Baby son who died in hot car premeditated, say police

Harris with his wife and baby boy Cooper

Justin Ross Harris from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, must be the cruelest man on the planet.  He left his little son strapped into his child seat on a scorching hot day, went to work, and pretended he forgot he was there. The temperature inside the SUV rose to 60C.

It must have been a slow death for the 22 month old, yet his father sought permission to attend his funeral to be held this Saturday. Cobb County Sheriff's Department said "We don't transport inmates to funeral services, that's it, that's our policy."

Harris is awaiting trial accused with felony murder and second degree child cruelty.

Justin Harris has one of those innocent-looking, friendly faces and has a lot of friends.  In fact, 11,000 people signed a petition to drop the charges because losing his son was punishment enough.

Harris with some of his many friends

Police allege he used his office computer to search how long it would take for an animal to die trapped in the back of a hot car.  If this is true, the child's death is obviously premeditated.

Police allege that Harris took his son for breakfast before driving to work.  He returned to his car at lunchtime, put an object into the car, left the child alone again, and returned to work.  After work he drove the child, now dead, to a shopping centre to fabricate a story that would get him off the hook.

Witness Edward Cockerham saw Harris pull Cooper from the car and thought he was acting. "I know he had lost his baby but he was acting up more than he should have been.  When he pulled in and people started asking what happened, he said the baby had just started choking.  But the baby didn't look like it had been choking, it looked like it had been sweating, like it had been in a swimming pool, his hair was all wet."


On Wednesday, Cobb County Medical Examiner's Office announced the boy died from intense heat exhaustion and confirmed the manner of his death was a homicide.