GA - Suspicion over heat death of Cooper, 22 mo., Cobb County, June 2014, #2

[JeannaT]

I didn't hear that at the press conference at all.

No. You had to read it in the downgrading of the charges against him.

 

[jmcgladr]

That one guy did, that's true.

I'm looking at this in its totality. This is a dad who by all accounts is a wonderful guy, there don't seem to be any issues with him or his family, and it seems clear to me he couldn't have seen the baby in the back seat at lunch.

Shortly after driving off in his car, he clearly noticed something was VERY wrong and pulled off the road into the mall parking lot.

It's surprising to me sometimes what people do not notice. It's surprising to me what people can forget and be unaware of.

But to me, the other scenarios are more implausible. That this loving father purposely killed his child, or that he went to the car and noticed his child was dead and then went back to work for 4 hours and staged that he THEN found him dead (as opposed to finding him dead at noon which would be fully as incriminating - so working for 4 hours and then staging the exact same outcome doesn't make sense).

Those scenarios are MORE implausible than the one where he bizarrely forgot his child (in one of the major scenarios of kidsandcars, adding a stop to his routine) and also didn't see him in the back seat facing backwards at noon, and then it took him short while to smell the smell when he drove away at four.

When I have to consider what seems the most plausible, accidentally forgetting him, not noticing him at noon and then driving off and not noticing a smell for a minute or two is the most plausible.

You have to work too hard - in my opinion - to make the other situations rational.

What you are saying does make sense, but it doesn't explain away the web search. That was weird, and seems incriminating, esp. if it turns out it was completed the same day Connor died, or in the days leading up to his death.

 

[JeannaT]

From what I can see the police do believe this was planned. In some fashion.

I'm really interested. Then, why were the charges downgraded?

If this was truly a planned murder, wouldn't he be charged with murder 1?

From what I see, LE seems to be really struggling with how incredibly forgetful this man was, and calling that serious criminal neglect.

 

[Threeplus1]

Or it could just be the father's own account, could it not?

They have the video from Chick fil a, but haven't made public what it shows. The info officer was very specific with his wording, so I would think they have video of this happening.

 

[JeannaT]

What you are saying does make sense, but it doesn't explain away the web search. That was weird, and seems incriminating, esp. if it turns out it was completed the same day Connor died, or in the days leading up to his death.

I agree - and it's interesting that LE won't comment on when that websearch was done, and what other searches surrounded that search.

 

[Linda7NJ]

I'm really interested. Then, why were the charges downgraded?



If this was truly a planned murder, wouldn't he be charged with murder 1?



From what I see, LE seems to be really struggling with how incredibly forgetful this man was, and calling that serious criminal neglect.

Don't need premeditation to get to murder...can get there through neglect that resulted in the death of the child. IMO


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[rabidstoat]

I live about 10 miles from this place, a nice apartment building or leased home with 2-3 bedrooms would probably rent for around $1500/month at a rough guess, with cheaper available. So an $80K salary seems solidly middle class to me, definitely not destitute or anything.

As for web searches, most large companies have people access the Internet through a proxy server, which records timestamped logs of what IP addresses (which can be used to identify specific computers and presumably, specific people using them) were accessing what sites. These records are stored on a server machine somewhere else in the company. So just scrubbing his computer, or using 'incognito' mode, wouldn't get around that. I'd think someone in IT would know these things, but maybe not. (Source: I've worked as a computer developer for 20+ years.)

 

[CHERIE.T]

Looks to me that he DID love him the most. He just had a really, really difficult to explain brain process of forgetting his destination. And I think that's backed up by the new lesser charges he's facing.

Hu? He loved him so much he killed him.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

No. You had to read it in the downgrading of the charges against him.

But on the other hand, didn't they raise one of the charges from negligence to gross negligence?

 

[Lorne Malvo]

MOO I'm leaning towards either huge marital problems ie divorce or possibly the child not being his...again IMOO.

Interesting Cherie - possibility of a different father. Marriage problems can manifest themselves in various ways. I gotta believe they were having trouble and he snapped. Recent grad from UA maybe he also had financial stress from student loans. Combine the stressors from several areas and it could cause a breakdown. Does HD insurance policy offer much $$$ for loss of a child?

I also wonder if he was taking any meds for a mental illness.

I hope the trial is televised.

JMO. :twocents:

 

[Judicious1]

It's confusing me to. I find it very hard to believe he forgot he had a baby with him in the few minutes it took for him to get to work from CFA... but I guess stranger things have happened. I DO think that he knew when he went to his car at lunchtime... and I think he drove to a public place that afternoon, to draw attention and make it seem like he just found his baby... I'm not convinced that he planned to kill his baby. I think that his actions have made everything suspect. Had he actually called 911 when he found his son, I think I would feel much differently. When you have nothing to hide, and it truly is an accident, you don't need to stage a scene...

