(CNN)22-month-old Cooper Harris got up early on the last morning of his short life, at 5:15, an hour before sunrise. He lived with his parents.
His father, 33-year-old web developer Justin Ross Harris, took a still moody toddler to a bed shared with his 8-year-old wife, Lina Taylor. .. A little less than three feet tall, with blonde hair edging the cherubim's face, Cooper snuggled up to mom and dad and nodded again.
On the morning of June 18, 2014, Harris had already sent or exchanged online messages before the sun rose in Marietta, Cobb County. They 17.
After a leisurely "Daddy / Son's Breakfast" at Chick-fil-A at 9:26 am-In Cooper's mom's words, his son's belly is "full of sausage biscuits"- Harris closed the door of his Hyundai Tucson SUV.
With a Chick Philley cup and his work bag, Harris walked to his cubicle in the Home Depot office and left Cooper-he went to the day care center as usual that morning. I was supposed to get off-I'll be locked in a rear-facing child seat for the next 7 hours.
These nightmarish incidents often get the attention of the public. However, they rarely lead to murder from prosecutors, and they simply have to weigh the intentions of sad parents who claim they forgot to leave their child in a hot car.
At least seven heat-related car deaths reported this year
Monica McCoy, a professor of psychology at Converse University in South Carolina, who studied prosecution after a child died in a hot car, said in 508 unpublished investigations that serious murders and other seriousness occurred. He said the charges were rare. Submitted in 9.6% of cases.
"Murder is fairly rare and even less likely to be convicted," she said in her email. "Severe charges may be filed shortly after death, but will be reduced or withdrawn later. Parents are much more likely to be charged if drugs or alcohol are involved."
The Georgia Supreme Court ruling rekindled the sensational case
The death was particularly striking as the murder charges surrounding Cooper Harris were filed against his parents. Prosecutors alleged that Harris had killed the boy to free her father from the burden.
The Georgia Supreme Court's ruling will reignite, at least for the foreseeable future. A sensational criminal case promotion that was tried about 300 miles from Cobb County for a fierce pre-trial.
In the state Supreme Court, the widespread evidence presented to the jury is "convincing evidence," and Harris is "philanthropist, pervert, and even a sexual predator." "I did almost nothing to answer the key," he ruled 6-3. A question of his intentions when he walked away from his son. "
"Because the well-recognized evidence that the appellant intentionally and intentionally killed Cooper was not overwhelming," the court said, "misidentified sex. To the jury's conviction that it is unlikely that the evidence contributed. "
Harris said three cases of murder due to the death of his son, two cases of atrocities against children, and not yet. He was convicted of three charges related to the electronic exchange of lascivious materials with adults.
The High Court ruled that extensive evidence of his sexual activity was "extremely unreasonable" and overturned the conviction related to crimes against his son. ..
The court left allegations related to the exchange for a minor girl.
Harris was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison for these three charges: 10 years for one count of attempts at sexual exploitation of children, of harmful substances to minors. One year each for the two counts of spread, according to the ruling.
CNN is seeking comment from Harris' lawyer.
The Cobb County District Attorney's Office said it would file a motion to reconsider the judgment in court, but declined further comments.
Cooper's mother, Lina Taylor, hopes to help change the way her son remembers after the Georgia Supreme Court's ruling, she said.
"What he wanted, what he was loved, and what he misses every day," she said in a statement released by lawyer Lawrence Zimmerman.
She reiterated her belief that Harris did not intend to kill the only child on that hot day. That's what she told the police that day in 2014, and what she testified at Harris's trial two years later.
She supports those words.
"This doesn't change anything about my daily life, but I hope to show people what the people closest to the case are saying from the beginning," Taylor said in her statement. Said in.
"Ross was a loving and proud father to Cooper. At the same time Ross was a terrible husband. These two things could and did exist at the same time."
'I love everything with my dad, but we both need to run away'
Harris sends messages on dating sites A messaging app that has spent a lot of time communicating with women via whisper. Encourage users to share intimate secrets online.
According to the state Supreme Court's recount of evidence from the trial, the time to her son's death was the same.
Shortly after midnight on June 18, 2014, Harris sent a message to a 17-year-old girl who began contacting her at the age of 16. There was also an exchange about a previous sexual encounter with a 21 year old woman. At his SUV earlier that year.
At 12:48 am, Harris also conducted a Google search for children's passport fees. This seems to be related to his family trip, which Taylor later told the jury that he was planning with his child-in-law and his children.
Between 5:46 and 5:49 that morning, Harris sent or exchanged more online messages with at least three women.
Taylor went to work around 7:15 am. Cooper played the cartoon at home and watched it for the next 45 minutes. Meanwhile, Daddy responded to four Whisper posts. Three of them are of sexual nature.
Cooper and his father left home around 8:30 am. Harris tied the infant to a red child seat in the middle of the back row of the SUV. Less than 4 inches from the driver's seat, but facing the colored rear window.
Harris later told police that they were running late that morning. The day care center stopped serving children's breakfast at 8:45 am. Harris replied to two whisper posts and an email from his colleague on his way to Chick-fil-A. So he and Cooper had breakfast for about 20 minutes.
At the restaurant, Harris replied to Whisper's post: "I hate marrying a child. The novelty is worn out and there is nothing to show it."
"I miss spending time alone or going out with friends." "Harris writes.
He continued with two other messages. "My wife is angry when I want to go out with my friends," he said. "I love my son, but we both need to run away."
"Get ready, let's go." Harris said it was due to the chief detective in the case after returning his son to his car seat and kissing him.
