COOPER HARRIS, 2, DIES IN HOT CAR: JUSTIN HARRIS CHARGED WITH MURDER

[d505]

I honestly think he did not intentionally leave his son in the car. If I were on the jury I would vote not guilty for intentional murder and vote guilty for everything else.

[ramseycat]

I honestly think he did not intentionally leave his son in the car. If I were on the jury I would vote not guilty for intentional murder and vote guilty for everything else.

Are you kidding me? How do you forget the child in a 5 minute car ride???

[HairOfTheDog]

The trial was delayed due to scheduling issues yesterday and today.

Proceedings will begin again tomorrow.

I've heard most of the prosecution's case via media reports and court docs, I think. I'm most interested in hearing the defense's version of events.

[HairOfTheDog]

The prosecution called the EMT who arrived at the scene and declared Cooper dead in the parking lot outside of the SUV along with the Cobb County Police Captain today.

EMT Peyton Barwick testified that Ross Harris showed no emotion when he told Harris his son was dead.

When the defense cross-examined Barwick and asked why he didn't note the lack of emotion in his report, Barwick responded that his job was to report only on the victim/deceased, which he did. He said he wrote his report immediately because he had a feeling he might need to testify in court on this one.


^ Cobb County Captain James Ferrell was called next. He explained that he assigned Detective Stoddard to the case because of his experience with crimes against children and homicide. He explained that any time a child is locked in a car and dies, it's considered a criminal case.

Ferrell testified that he immediately noticed the car seat when he approached the car. "It was plainly visibly from the driver's side door. When I was looking in I could see it."

Ferrell said he could clearly smell an odor when he went to the car. He says it smelled of a combination of a diaper, sweat and death.

When asked under cross-examination why he didn't note that smell in his report, he said that he'd told Stoddard that night about the smell and that he intended to write his report shortly thereafter. However, he says, he forgot and didn't write the report until nearly a year later. HOTD: Very sloppy and bad for the prosecution.

The trial is being reported on live here:
http://www.ajc.com/rf/image_large/Pub/p7...729056.jpg

[HairOfTheDog]

Yesterday........staff at Cooper's Little Apron Daycare testified and were cross-examined.

They said that Cooper was a normal well-behaved 2-year-old child, he was just learning to talk, and that his father Ross Harris seemed very engaged in Cooper's life. Ross Harris, they said, was friendly and outgoing.

They said that Ross Harris frequently dropped Cooper of at the daycare before going to work at the nearby Home Depot offices. He was often running late and would call and reserve school breakfast to be held for Cooper.

The day Cooper died, Harris instead took the boy to Chik-Fil-A for breakfast. Video shows the two in the restaurant. A Chick-Fil-A worker testified that he spoke quickly with the two and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

[HairOfTheDog]

Today... a Home Depot security officer, two detectives and an escort who met with Ross Harris before his son's death all took the stand in the Ross Harris hot car death trial.

The Security Guard's Testimony


^ Wesley Houston is a security officer who was working at the Home Depot Treehouse Office, where Harris worker, on the day of Cooper’s death.

Houston spoke with Harris as he walked out the door that day. He testified in court that he usually exchanged pleasantries with Harris, but never went into detail about their lives. But he remembers on that day, Harris told him as he was leaving that he was heading to the movies with his friends. He says that much detail was “out of character.”

Houston said he found out about Cooper’s death a short while later while still at the office. He told jurors that he knew something was wrong when another security officer showed up with Leanna Harris, Cooper’s mother.

Houston says Leanna Harris came in full steam asking, “Where’s Ross? Where’s my son?” Moments later, while they were all in the lobby with WSB-TV on, the station broacast breaking news about a dead child.

As they all watched the news unfold, Houston says Leanna’s emotions went “from hot to not” and she became “cold.”

"When she first came in she had a whole lot of steam. As time went on her emotions died out. It was like, "Huh, oh well." She was just sitting there like nothing happened. To me, as a parent you lose a child or you see some breaking news or something, you are full of emotion. She didn't have any," Houston said.

Houston says after that day, he didn’t watch the news coverage of the case because it was too much for him.