I agree with a lot of this. I would think leaving your kid in the car on accident would be something most would want to hide ... You shouldn't!!! just saying its not so far outside the box that he could have feared telling the truth right away and the longer he waited to call 911 the worse he made this situation. Maybe he thought his wife would never forgive him even if he could forgive himself. Fear of jail... It doesn't look or sound like the type that could handle that environment. This is a life changing event. Its hard to predict what someone is capable of or would think in this case. What I do know is there have been many of parents bring their kid to the ER claiming the kid fell and got hurt but clearly the kid was beaten the parent just realized the kid needs medical attention and lies in hopes to get it without getting caught or in trouble. People do stupid things everyday...

 

[JeannaT]

Don't need premeditation to get to murder...can get there through neglect that resulted in the death of the child. IMO


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Murder 1 you need premeditation - and that's my point. He's not being charged with planning this.

He's not being charged with that, he's being charged with neglect that resulted in the death of a child. Which I think I agree with. It's sad, but that's the way it is - this was seriously neglectful to pack that baby in the car at Chik-fil-a and forget by the time he was driving through the intersection that he needed to go to the daycare and not straight to work. That's inattention that rises to the criminal level.

On the other hand, I don't think he'll ever forgive himself for it, and his life is now ruined as is his wife's. And his darling little baby is gone too soon. It's a worse punishment for him to spend his life in regret than it will be to face criminal charges.

I think we all probably know people who blame themselves for the death of their children (warranted guilt or not) and will stand by the statement that that's a worse hell than the judicial system.

 

[Linda7NJ]

Murder 1 you need premeditation - and that's my point. He's not being charged with planning this.

He's not being charged with that, he's being charged with neglect that resulted in the death of a child. Which I think I agree with. It's sad, but that's the way it is - this was seriously neglectful to pack that baby in the car at Chik-fil-a and forget by the time he was driving through the intersection that he needed to go to the daycare and not straight to work. That's inattention that rises to the criminal level.

On the other hand, I don't think he'll ever forgive himself for it, and his life is now ruined as is his wife's. And his darling little baby is gone too soon.

Felony murder is felony murder...


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[newone]

Interesting Cherie - possibility of a different father. Marriage problems can manifest themselves in various ways. I gotta believe they were having trouble and he snapped. Recent grad from UA maybe he also had financial stress from student loans. Combine the stressors from several areas and it could cause a breakdown. Does HD insurance policy offer much $$$ for loss of a child?

I also wonder if he was taking any meds for a mental illness.

I hope the trial is televised.

JMO. :twocents:

I wondered that too or if he was taking Rx for sleep pain etc etc

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

Murder 1 you need premeditation - and that's my point. He's not being charged with planning this.

He's not being charged with that, he's being charged with neglect that resulted in the death of a child. Which I think I agree with. It's sad, but that's the way it is - this was seriously neglectful to pack that baby in the car at Chik-fil-a and forget by the time he was driving through the intersection that he needed to go to the daycare and not straight to work. That's inattention that rises to the criminal level.

On the other hand, I don't think he'll ever forgive himself for it, and his life is now ruined as is his wife's. And his darling little baby is gone too soon.

I believe it is officially gross negligence

 

[CHERIE.T]

Interesting Cherie - possibility of a different father. Marriage problems can manifest themselves in various ways. I gotta believe they were having trouble and he snapped. Recent grad from UA maybe he also had financial stress from student loans. Combine the stressors from several areas and it could cause a breakdown. Does HD insurance policy offer much $$$ for loss of a child?

I also wonder if he was taking any meds for a mental illness.

I hope the trial is televised.

JMO. :twocents:

There are so many questions! I hope we get to follow this case till the end.

 

[newone]

we 've got 67 guests looking through the windows and only 35 members on board...sign up and give us your opinions

 

[Judicious1]

Even if he didn't notice at noon, he would have noticed at 4:15 when he got in his car... and NOT have waited until a couple miles down the road. Considering LE said the car stank to high heaven.

Was there any busy place closer he could have pulled off for help if he noticed as he was pulling out of work? I'm not familiar with the road he worked on

 

[JeannaT]

Felony murder is felony murder...


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Yes. Felony murder doesn't require intent.

I feel like we're not communicating, Linda.

I'm saying he didn't intend for this death to happen.

Are you saying he did, and his intent in the beginning was to kill his child that day?

 

[rabidstoat]

Also, on the subject of forgetting babies, here's a story of my sister's family with a happy ending as it only lasted about 3 minutes.

They were going on vacation and drove their car to the airport. They have two kids, an almost 3-year-old girl and a 6-month-old boy at the time. They were parking in an off-site lot with shuttle stops, so my brother-in-law dropped off my sister, the 3-year-old girl, and the luggage. Then he went a few aisles away to park.

When he was approaching the shuttle stop, my sister just stared at him and asked: "Where's Leo?"

It was probably 3 minutes he was left in the car, and it was cool outside, so no harm done. My brother-in-law ran back and retrieved him, no harm done. Still, an example in our own family of forgetting about a kid.

P.S. My friend at work has a 2-year-old and is pregnant with twins. Her mind is frazzled, and she is terrified of leaving her daughter in the car like that. She's started taking a timestamped picture of her daughter's empty car seat when she parks at work, and there's a number of us who ask her (at her request) to show us the picture when we first see her. Before the photo idea we would ask, and she would believe she dropped the kid off but not be 100% certain and would go back out to her car to check, every time.