Judge orders trial in child’s death in hot car
The Georgia dad accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son in a hot car had read articles about living a child-free life and was sexting with six women the day his son died of heat exposure, police said at a court hearing Thursday in which a judge denied bond and ordered the case to trial.
Justin Ross Harris, 33, also had two life insurance policies on his son and had twice watched a video about overheating deaths in cars before his son died June 18, according to police testimony given at a probable-cause hearing in Cobb County near Atlanta. After lengthy hearing, Judge Frank Cox found that prosecutors presented enough evidence to try Harris for murder and second-degree child cruelty.
Harris’ attorney argued that his client was distracted that day and that prosecutors only brought up the sexting to “publicly shame” Harris, who is married. Two of Harris’ friends and his brother testified that he seemed to be a loving father.
“We plan to show he wanted to lead a child-free life,” Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring told the judge in the case.
Officials said Harris also watched videos of people getting killed and searched for “how to survive prison.”
Harris left his son, Cooper, in an SUV in the parking lot of his workplace at Home Depot at 9:25 a.m.; the temperature reached the upper 80s that day, police said.
Harris left work at 4:15 p.m. and while driving to a movie theater, brought his car to a screeching halt near a strip mall and pulled his son’s body out of the car, yelling and screaming, according to witnesses.
—Matt Pearce, Tribune Newspapers