Cooper kissed his dad. After the
traffic light, Harris continued straight to the office (about 4 minutes) instead of turning left at the day care center. He pulled into the office parking lot, found a space, and walked to his cubicle.
At work, Harris exchanged various messages with people.
A travel agency has sent him information about his family cruise. He examined one cruise line. There was a message containing paramores and responses to various Whisper posts, such as telling a user that his son woke him up at 5:30 that morning.
"He's amazing," Harris wrote back, referring to his son.
At 11:38 am, Harris went out for lunch with his colleague at Publics. They also dropped in at the Home Depot store where Harris bought the light bulbs. They dropped Harris into the parking lot. There, a surveillance video showed that at 12:42 pm, a bag of bulbs was left in the front seat of Tucson.
Tests have shown that the child seat temperature has reached 125 degrees
12:58 pm temperature. According to the Supreme Court's ruling, the day was about 88 degrees.
Experts tested the temperature of an SUV's child seat parked in the same space three weeks after Cooper's death. The outside temperature was the same on both days. Child seat temperatures ranged from 88 degrees at 11:35 am to 125 degrees around 3:30 pm.
That afternoon, Harris sent a message to the woman for several hours. Some of them asked women to take pictures of their breasts. She sent her a photo. He also asked the minor for a picture of her breasts-she sent it.
"Delicious" Harris wrote back.
There was another message of sexual nature, with at least two other women. Harris sent a woman a photo of his penis.
During a subsequent telephone conversation, Taylor agreed to pick up Cooper at the day care center. Harris went to the movies with his friends after his work.
4:16 pm Harris entered the SUV. He ran his car a few seconds later. He later told police that he saw him sitting in the backseat while Cooper was trying to change lanes on his way to the cinema.
Harris pulled to a parking lot about two miles away from where he worked. He took Cooper off his car seat and put it on the pavement.
"What did I do?" He shouted repeatedly, according to witnesses.
"I killed my son."
"She intends to kill me."
One witness tried Harris to CPR, He testified in court that he had done it wrong.
According to the Supreme Court's ruling, the Witness "almost immediately revealed to him that Cooper had died," but did CPR.
While Harris was on the phone, he walked away and paced. Two witnesses called 911. Police arrived at 4:24 pm.
One officer attempted CPR. Another officer described Harris as "calming down, then screaming and calming down again."
"It looked very random and very strange," said the officer.
According to the ruling, yet another officer testified that Harris alternated between calm and "monotonous screams."
Harris was asked for ID.
"Silence, my son died," he told an officer. Harris was handcuffed and taken behind his police car.
Harris later told police that he had forgotten to drop Cooper in day care. He also forgot to "review" the child seat before leaving the SUV.
"I swore to drop him," Harris claimed.
Crime technicians described the back of the SUV as the smell of "hot, musty, urine-soaked diapers."
Prosecuting his parents is not the answer, his mother says
Harris cries at some point during a criminal cross-examination that day. I started.
"Oh, God."
"My boy."
"Why"
Harris tells the police, the usual "ups and downs" Nevertheless, he said his marriage to Taylor was good. He said leaving Cooper on an SUV was an "accident" and saw a news report about a man who became an advocate after leaving his child in the car.
"The worst horror for me is to keep his son in a hot car," Harris told the detective.
Harris was allowed to speak to Taylor after being told he was arrested for a felony murder and atrocities against his children. He cried and claimed that death was an accident. Harris said her Cooper was "in heaven and his time on earth is over."
Autopsy showed Cooper died from hyperthermia. The infant probably suffered from nausea, headaches, anxiety, and perhaps seizures, the coroner testified in court.
Cooper may have struggled because he became more uncomfortable. According to coroners, small scratches on his head, hands, and feet are likely due to painful rubbing against the hot parts of the car seat.
Taylor, a day care teacher, relatives of Taylor and Harris, and friends testified that he was a "loving, compassionate, and involved father," the Supreme Court ruling said. There was no evidence that he had previously abused the boy.
On November 14, 2016, Harris was convicted of all charges after a jury trial for nearly three and a half days.
The following month, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for malicious murder, 20 years for one child abuse, and 10 years, 1 year for attempting sexual exploitation of children. I was sentenced to imprisonment. Each count of the spread of harmful substances to minors.
The Georgia Supreme Court found that evidence provided by Harris's extramarital sexual prosecutor (depicted as the state's motive for killing his son) was unfairly detrimental to the jury. It was ruled that it had an impact.
The day after the ruling, Taylor told the Cobb County prosecutor that "too much" and "abuse of their power" ultimately led to the court's decision.
"It's been eight years since Cooper died, and the children die the same every year," she said in her statement. "Waste of valuable resources to prosecute parents when this happened is not the answer."
Taylor said in a law requiring a device that could "stop these tragedy", "actually. I urged the legislators to "put money in something that can save lives."
Taylor said he was worried that he couldn't have a child. She remembered the joy that Cooper felt on the day she was born, "a perfect baby of 6 pounds and 8 ounces."
"He turned our lives upside down, as children do," she said. "I don't exchange it for the world."
On the last two nights of Cooper's life, Taylor said he had a sleep problem and fell asleep between her and Harris. Told.
"I remember he flipping over at midnight. His mouth was open and the baby's lips were just breathing into my face," she said. rice field. "I will cherish that moment forever."
Harris was allowed to call the funeral from the Cobb County Prison on the outskirts of Atlanta, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He briefly spoke to the crowd on his speakerphone.
"Thank you for everything you have done for my boy," he said.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be there," he added.
After worship, Taylor expelled his son's casket from the church while calling Harris.