The television trucks are no longer parked outside her home. Reporters have stopped hounding her every move. And Leanna Harris is no longer a trending topic on social media.
But June 18, 2014 still feels like yesterday to the woman whose husband is charged in the death of their 22-month-old son, say those who know her well. That afternoon, the nation’s attention turned to a parking lot in Smyrna where Ross Harris discovered the body of his only child, Cooper, still strapped into the car seat where he had been placed some seven hours earlier.
Ross Harris was arrested later that night and booked into the Cobb County Jail, where he’s remained ever since, denied bond. He was charged with murder.
Pre-trial hearings are expected to take place in the fall, and the trial possibly in early 2016, according to Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds.
“We turned over a good deal of discovery evidence,” he said. “Out of fairness, the defense needed a lot of time to digest it.”
Until then, the public has received only one side of the story, shaped by Cobb prosecutors who, during a probable cause hearing last July, portrayed Ross Harris as a porn-obsessed wannabe playboy seeking a “child-free lifestyle.” They say he studied how long it would take his son to die inside a hot car.
Prosecutors also allege Leanna Harris was indifferent upon learning of her son’s fate. And, they say, in a jailhouse conversation with her husband, minutes after learning he had been charged with Cooper’s death, she asked Ross Harris, “Did you say too much?”
No charges have been brought against Leanna Harris, who passed a privately administered polygraph, according to her attorney, Lawrence Zimmerman. But some who’ve followed the case continue to believe she was culpable, he said.
Lyn Balfour, a U.S. Army analyst based in Virginia, is one of the few people who can relate to the Harris’ experience. Eight years ago, she accidentally left her 9-month-old son in her car while at work, believing she had dropped him off with a baby sitter. Bryce Balfour died of hyperthermia, the same thing that killed Cooper Harris.
Charged with second-degree murder, Balfour, now 43, was acquitted six months later.
“I feel for Mr. Harris. Because of what he was doing the day his son died, he isn’t getting the support I received from co-workers and people in the community,” Balfour said. Prosecutors said that, while Cooper Harris was dying, his father was “sexting” with several women he had met online.
“It doesn’t matter what he was doing,” Balfour said. “Anyone can get distracted.”
Awaiting trial puts everything, including the grieving process, on hold, she said.
“You have to prepare for battle,” Balfour said. “You have to stay silent as people say what a horrible parent you are. It’s very frustrating.”
Ross Harris’ attorney, Maddox Kilgore, has not shared his defense strategy and declined comment for this article. An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published last year revealed that police appeared to overstate some of the evidence introduced during the probable cause hearing.
Surveillance footage in the Home Depot parking lot where Cooper Harris died showed that Ross Harris sat in his Hyundai Tucson less than 15 seconds — not 30 seconds, as lead Det. Phil Stoddard testified — after parking it that morning, before heading into work.
Stoddard also testified Ross Harris had a “clear view” inside his SUV when he stopped by to drop off a package during his lunch hour. But the video reviewed by the AJC shows that Harris’ eyes remain above the SUV’s roof line in the three seconds it took for him to open the door, place the package inside and close the door.
The detective further insinuated that Harris, concerned a passerby might see his son inside the vehicle, stopped and waited for the man to enter the office building. The video shows that Harris did stop briefly, but his eyes stayed on his cell phone, which he operated with his free hand. He never looked back at the man who walked past his car.
Dunwoody attorney Esther Panitch said she expects the defense to argue “this is a witch hunt. They had it in for him from the beginning.”
Zimmerman, Leanna Harris’ attorney, said if the district attorney has nothing on his client, he should say so publicly.
“They’ve ruined her name with the bold accusations, taking statements she made out of context,” Zimmerman said. “There’s still people out there who think she had something to do with this. In fact there will always be people who think she did it.”
“There’s no reason for them not to clear Leanna Harris,” he said.
Panitch said prosecutors may try to elicit testimony they could later use against Leanna Harris if she takes the stand to testify on her husband’s behalf.
“No good deed could go unpunished,” she said. “If she testifies to try and help her husband, it could open her up to cross-examination.”
The prosecution has the advantage, Panitch said, if for no other reason than “jurors are going to want to hold someone responsible for this child’s death. This child felt great pain and suffered greatly.”
No one knows that more than his parents, Balfour said.
“He’ll be questioning what he did that day for the rest of his life,” she said. “It’s been eight years, and I still question what happened every day of my life.
“It’s a pain that never goes away.”
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