06-22-2014, 10:50 AM
(06-22-2014, 06:03 AM)Duchess Wrote:(06-21-2014, 06:50 PM)cannongal Wrote: It had compared 2 incidents, one where the parent was charged with a crime and one that was not.That sounds similar to this case given a man who worked for the FOP left his kid to die in a car only recently in the same general area. I really want to know why he wasn't charged but this guy was.
I'm curious about why Harris is being charged with felony murder and cruelty to a child, but don't think police are gonna reveal their hand publicly at this point (nor should they). It's not unusual for a parent to quickly be charged with neglect in such cases, or not to be charged at all if it was clearly an accident and authorities see no reason to pursue charges. For the FOP guy, his connections may have helped him fall in the latter camp.
But, a murder charge like the one against Justin Harris in such a case is highly unusual. IMO, police quickly turned up good reason to suspect that Cooper Harris was not forgotten about in the car all day -- either through their interviews with the mom, holes in the dad's time line, evidence that dad was informed/aware that the boy was in the car and chose to leave him there, surveillance video contradicting dad's statements, disturbing computer content in dad's office, evidence that the child may have been sedated/drugged, the dad's own inconsistent statements, etc.. The list goes on.
Lots of possible reasons why police might suspect that Harris knew the kid was in the car and didn't act appropriately, thereby leading to Cooper's death -- OR that he intentionally wanted to get rid of his child and staged his public meltdown at seemingly discovering his son dead.
Police can only charge a person with felony murder (doesn't technically require intent) if the death occurred while the suspect was in commission of another crime -- in this case, the first degree charge of cruelty (willfully depriving the child of necessary sustenance to the extent that the child's health or well-being is jeopardized).
Anyway, I hope it turns out that Justin Harris really did forget his son and the charges get reduced or dropped -- hate to think of yet another parent murdering their own child. But, I won't be surprised if that's not what happens here and Justin Harris is not what he appears to be.