CONVICTION OVERTURNED GA - Ross Harris Trial Appeal, hot car death of son, Cooper

[DaisyKenny]

But let's be clear, he's not the one who said he hates being married with kids. He responded to a woman's text by agreeing that everyone needs escapes. Which I can't disagree with, from time to time we all do.

He was indulging his addictions just fine with Cooper around. Whether Leanna grasped it or not, they were heading for divorce. He was clearly not attracted to her any longer, as his ED didn't seem to surface when he wanted to post his di*ck pix.

So yes, it seems Cooper was the reason he didn't dump Leanna. But it's just as likely this was because he wanted to be around his son as opposed to wanting him dead so he didn't have to financially support him. I think the few negative statements he made about parenthood were relatively mild on balance. Many parents, myself included, are willing to admit in private that it can be a very thankless job at times.

Without the now excluded prejudicial testimony, I really think the prosecution is going to have a difficult time supporting a charge of malice murder this time around. It's their burden to prove murderous intent, and the jury this time should be less inclined to flights of fancy. Whether Harris is guilty of intentional murder or not, the evidence of intent is pretty scant and much of what the prosecution presented can cut both ways.

No he was just commiserating with the person who wrote about hating being married with kids.

Yes, to you and the GSC majority opinion, it looked like he was getting plenty of action so let's leave out the part where he said he is miserable being a married father and all he wants is sex with as many people as possible.

 

[HarmonyE.]

Yes, to you and the GSC majority opinion, it looked like he was getting plenty of action so let's leave out the part where he said he is miserable being a married father and all he wants is sex with as many people as possible.

He was miserable being married like probably nearly half the world is, and like many lowlife husbands wanted to have sex with other women, but the evidence that he was miserable being a father is thin. Heaven help us all in this country if calling your kid a "joker" - in jest or otherwise - is sufficient to prove murderous intent.

 

[DaisyKenny]

He was miserable being married like probably nearly half the world is, and like many lowlife husbands wanted to have sex with other women, but the evidence that he was miserable being a father is thin. Heaven help us all in this country if calling your kid a "joker" - in jest or otherwise - is sufficient to prove murderous intent.

Yes but sex-addicted people are a small subset, not half and being a self-proclaimed sex addict as Harris was is probably an even smaller subset of that.

 

[RANCH]

Being a divorced dad isn't the same as being single. He responded to the message "I hate being married with kids..." the morning he left Cooper to die. With Cooper out of his way, he thought he could get divorced and be single again and indulge his addiction. In fact, he said multiple times that Cooper was the only reason he was still married.

Being divorced means you're single in my book. If RH really wanted to be single he would have gotten a divorce like everyone does. He didn't do that. JMO.

 

[LinasK]

Being divorced means you're single in my book. If RH really wanted to be single he would have gotten a divorce like everyone does. He didn't do that. JMO.

Not everyone. Many murderers prefer murder over divorce.

 

[RANCH]

Not everyone. Many murderers prefer murder over divorce.

I agree. But that's not what happened in this case. Leanna Taylor is alive. JMO.

 

[RANCH]

Justin Ross Harris’ ex-wife reacts to decision reversing his murder conviction

After Justin Ross Harris left their 22-month-old son, Cooper, to die in a hot car eight years ago, Leanna Taylor told police she did not believe he meant to do it. She stood by him on the witness stand during his murder trial and told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview after the...

www.ajc.com

“While this will not change anything about my day to day life, I do hope that it shows people what those closest to the case have been saying since the beginning: Ross was a loving and proud father to Cooper,” Taylor said in a statement issued by her lawyer, Lawrence Zimmerman.

“At the same time, Ross was being a terrible husband,” she said. “These two things can and did exist at the same time.”

 

[Friday Fan]

This is sad....

 

[ScotAng]

He lied by omission about visiting the car at lunch, along with his sexting activities. It's like he thought LE wasn't even going to check out his story.

Forgot he tossed the lightbulbs into the car, but he didn't forget to ditch the receipt.

 

[katydid23]

Here are things from the trial that make me doubt RH's story:
---He took child to breakfast, then buckled him into car seat, and within a minute, he 'forgot' to turn towards the daycare exit.


