Tulsa man gets new trial after nun’s rape, beating conviction overturned

A Tulsa man is getting a new trial this week after being sentenced to life in federal prison for raping and brutally beating a 73-year-old nun inside her home.

A federal jury found Elga Harper guilty in 2023, but an appeals court reversed the conviction last October and ordered a new trial, which started Monday.

News On 6 interviewed the victim, Sister Ellie Finlay, right after the first trial and she said her handyman, Elga Harper, ripped her clothes off, beat her, tied a cord around her neck and dragged her around her house like a dog.

Sister Ellie passed away earlier this year, so she won't be testifying at the new trial.

The crime Harper is accused of:

Investigators say Harper went into Sister Ellie's home in May of 2022 and beat her and sexually assaulted her several times. They say Harper stole the victim's coat and left. A jury found Harper guilty, and he was sentenced to life in federal prison.

"He turned me upside down and tied the cord around my ankles, pulled me up around here, pulled me this way, and grabbed me right over here and held me up and dropped me,” said Ellie in 2023, describing being attacked in her bathroom.

Sister Ellie said Harper had done some odd jobs for her in the past, and on that day, he came by asking if she had work, but she didn't. She said Harper asked to use the bathroom and that's when she found him standing in her bedroom naked and and terror hit her.

"I assumed he was going to rape me, of course. It never occurred to me he was going to beat me to a pulp,” said Ellie in 2023. “I fought and I didn't realize that I would."

Why Harper is getting a new trial:

At the first trial, prosecutors showed the jury a letter from the Choctaw Nation saying Harper was a member of the tribe, which gave the federal government jurisdiction to prosecute the case.

Harper filed an appeal after the verdict, saying that the letter is not considered a "business record" under the rules of evidence.

The appeals court agreed and said even though the letter was true, and Harper is Indian, it was not a proper form of evidence, so they overturned Harper's conviction and ordered a new trial.

Second Trial:

Harper's second trial started Monday morning. Several Tulsa Police officers who were first on scene testified on Monday, and prosecutors showed the jury body camera video of when officers found Sister Ellie in her home with severe injuries.

Prosecutors also showed the jury several pictures of Sister Ellie's severe injuries and pictures of blood all over her house.

The trial is expected to wrap up by the end of the week. Harper has been in custody this whole time.