Witness Interview: Hal Harberson

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Witness Interview: Hal Harberson
Mr. Harberson, brother of Aimee Harberson, agreed to be interviewed via telephone from his home in Jackson, MS. Following in a transcript of the interview.
N = Det. Terry Nelson
H = Hal Harberson
N: Thank you for joining us this morning. I was wondering if you could start out by telling us where you were the night of November 8.
H: November 8 - that was a couple of weekends ago, right?
N: Yes, Saturday night.
H: Well, I don't recall exactly, but I'm always working Saturdays, usually from 4 to midnight.
N: That's at Kiki's?
H: Right.
N: What do you do there?
H: I've been bartender for the past six, seven years, and last year I put some money into the place too, for fixing it up and stuff, so I guess you could say I'm an investment partner. Larry Vega, he's the owner, we've been friends for a long time.
N: And Mr. Vega - he owns the property? The restaurant building?
H: Yeah. He bought the whole thing back in 82 or 83. He'd been in business for a while and things were going good so he just bought it.
N: From who?
H: I don't know, you'd have to ask him. Look, what does this have to do with your investigation? I'm not even sure I understand why you're calling me.
N: Mr. Harberson, we're looking into two items you might be able to help us with. As you know, we're investigating the death of our sheriff, who knew your sister, and we're trying to find out some information about a real estate owner, his name is Reed Chambeau, he has some property here. Have you ever heard of him? Would he be the former owner of the place?
H: Chambeau? Reed Chambeau?
N: Yessir. Do you know him?
H: No. No, I don't know him at all. I think I heard Aimee talking about him though, just once or twice. Yeah, because he's doing real estate up there, and she works at the assessors office.
N: I'd like to talk a little about you and your sister. Do you get along? Are you close?
H: Yeah. We're in real good touch. We talk all the time, maybe even every day. We see each other lots.
N: So she tells you a lot about the assessors office?
H: Not really. She doesn't really like it, she's just doing it for the money.
N: But you said she mentioned Mr. Chambeau to you.
H: Right, she did. I guess he's got something going on up there, a big development project or something. She just happened to mention it.
N: When was that?
H: I don't know, a couple of months ago I guess.
N: All right. Did she ever mention anything else about her work?
H: Not really, I guess she has some friends who work there, Michelle -- she's always talking about Michelle.
N: What about Sheriff Lamar? Did Aimee ever talk to you about him?
H: Not really. I didn't want to hear about it, to be honest. She told me when they first started going out and we kind of argued about it. I don't like to hear about that kind of stuff - you know, adultery. I think it's immoral and I told her so, she got the hint. I think the last she mentioned was just that Mrs. Lamar was planning on getting a divorce, and then of course I heard about the Sheriff dying.
N: What did she say about that?
H: She was real upset, obviously. She couldn't believe it. I guess he was a pretty good guy.
N: She didn't mention anything else?
H: No. Look, we're close, but I've got a business here, that's my business, I don't watch over Aimee and her business. She does her own thing and I do mine.
N: All right. Maybe you could tell me more about this business of yours. You say you pitched in some money to renovate Kiki's. How much was that?
H: Around ten thousand dollars.
N: That's from bartending?
H: Pretty much. I've been saving up, and I get great tips. I pretty much live off the tips.
N: Any other jobs?
H: No.
N: Have you ever been involved in gambling?
H: No. Never. I mean, I go to New Orleans sometimes and go on the boats. But not here. There's a lot of It around though, that's what I hear at the bar.
N: Okay. Can you think of anything else at all we might need to know?
H: No.
N: All right. Call us if you change your mind.
H: Will do.