Mullins's eventual ruling, which could come around mid-to-late July.