He Was Sending Lewd Messages While His Son Died in Hot Car: Prosecutors

Marietta, Georgia: Prosecutors say a man unhappy in his marriage exchanged nude photos with several women as his son died in a hot vehicle, in a criminal case that quickly gained attention across America.

Justin Ross Harris, 33, faces murder and child cruelty charges in the death of his 22-month-old son Cooper, who police say was left in a vehicle for about seven hours on a day when temperatures in the Atlanta area reached at least into the high 80s. The medical examiner's office has said the boy died of hyperthermia, essentially overheating, and has called his death a homicide.

During a three-hour hearing yesterday, prosecutor Chuck Boring questioned a police detective at length, outlining evidence he said proves Harris intentionally left his young boy in the hot SUV on June 18. But defense attorney Maddox Kilgore argued the evidence was insufficient and that the boy's death was a tragic accident. Friends and family say Harris was a devoted and loving father who talked about his toddler son often.

Scores of reporters and some curious members of the public were at the hearing just outside Atlanta, where police and prosecutors laid out the most detailed account yet of their case against Harris. Some of Harris' supporters also were in the courtroom, as was his wife.

Many observers were surprised and there was some public outcry when police immediately arrested Harris and charged him with murder in his son's death, and that may be one reason the prosecution presented so much of its findings at yesterday's hearing, said Georgia State University law professor Jessica Gabel, who attended the hearing.

A judge declined at the end of the hearing to grant Harris bond, meaning he will remain in jail as law enforcement officers continue to investigate and present their findings to the Cobb County district attorney, who will decide how to proceed with the case.

Alex Hall and Winston Milling, who have both been friends with Harris since college and worked with him at a Home Depot store, testified that Harris talked all the time about how he loved his son. The two went to lunch with Harris the day the boy died and had planned to go to a movie after work that day.

The two men later dropped Harris off so he could put a couple of light bulbs he had purchased in his car.

Kilgore, the defense attorney, said that showed Harris did not mean to leave the boy there.

"Why would he take his closest friends to his crime scene?" he asked.

Kilgore said Harris had also sent his wife a text that afternoon asking, "When are you going to pick up my buddy?"

And Harris described himself to police as a doting father who always kissed his son when he strapped him into the car seat because "he wanted Cooper to know his daddy loves him,"

Cobb County Police Detective Phil Stoddard testified. Harris told police that on the day of the boy's death, he had watched cartoons in bed with Cooper, then had breakfast with him at a Chick-fil-A restaurant.