[HairOfTheDog]

The Electronic Forensics Detective's Testimony

A retired Cobb County police detective took the stand after Houston. He says he was responsible for analyzing cell phones and other device data for the case.


^ Det. Ray Yeager said he found Ross Harris had accessed Reddit five times using the term "childfree" on his work computer.

He said Harris specifically typed into the browser reddit.com/r/childfree. The other four times were just things he clicked on in connection with that initial search. One of the articles was titled, "Dating is nearly impossible."

The defense then questioned Yaeger about previous reports that Harris had researched hot car deaths before Cooper's death. Yaeger said he did not specifically look at Harris' search history. The only thing he remembers looking at is all history relating to the word "child," which is where he found the childfree website. He said the term "child death" did not come up anywhere in that search.

When questioned further by the defense, Yaeger says his analysis didn't find anything specifically about hot car deaths, but he passed along the search history to detectives, who then looked into it further.

Yaeger said he also analyzed Leanna Harris' computer but did not find anything on there that would have made her a suspect. "I wasn't looking for that data, that information," Yaeger said.

Yaeger also noted that as father and a grandfather, he noted that the car seat looked to be too small for 2-year-old Cooper.

A second detective who analyzed Ross Harris' personal computer also testified. She said she did not find anything of interest on the device.

[HairOfTheDog]

The Escort's Testimony

The final witness of the day was an escort who says she met with Ross Harris three times beginning in May 2014.


^ Daniela Doerr says a detective, who initially pretended to be interested in her services, showed her Harris' photo in September of that year. Doerr says she immediately recognized him from her meetings and from the news.

Doerr described Harris as "dumpy" and said he didn't really care about his appearance. She said that Harris was strictly business and didn't talk about his life with her.

Court will resume Monday at 8:30 a.m.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sources for posts 165 - 168:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harris-tr.../457128238
http://www.ajc.com/news/minute-minute-up...sejmUcTmI/

[HairOfTheDog]

Circumstantial Evidence Presentation Continues

Over the last two days, three women testified about their sexting with Ross Harris, including one minor.

Yesterday, the prosecution continued to present evidence which they believe indicates Harris intentionally killed Cooper to live a 'child-free' life.


No Conscience
A woman testified that she and Harris exchanged nude photos of their private parts and suggested one day they’d hook up for sex. At one point, Harris told the woman he was the lead guitarist at his church.

This prompted Caitlyn Hickey Floyd to message Harris: “But you still exercise the thought of being with someone else when you’re married?”

When Harris responded, “Yep,” Floyd asked, “Does your conscience ever kick in?” “Nope,” Harris replied.


Double Life
On the morning Harris left Cooper in his car he responded to a post on the social media app Whisper by a mother of two who said she felt unappreciated. “I hate being married with kids. The novelty has worn off and I have nothing to show for it,” she wrote, adding, “I don’t resent my kids. I resent him.”

At 9:15 a.m., while eating breakfast with Cooper, Harris messaged the woman: “I love my son and all but both need escapes.” Ten minutes later he got out of his car in the Home Depot parking lot, leaving Cooper behind.

During his opening statement, lead prosecutor Chuck Boring said this exchange helps explain why Harris wanted to kill his son.

Cooper was (likely) still alive when Harris went to the vehicle at lunch
On Tuesday, former Cobb County Medical Examiner Brian Frist testified “Cooper could’ve survived” the morning of June 18, 2014, as long as temperatures remained in the 90s inside the car. A person dies of hypothermia, he said, when his or her internal temperature exceeds 105 degrees.

On Wednesday, a heat expert called by the state testified the temperature inside Harris’ SUV didn’t pass 100 degrees until just before 1 p.m. The temperature was 98 degrees at 12:45 p.m., when Harris returned to his vehicle to drop off some light bulbs.

Frist said there was no way to pinpoint an exact time of death, but the possibility adds another chilling layer to the prosecution’s claim that Harris intentionally killed his son.

Full Story: http://www.myajc.com/news/news/ross-harr...e-k/nstLL/

[BigMark]

Holy crap you and your dungeons!