----He backed into his parking place, and would have seen the car seat.
Jen's Trial Diaries ‏@TrialDiariesJ 2m2 minutes ago
If he grabbed his computer bag when going to work he saw the car seat...it's clear as day in pictures.
Richard Elliot ‏@RElliotWSB [video=twitter;786277144565612544]

https://twitter.com/x/status/786277144565612544

Video of the inside of Ross Harris' SUV including shots of the child safety seat in the back.

+13

Pictures also documented the interior of the SUV and showed the proximity of Cooper's red and black car seat, only inches behind and to the side of the driver's seat


---He didn't realise the dead child was in the car when he got in, after child sat 8 hours in the sun. I copied a post from the original thread which explains it very well:

ERRN1313​

I feel like making a differentiation between the putrid smell of decomposition and the "smell of death". In an acutely ill person you can smell the smell of death while a person is still alive but the body has started the process of shutting down. Ask any nurse. After death there is an odor, the smell of death. It intensifies with time and I can only imagine with heat. Even if you've ever had a child with a high fever and they sweat profusely when it breaks, they stink. I can't imagine there was no odor in that car even if not the horrid odor of actual decomposition.

TRIAL - Ross Harris #1

I feel like making a differentiation between the putrid smell of decomposition and the "smell of death". In an acutely ill person you can smell the smell of death while a person is still alive but the body has started the process of shutting down. Ask any nurse. After death there is an odor...

www.websleuths.com

here is from trial:'
Ross Harris Trial ‏@RossHarrisTrial 38s39 seconds ago
Grimstead says his role was executing a search warrant on Harris' car

Noted heavy odor of urine,sweat and death. Also describing contents of car and the appearance of car. Det could see the car seat from the exterior.

 

[katydid23]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dad-Ross-Harris-spent-day-working-office.html

Continuing to go through pictures, Grimstead says sitting in the driver's seat, he could see the child safety seat in his peripheral vision.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...nute-day-4-of-the-ross-harris-trial/456365088

Grimstead later read off measurements from the drivers seat in relation to the child safety seat -- testifying that the top part of Cooper Harris' child safety seat was only three and a half inches from the driver's seat.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...ath-trial-he-seemed-to-love-his-son/456398994

 

[katydid23]

Philip A. HollowayVerified account ‏@PhilHollowayEsq 35s36 seconds ago Marietta, GA
Daycare director says #RossHarris usually was parent who took #CooperHarris to daycare in #HotCarDeath trial, Cooper was usually awake.

TRIAL - Ross Harris #1

I have been reading about this and watching the trial off and on and the things that make ME think he probably did it on purpose... 1) seeing how close the carseat was to the drivers seat.. 2) Him saying he didnt want to go to lunch bc he needed to catch up on work when he normally never...

www.websleuths.com

 

[katydid23]

9:33 a.m. State calls Keyatta Patrick to the stand. Patrick, a teacher at Little Apron Academy, was Cooper Harris' teacher in June 2014.

9:38 a.m. Patrick says Cooper started talking late May. She says she had been teaching Cooper since he was an infant and had watched him develop.

9:39 a.m. Patrick says Harris appeared to be a loving father and was very active with his child.

9:41 a.m. Patrick says Harris would call if he was running late. She says Harris did not call on the morning of June 18, 2014.

9:46 a.m. Patrick says on the afternoon of June 18, 2014 she was there when Leanna Harris arrived to pick Cooper up. She spoke with Leanna and then attempted to call Harris several times.

9:47 a.m. Patrick says Harris used to take photos of Cooper every morning at day care until two weeks before Cooper's death. Patrick says she asked why he stopped and Harris said, "No, because he's getting older."

10:00 a.m. Patrick says Harris took all of the photos on his cell phone. Defense insinuates he may have stopped because of a conversation between Harris and his wife.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...the-ross-harris-hot-car-death-trial/456713424


[The not calling daycare to say he'd be late; to be already that late then decide to take Cooper not only to CFA, but into CFA-- rather than the drive thru, still not calling daycare; and then to be that late, go into CFA ..RH, the man of routine?]


[And, didn't RH state at some point that he went to CFA at 8:45? Which he definitely didn't. What, he didn't remember he was running very late that day to drop off Cooper?]

[the pictures he took of Cooper every morning---I remember at some point in the trial, the state said that Leanna made Ross take a picture each morning to send to her, to show that he dropped him off safely to school. And she had just recently stopped requesting that, sadly...]

