Toddler's Hot Car Death

Parent Cafe
521

I followed the trial, and I’m uncomfortable with the verdict and sentence.

I went into this assuming Harris was guilty, and I still find it very hard to believe that a father was able to forget his son in the course of a two minute drive. I also find the fact that Harris had apparently watched a video about leaving kids in hot cars not long before Cooper’s death a highly suspicious coincidence.

But other evidence that seemed damning at first was revealed, at the trial, to be reaching on the part of prosecution – Ross Harris had not, for instance, visited childfree websites, but had rather once clicked on a link from another article that redirected to one. I didn’t watch the interrogation videos, but from what I did hear, he was not emotionless after his arrest, and grief is complicated enough that I’m not prepared to analyze whether or not he seemed sincere. Some witnesses claimed there was an unmistakable smell emanating from his car, which means he should have known something was wrong as soon as he got in, rather than driving for a few minutes first, but other witnesses say they didn’t smell anything at the scene.

More than that, there simply didn’t seem to be anything to establish motive. Yes, he was compulsively sexting with multiple women, meeting some of them for in-person affairs, but none of these relationships seemed particularly serious, and whenever he mentioned Cooper it was to talk about how much he loved him. By all accounts, he seems to have been an involved, at least superficially devoted father. He was in the process of planning a family cruise just before Cooper’s death. He wasn’t in financial straits, or on the brink of divorce.

I do think he was rightly convicted of negligence – although even there, I wonder how our reactions would be different if he were distracted because he was listening to music and anxious about an impending deadline at work, rather than because he was sexting underage girls. For the purposes of a murder charge, however, the reason for the distraction shouldn’t matter.

Terribly sad case, regardless of whether or not the right verdict was reached.

522

I’m glad I wasn’t on this jury. I think he did it. I don’t know if I get to certainty beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s a hard question for me.

523

It was a very short ride from Chik-fil-a to work, at his lunch break he opened the car to put a package of light bulbs in the car but still didn’t notice his son in a car seat jammed up to the driver’s seat, he didn’t notice an odor in a closed hot car when he started to drive off well after his son’s body started to decompose, not to mention his wife spontaneous utterance when she went to pick son up from daycare that dad must have left him in the car. Seriously the ‘child free life’ and ‘sexting’ were just the icing on the cake.

524

I didn’t even know about the sexting or childfree thing and still think he’s guilty.

525

But again, why would he have done it? We’re talking about cold-blooded, premeditated murder here, not a crime of passion. In most cases of premeditated murder I’ve heard of, absent an obvious pathology on the part of the killer, there seems to be a pretty clear motive. I don’t think the state established that the sexting was enough of one, and without a motive, I don’t think I could have convicted on intentional murder without more of a smoking gun. Although it is VERY hard to believe that that drive would have been enough time to forget a toddler, or that nothing would have jogged his memory during the day.

I agree I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the jury.

526

He was unhappy in his marriage and would probably divorce. Eighteen years of no child support seems like a good motive. I have seen someone commit premeditated murder over the disputed ownership of a lawn mower. Good riddance Ross Harris. JMO but I don’t think these cases are ever an accident.

527

Th front passenger seat in your car has a weight sensor in it and there is a display light on your dashboard that alerts you when the airbag is turned off because there is not enough weight in the seat.

Self driving cars have complicated sensors as do military aircraft that have many fail safes.

It cannot be too difficult to come up with a similar sensor for car seats.

It seems that liability due to malfunction might be the only obstacle in the way.

The picture of that adorable little innocent boy is heartbreaking,

528

I believe many truly are accidents. In conversations on this topic, I’ve heard several parents say that it almost happened to them, but they realized when they got across the parking lot that their child was still in the car seat.

When my kids were very little, I had an older car without airbags, so I put the car seat in the front. If I had had to put a baby in a rear-facing carseat in the back seat, I can easily see how I could have forgotten whether the child was with me, especially if the baby was sleeping or quiet.

This is a problem that needs a technological fix.