[HairOfTheDog]

Are you lost or just smoking crack, Biggie? There's no dungeon in this case.

[BigMark]

yes.

[HairOfTheDog]

Today was an important one in the trial.

Detective Stoddard testified about how calm Ross Harris was when he questioned him after Cooper's death, though Harris did yell at a responding officer at the scene and he cried non-stop during his 40 minute meeting with his then-wife Leanne.

The jury was shown the 90-minute interrogation video and the video of Ross and Leanne's discussion.

Harris seems surprised that he's being charged with a crime in the video with Detective Stoddard and tells him a few times that it was completely unintentional. Harris also told Stoddard that he always told Cooper he loved him and gave him a kiss when he buckled him up just in case they got in an accident and Ross died.

Harris told detective Stoddard that he'd seen a news story about a man leaving his son in a hot car and also watched a video by a vet detailing what happens to a dog when left in a hot car; Harris said it was every parent's worst fear and his worst fear. Harris did not mention that he'd returned to the car at lunch and again, supposedly, failed to notice his son baking away in there.

A psychologist testified that she thought Ross Harris sounded rehearsed during interrogation.

A teen testified that she sexted with Ross Harris that day and he asked for a boob shot, which she sent to him and to which he responded, "yummy". The teen said Harris sometimes sent her photos which included Cooper and that he bragged about how smart his son was. Harris' defense attorney asked the girl if she thought Ross could every hurt his son and the girl said 'no'.

Full story, including videos shown in court today: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harris-tr.../459427636

[HairOfTheDog]

Today, the Defense will try to poke holes in some of Detective Stoddard's testimony. But they also face a growing amount of ammunition the prosecution has presented to the jury, including messages Harris sent to multiple woman lamenting that he wishes he were still single.

Here are some pieces of incriminating circumstantial evidence the prosecution has thus far presented at trial.



1. ‘Don’t be this dad’
About 17 months before Ross Harris left his 22-month-old son inside a hot car, he received an email from his then-wife Leanna with the subject line, “Don’t be this dad.”

The message contained a link to a news story about a father in New York who had forgotten his baby inside a car for eight hours. Harris watched that video. He also twice watched a YouTube clip by a veterinarian about the dangers of leaving a dog inside a vehicle. In the video, the veterinarian, sitting inside the car, windows slightly cracked, describes the heat to be “almost unbearable.” The temperature reached 113 degrees in 25 minutes.

The YouTube video was last viewed by Ross Harris on June 13, 2014, five days before Cooper died.

2. ‘No malicious intent’
Harris told Stoddard, after learning he would be charged with cruelty to children and felony murder, “but there was no malicious intent.”

He also asked what constitutes murder under Georgia law. Informed by Stoddard that his actions caused his son’s death, Harris argued that it wasn’t intentional. “How is that against the law?” he asked. The prosecution and a psychologist claim Harris' comment indicate preparation.

3. Leaving Out Parts of the Story
During initial questioning the day Cooper died, Harris had gone to lunch with two co-workers. When detective Stoddard asked Harris to recount his day, Harris paused, neglecting to mention his lunchtime purchase of light bulbs, which he placed in his car soon thereafter. By then Cooper had been inside the Hyundai Tucson for roughly three hours.

Detective Stoddard claims Harris would have seen Cooper inside the car from where he was standing and that Harris stopped to look around before he opened the car door. The defense contends Harris didn't see Cooper and the parking lot video shows he only stopped to look down at his phone.

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/ross-harri...wu1GOh6PP/

[Midwest Spy]

He's a piece of shit and this was clearly premeditated.

I hope the jury sees through his BS and does the right thing.

[HairOfTheDog]

He's a piece of shit and this was clearly premeditated.

I hope the jury sees through his BS and does the right thing.

I think his ex-wife's testimony in court today and the images of father and son shown to the jury may help Ross Harris avoid a first degree murder conviction.



^ Leanna Taylor told the jury she tried to be strong for Justin Ross Harris after learning on June 18, 2014, that their only child was dead after Harris left the boy in his car’s back seat all day after driving to work.

“I knew he was never going to forgive himself,” Taylor testified, adding that she knew Harris didn’t leave their son intentionally.

