BRUNSWICK, Ga.–A Georgia father has been found guilty of murder in the 2014 death of his toddler son who perished after being left in a hot car.
A jury reached its verdict Monday in the trial of Justin Ross Harris after four days of deliberations.
The former Home Depot web developer’s 22-month-old son, Cooper, died after Harris left the boy in his SUV for seven hours while he was at work June 18, 2014. Normally, Harris would drop Cooper off at an on-site day care there.
The father returned to the SUV during his lunch break, opening the driver’s side door “to place an object into the vehicle,” the warrant stated when it was released in 2014.
Initially, police said Harris had apparently forgotten the boy was in the backseat and didn’t remember until after he left work, at which point he pulled into a parking lot asking for assistance and wailing, “What have I done?”
Police had to restrain Harris after it became clear Cooper had died, police said at first.
Police said during the investigation that Harris and his wife, Leanna, told them they conducted Internet searches on how hot a car needed to be to kill a child.
Harris “stated that he recently researched, through the Internet, child deaths inside vehicles and what temperature it needs to be for that to occur,” police said, adding that Harris told investigators “he was fearful that this could happen.”
During questioning, Leanna Harris “made similar statements regarding researching in car deaths and how it occurs,” police said.
Records show the mercury topped 92 on June 18, and police say the temperature was 88 degrees when the boy was pronounced dead in a parking lot not far from his father’s workplace.
Harris was charged with malice murder after investigators concluded he left his child to die on purpose to escape from family responsibilities while he sought sexual affairs outside his marriage, and solicited photos of a minor’s genitalia.
They also charged him with felony murder, which does not require proof of intent to kill. He was found guilty of both murder charges.
The state announced in September 2014 that it would not seek the death penalty in the case.
Defense attorneys said Harris, who moved to Georgia from Alabama in 2012, loved his son and the boy’s death was a tragic accident.
Additional reporting by CNN.