I think car manufacturers should make car seats to go with each model of their cars anyway (this would solve a lot of difficulties with car seat installation because the seats would actually fit). If car seats were accessories designed for use in specific models of cars, it should not be difficult to include a sensor that (1) beeps if there’s any weight in the seat when the engine is turned off and (2) sounds a loud, distinctive alarm, opens the windows, and unlocks the doors if there’s any weight in the seat when the engine is off and the car doors are locked (this assumes that the car doors lock themselves after a minute or two, the way they do on my Hyundai).

529

From what I’ve read, I have no doubt that most of these cases are accidents.

I don’t think this one was.

530

I followed the trial very closely. From one of the statements of the prosecution after the verdict, it seemed that the jurors said it wasn’t just one thing, it was all the evidence together that led to their decision.

I agree that the sexting/affairs may or may not have been good enough to be a motive on their own, but when taken with all the other little bits, it makes up a pretty damning theory of the crime that the jury believed, as do I. BTW, I discount the “child-free” website hit as important evidence because that link was contained in something a friend of his sent him, which he clicked - so from what I saw, no evidence showed that he went online to search out that site.

One of the things I heard reported - but can’t find the link - was that in the video footage of Harris going to his car at lunchtime, he had the bag of light bulbs in his left hand and used his left hand (the same hand) to open the car door. (The jury asked to see that clip again once they were deliberating.) This was while he was keeping his head above the car. Can you visualize that? It is awkward and not really what one would do naturally if one had a shopping bag to put into the car. If you think through that, it reads to me like he was doing everything possible not to lean his right side into the car, presumably because he knew his child was in there. It’s sort of like he was keeping everything but his left arm outside of the car. The video also showed him “tossing” the bag of light bulbs into the car … do you know any adult who would throw a shopping bag containing light bulbs?

And, the prosecution played the part of the interrogation in which he was recounting his day and he paused for several seconds before leaving out the part about how he went to his car after coming back from lunch with his friends. I interpret that pause as him thinking through “his cover story.”

My own personal theory is that he meant to get rid of his child on some level, very probably unconsciously, and he figured (again, likely unconsciously) that he could then wear the mantle of “dad who made a horrible mistake” without being punished further. I don’t think he’s one of those criminals who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. I don’t know the exact pyschological terms, but it reminds me of people who can be their own worst enemy because they self-sabotage. That is my theory of what happened here. JMO.

531

And one other thing that’s been bothering me. Obviously people grieve in different ways, but I find Leanna Harris’ actions throughout all of this to be really unusual - to the point of making me wonder if she was in some way complicit.

The “Ross must have left him in the car” comment when she went to the day care to get him is one of them, but I can sort of see how she wondered because if the child was not at day care and not with Ross, where else could he be - so still in the car is the only other place.

And I thought it was strange how she was so concerned with Ross and how he was feeling in the video of her seeing him for the first time in the interrogation room. Strange to me - it sort of reminds me of the branches of Christianity in which the man is the head of the household and the woman has to submit to his will and not question it.

The “did you say too much” comment she made to Ross in the interrogation room is another weird one. Was she in on some plot?

Then there were the comments she made, I think at the funeral, about how even if she could have Cooper back she wouldn’t want him because she knew he was with God in heaven. Could that be because her husband had decided Cooper should no longer live?

It came out in the trial that Leanna stopped cooperating with the police the day after Cooper died - she wouldn’t help them get Cooper’s medical records and I think stopped answering questions - I guess because she wanted to protect Ross, who was under arrest at that point. Again, strikes me as strange. I have no personal experience with police investigations, so maybe that’s not so unusual.

I find it very odd that even at trial after the litany of horrible sexting details and the double life he led, she maintained on the stand that it was an accident and that Ross never would have killed their child. She put up a statement on FB after the verdict warning people that leaving a child in a car could happen to anyone. I can see that it could happen to anyone BUT what Ross did in this particular case was clearly not one of those rare accidents. The fact that she still chooses not to see any wrongdoing on Ross’ part strikes me as very strange.

Finally, where were the grandparents and aunts/uncles of Cooper before, during and after the trial? It seemed to me like the state was the only one standing up for the little boy who died.

532

Agree that the wife knew that Ross planned to kill their son by leaving him in the car but I don’t think she knew exactly when he might do it or if he’d really do it until it happened.

533

I have to wonder if he had “forgot” their son in the car before. Why else would she say he must have left him in the car?