Dad in hot-car death case indicted on murder, child cruelty charges

[Blue_Tires]

Source: L.A. Times

Justin Ross Harris, a Georgia man accused of intentionally leaving his toddler in a hot car for seven hours in June and sexting with multiple women as the boy died, was indicted Thursday on eight charges, including murder and child cruelty..

Harris faces five charges directly related to 22-month-old Cooper’s death: one count of malice murder, two of felony murder and two of cruelty to children. The Cobb County grand jury indicted a 33-year-old father accused of leaving his son in a hot car on eight criminal charges.

He also faces three charges related to providing sexual pictures and descriptions to a girl younger than 18 and requesting photos of her genitals, according to the indictment by a Cobb County grand jury: two counts of disseminating harmful material to minors and one count of attempting to sexually exploit children.

Harris left work at 4:15 p.m. -- apparently to go watch "22 Jump Street" with friends -- and, while driving to the theater, brought his car to a screeching halt near a strip mall and pulled his son's body out of the car, apparently in distress after discovering what he'd done. But during a court hearing in July, police said that wasn't the first time Harris had gone back to his car since he arrived at work. Police said surveillance video showed that after he got a ride to lunch with some friends, Harris went back around midday to put light bulbs inside the car, where his son was strapped into a rear-facing car seat.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hot-car-murder-justin-ross-harris-20140904-story.html

[ann---]

1. Justice will be served

only if he is convicted and sent to prison for life. His wife should be indicted, too.

[Aristus]

6. Prison for life.

Which likely won't be long. You know how many of the men behind bars are fathers? They don't like child murderers very much...

[Earth_First]

8. I've never been one to support 'prison justice'

Neither should you.

The justice system should be able to handle and deliver a verdict with an appropriate sentence without needing further help from inmates following incarceration.

The cruel and unusual circumstances of this case are indeed disturbing...however appropriating the desire for 'prison justice' following sentencing is an act that no good Democrat or Progressive should feel inclined to support.

[Aristus]

9. I didn't say I supported it. Just that it's a fact of prison life.

n/t

[SummerSnow]

2. Oh he likes 22 Jumpstreet, cop movies hu?

Wonder what he said when he saw the real police coming for him.

Hope his first movie night in jail they'll be showing 22 Jumpstreet

[secondwind]

3. wasn't the mother implicated in this plot?

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. somethings weird with her. I'm sure the justice system is still looking into it.

[RebelOne]

10. According to local news reports, no charges are filed against her. n/t

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. She didn't want to talk to the cops at first

I don't think she could believe her husband was a monster.

[Feral Child]

5. Good n/t

[VA_Jill]

7. The reason I don't buy his argument

is that you don't take your kid out to breakfast and then "forget" him 10 minutes later. Nuh-uh. That just does not compute. Nor does going back to the car after arriving at work and not noticing. Sorry, buddy. You lose.

[Nye Bevan]

11. Trying to decide who I hate more. This guy or the ISIS beheader (nt)

[shenmue]

13. Yeah

Gross people.

[jmowreader]

16. I'm going with this guy

[neohippie]

12. I'm not sure what to think about this case

I'm beginning to think this is another case of a person being convicted in the media before all of the facts were in...

I know that my opinion isn't popular but everyone who says that it isn't possible to forget things even in a span as short as ten minutes may not be considering that it really is possible. For example I have been so distracted that I drove up to an ATM to get out money one time , withdrew $200, got a phone call while I was doing this, and forgot to pull the $200 out when it popped out of the machine and then drove off, without my cash.

The evidence presented early on with this case is a mountain of circumstance. From what I've read the Police cherry picked the details that they wanted and only released the facts that supported their version of events and suppressed the facts that didn't work, kind of like Bush did with the facts that led us into the war in Iraq

Is this guy a perfect husband and father, far from it, but is he really the monster that he was made out to be, that may not be the case.

It's sad how people rush to judgment these days early on and once they pick a side they only seem to see the arguments that support their opinion. The 24 hour news cycle has killed most chances for the truth to come out because everything is sensationalized and reported as fact before it has really been vetted.

In this case, so far we have really only heard what the Police want you to believe and in this indictment, the defense hasn't had a chance to present it's side of the story.

According to the brother of the suspect the facts reveal a very different version of events than we have all been led to believe and challenge the Police's narrative


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/07/21/questions-police-account-child-death-hot-car/fNCwGu2GIj9KZefvm40BBP/story.html

But in his cross-examination, Kilgore suggested that Harris’ usual routine was to drop the boy off at day care, drive to the restaurant and then head straight to work. So bringing Cooper to Chick-fil-A was a departure from an established pattern, Kilgore implied.

Experts say a break in routine is a common reason parents forget that a child is in the car.

Baygents said that reinforces his certainty that his brother made a terrible mistake, not a calculated choice. ‘‘I know Ross. Cooper was his buddy. To see him portrayed as a terrible parent is just not right,’’ he said.

Baygents also addressed Stoddard’s testimony about what happened when Leanna and Ross were put together in the same room after his arrest. Police, listening in on the conversation, heard Leanna ask her husband, ‘‘Did you say too much?’’

But this was not a marital conspiracy, Baygents said. ‘‘It was more along the line of, ‘What’s going on here? Are we in trouble or something?’ They were in a total state of shock. Their child was dead.’’


Now I realize that my opinion may not be vary popular but, this is why we have due process and afford defendants a trial, so that they get a chance to refute the evidence against them and present their side of the story up until now I think too many people have only heard the police's interpretation of it.

[Blue_Tires]

18. Of course all the comments in that story

come from the defendant's brother -- Hardly an impartial party...

[phylny]

15. You know, with "dozens" of deaths in the U.S. I wonder if these instances of car suffocation are new

because I simply don't recall this happening years and years ago.

Is it more commonplace because 1) more cars have air conditioning, and previously windows might be left down; 2) more kids in daycare instead of at home as two parents work; 3) greater awareness because local news is now national news due to the Internet?

I don't disagree that people aren't seen as "innocent until proven guilty," but I cannot explain away him going to the car to put bulbs in it, either.

Who knows? Poor Cooper.

[jmowreader]

17. That, and now children ride backwards

I have the sad feeling that more of these deaths than you'd want to admit are not accidental.