Father weeps in court as ME details toddler's "agonizing" last moments in hot car
BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- A man accused of intentionally killing his toddler by leaving him in a hot car shed tears in the courtroom as jurors were shown 34 autopsy photos.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Justin Ross Harris wept on Tuesday when former Cobb County Medical Examiner Brian Frist described the final hours of his son, Cooper.
Frist testified that given the temperatures that day in June 2014, the toddler’s death would have been “prolonged.” He calls the death “agonizing.”
Prosecutors say Justin Ross Harris intentionally killed 22-month-old Cooper by leaving him for hours in a vehicle parked outside the father’s metro Atlanta workplace in June 2014. They say Harris actually plotted to kill his son, hoping to escape his family responsibilities to focus on sexual liaisons he was having with prostitutes and women he met online.
Harris is also charged with sending sexually explicit text messages and photos to an underage teenage girl.
Defense attorneys argue while Harris is responsible for the boy’s death, it was a tragic accident.
He faces life in prison if convicted of murder.
Harris moved from Alabama to Georgia in 2012.