 

[neesaki]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dad-Ross-Harris-spent-day-working-office.html

Continuing to go through pictures, Grimstead says sitting in the driver's seat, he could see the child safety seat in his peripheral vision.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...nute-day-4-of-the-ross-harris-trial/456365088

Grimstead later read off measurements from the drivers seat in relation to the child safety seat -- testifying that the top part of Cooper Harris' child safety seat was only three and a half inches from the driver's seat.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...ath-trial-he-seemed-to-love-his-son/456398994

And there you have it. Even in my larger crossover suv, the space where a car seat goes is very noticeable just in my peripheral vision. A very, very slight turn of my head and it is not to be missed. It’s all so sickening.

 

[HarmonyE.]

And there you have it. Even in my larger crossover suv, the space where a car seat goes is very noticeable just in my peripheral vision. A very, very slight turn of my head and it is not to be missed. It’s all so sickening.

I don't think anyone argued at trial he couldn't see the car seat. The defense contended he couldn't see Cooper in the car seat.

 

[Laughing]

I don't think anyone argued at trial he couldn't see the car seat. The defense contended he couldn't see Cooper in the car seat.

Well that's the job of defense attorneys.

The car seat was appropriate for Cooper, but he was close to outgrowing the safety device.

Not looking for a link, but it was reported that the top of Cooper's head showed over the edge of that car seat.

Of course, YourMileageMayVary and all that.

 

[RANCH]

There was conflicting testimony about whether the top of Cooper’s head extended over the top of the car seat. When measured at his autopsy, Cooper was 33 inches tall, and Detective Phil Stoddard, the lead detective on the case, testified that the child height limit for the car seat was 30 inches. Leanna, however, testified that Cooper’s head was at least two inches from the top of the car seat.

See page 12 of link.

https://cases.justia.com/georgia/supreme-court/2022-s22a0092.pdf?ts=1655901116

 

[HarmonyE.]

Well that's the job of defense attorneys.

The car seat was appropriate for Cooper, but he was close to outgrowing the safety device.

Not looking for a link, but it was reported that the top of Cooper's head showed over the edge of that car seat.

Of course, YourMileageMayVary and all that.

There was a lot of testimony about whether he would have seen Cooper leaving the car in the morning, coming back at lunch, and then not seeing him until after he drove away from the Treehouse. I think all of it is on YouTube for anyone who wants to go beyond what was reported in the media, which was oftentimes inaccurate with regard to the reporting on this case.

 

[RANCH]

There was a lot of testimony about whether he would have seen Cooper leaving the car in the morning, coming back at lunch, and then not seeing him until after he drove away from the Treehouse. I think all of it is on YouTube for anyone who wants to go beyond what was reported in the media, which was oftentimes inaccurate with regard to the reporting on this case.

You are right about the media coverage in this case. I remembered Leanna testifying about Cooper's head being below the car seat top and did a Google search. Found nothing in MSM. I did a search of the GSC opinion and found it. JMO.

 

[MsMarple]

June 22, 2022:
The state Supreme Court's decision to reverse Harris' murder conviction wasn't made because they felt he hadn't committed murder - they said, basically, the case had been improperly tried by the Cobb County District Attorney at the time.

That's because the Cobb DA essentially tried two cases at once - and shouldn't have, at least according to the Georgia Supreme Court.
...
"Only the texts and messages he was sending on the day Cooper died should have been relevant and should have been admitted at trial. That’s what the state Supreme Court said."

But Harris will remain in jail. As part of his sentencing, he received 12 years in prison for those communications - that conviction remains in place, and he will continue serving those 12 years.
...
"The Supreme Court did find there was sufficient evidence of the murder charges, so that’s why they can re-try him again. There was sufficient evidence if you take away all of the information about the underage females, the sex crimes," Pate said. "I think in this case the Cobb County DA will go back and re-try him on those murder charges."

He said that decision could be made "probably within the next few months."

Why Ross Harris will stay in prison | Lawyer explains reversal of murder conviction in boy's hot car death

Attorney Page Pate spoke with 11Alive after the Georgia Supreme Court announced its decision on Wednesday.

www.11alive.com

I agree with the GA Supreme Court ruling and I personally believe Ross stands a good chance of being convicted again. MOO.