Maybe his sexting minors had something to do with the divorce, surprised it took her this long to file for divorce
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/12/us/georgia-hot-car-death-sexting-charges/
I think few marriages could survive this…even if innocent and no sexting others.
I remember when a friend of mine found her toddler in the water…luckily he survived and is fine. She told me that she never would have forgiven her H who was supposed to be watching him while she showered (they were staying at in-laws home with ungated pool).
She had an eerie feeling, quickly got out of the shower and ran into the backyard and found her son. If her son hadn’t survived or had been severely injured, I believe that she couldn’t have stayed with her H.
It is interesting that the mom hasn’t been charged with anything yet, due to some of the speculation that was floating around shortly after the child’s death and her “off” reaction when she was first questioned.
Reviving this thread because jury selection for his trial begins today http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/hot-car-death-justin-ross-harris-trial-begins-toda/nq3hX/. And Ross’s wife divorced him. She has been subpoena’ed by the prosecution as a witness. No that she is divorced (as of a week or two ago) she no longer has spousal immunity. There have been several theories as to why the divorce happened so quickly and so close to the trial date.
What happen is they can’t find 12 impartial jurors?
This is a very interesting Washington Post article about this issue: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
It won a Pulitzer prize.
I think that if you left your child in the back of a car by a true mistake, then no you should not see jail time. I am having a very hard time believing that this was the case here.
^^^IMO it’s still severe child neglect in the same way “forgetting” you left a loaded gun where a toddler can reach it. IMO these people should not get off scot free. I’m disturbed that the woman in the WaPo article is still reproducing.
It’s quite surprising that they didn’t get a change of venue. This is a hugely publicized case with a dad who worked for corporate headquarters of a well known company (Home Depot- but he worked just down the road, off site, at a nearby office building). People initially came to the dad’s defense, with electronic petitions circulated when folks thought the police were being unnecessarily harsh, arresting him just after the death of his son. But then the story started to unfold…
Any form of violence against children is something that brings out the worst in me. People who are capable of this are sub-human as far as I am concerned. Just yesterday, somehow a video found it’s way onto my Facebook feed from some site called “Vidify.” It was a video of a mother physically abusing what looked to me to be a child of about 9 months old. It literally reduced me to tears and I wish I never saw it.
It is frightening to me what human beings are capable of.
The thing is, with infants and youngsters left in cars, it can be a horrible mistake that will haunt the person who made it forever OR an intentional act done purposely. It is tough to KNOW which situation, without investigation. In either case, the infant or young person is still dead, but I can’t believe the remedy should be the same for both types of cases.
@jym626 Just armchair speculation here, but I wonder if the defense didn’t really push for a change of venue because Ross Harris would be even more offensive to people outside of the metro Atlanta area? His apparent sexting addiction (he was sexting from work with something like 6 women, some underage, during the day when his son was dying in the car) wouldn’t play well in small, conservative, religious towns and the support there for law enforcement would likely be stronger than in the metro area.
For those of you just tuning in, IIFC the defendant’s recent internet browsing history at the time of the death showed searches including “child-free life,” “how long does it take for a child to die in a hot car,” and “how to survive in prison,” among other gems.
Actually I don’t think that the sexting addiction is going to play well anywhere in Georgia. At this point I don’t think it matters where he is tried.
@VeryHappy Wow, what an intense read! Thank you for sharing it. Every time I hear about one of these incidents, My thoughts race from “how could this happen” to " my God, those poor parents" to " That could never happen to me" to " or could it???". My children are all adults now but I can clearly remember incidents that could have truly been nightmares if just one detail had changed. Surely I’m not the only one. I can see why the article won a Pulitzer; my mind can still hear the keening cries of those parents.
This is too important to have to rely on faulty memory.
The car manufacturers make alarms that sound if you open the car door without taking your key out of the ignition, or turning off your headlights. They need to design an alarm to prevent babies being forgotten in cars.
Perhaps they could make an alarm that would sound if there is weight on the back seat in excess of the weight of an empty child car seat when the driver’s door is opened.
I initially thought of an alarm that would sound if any of the back seat seat belts were still engaged when the driver’s door is opened, but if the car seat is left strapped in regularly and the child removed from it (which was typical for booster seats when my D was small), the parent would just learn to ignore the alarm.
Of course this would only help parents with new cars.
Some other sort of memory jogger-- maybe an app for cell phones…surely there has to be some way to create an alert.
Of course, for any alert type idea to work, parents would have to accept the idea that it could happen to them.
I think most of us believe it would never happen to us because we are more vigilant than that.
But then these parents who tragically lost a child probably also thought the same of themselves.
The simple way I’ve seen recommended is to put something you HAVE to have right near the kid’s seat in the back–your purse, briefcase, wallet or phone. This means you will definitely look there and take it when you get to your destination. Seems a lot simpler than trying to figure out weight with and without child in car seat or booster.
Alarms, reminders, buzzers etc… will only work if you want to remember your child. They won’t help a father looking to live “a child-free life”
This is from the article I linked in Post 465:
And this:
Defense moved for a change of venue today:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/four-more-qualified-to-serve-on-jury-in-hot-car-mu/nrDsp/