Taylor, who divorced Harris earlier this year and went back to using her maiden name, acknowledged they had problems in their marriage dealing with sex. He had told her years earlier he frequently watched pornography and they sought counseling.

She also had caught him sending text messages to other women, but testified she did not know he was meeting some of them for sex. “If I had, I would have divorced him then,” she said.

But Taylor also testified Harris was an equal and enthusiastic partner when it came to parenthood. He helped change Cooper’s diapers, prepared his meals and would bathe the child. In the mornings, she said, Cooper and his father would sit together in bed watching cartoons.

“He wanted to be the one to push him on a swing. He wanted to be the one to slide down the slide with him,” Taylor said of her ex-husband. “He wanted to enjoy every second he could with him.”

Later, jurors were shown home videos of Justin Ross Harris playing music as the child looked on and playing with the boy. They also saw photos of father and son together.

That all came to halt the day Taylor showed up to pick Cooper up from daycare and learned he was never dropped off that day. Earlier that day, Harris sent her a text message asking: “When you getting my buddy?”

She said she rushed to her husband’s nearby office.

“The only thing that made sense to me, based on what I knew that day, was Ross must have left him in the car,” Taylor said. “It was the only thing that clicked in my mind as even a remote possibility. If he was never checked in, he must have been forgotten.” Cobb County police detectives soon arrived and confirmed her fears.

Despite the horrific news, Taylor said, she didn’t cry until hours later when she went home, crawled into her dead son’s bed and wept. Her husband was being held in jail on charges.

“I did not know you could react the way I reacted,” Taylor said. “It was like someone else took over my body for me while I was outside of my mind just trying to make sense of what had happened.”

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-hot-...testifies/

[HairOfTheDog]

Star defense witness, Leanna Taylor, finished her testimony today.

She testified that her ex-husband, Justin Ross Harris, had been diagnosed with low testosterone and was prescribed testosterone shots and patches earlier in their marriage.

She admitted that she knew he was texting women and the couple sought counseling from a pastor. However, she said that she had not been aware Harris was using Skype and Craigslist to seek out and meet up with women and men.



Leanna Taylor testified that the reason she asked Harris, "did you say too much?" after Harris had been questioned by police is because she knew her husband often talked a lot even when he didn't have anything to say and she was trying to figure out why he was being charged.

When asked how she feels about her ex-husband now, she said he ruined her life and it would be fine with her if today is the last time she ever sees him. She said she still does not believe he killed their son intentionally though.

Taylor also told the court that Justin Ross Harris is deaf in his right ear due to a firecracker accident in 2005.

Detective Stoddard previously testified that police suspected Leanna during their investigation, but they did not uncover evidence to charge her with being complicit in Cooper's death.

[HairOfTheDog]

Harris' brother, a police officer named Michael Baygents, also testified today. He said Harris, who once worked as a radio dispatcher for a police station, liked to use cop talk (something authorities found odd when he was interrogated).

Baygents admitted that Harris seemed to lead a double life, 'made a lot of mistakes', and that sometimes people aren't who they seem. But, he testified that Cooper was his brother's little buddy and that Harris seemed to love Cooper more than life itself.

Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...l#comments

[HairOfTheDog]

Trial Concluding



The Defense rested today after Ross Harris confirmed that he will not testify in his own defense.

The Defense called a memory expert yesterday. He testified that Harris could have forgotten the baby was in the car due to memory lapse, or because he was fatigued from all the work emails the night before, or because he was otherwise distracted.

However, on cross-examination, the defense expert admitted that he had never heard of a parent accidentally forgetting a child after such a very short drive.

Also yesterday, the defense called some friends and co-workers of Harris. They testified that they considered him a good guy and loving dad, though a co-worked said had seemed more distracted in the months leading up to Cooper's death. On cross-examination, however, when asked if those opinions were made knowing that Ross Harris was leading a double life, they admitted that they had no idea about Harris' sexting of multiple women and his in-person hook-ups.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday, followed by jury instructions. Jury deliberations are expected to begin early next week.


Ref: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/ross-h.../348008777