Best friend testifies about Harris’ struggles with ‘sexual sins’
Countering the prosecution's narrative of a secret life, Ross Harris' best friend testified Wednesday that the defendant in the hot car murder trial was forthcoming about his demons.
"I saw him struggle with sexual sin at the same time I saw him be a tremendous friend to me and a tremendous father," said Billy Kirkpatrick, who has known Harris since they were in college.
But as lead prosecutor Chuck Boring would later point out, there was much that Harris — accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son Cooper inside his SUV for seven hours — didn't tell his friend.
Kirkpatrick said Harris first came to him for help in 2010 after Leanna discovered some objectionable material on his cellphone.
He testified he became Harris’ accountability partner through a service called Covenant Eyes that would notify him via email every time his friend visited a pornographic website.
“I wasn’t very consistent with that,” he said.
The state has maintained that Harris' secrets say far more about him than whatever he may have revealed. Eventually, the prosecution contends, his desire to be free of familial obligations led him to murder his son in June 2014.
A year earlier, Harris enlisted Kirkpatrick’s help again in 2013, telling him in an email that his struggles with pornography had persisted.
“Please do not hesitate to question my actions,” Harris wrote to his friend. “This is something I need serious accountability over.”
Around the same time Leanna confided she was thinking about leaving Harris, Kirkpatrick said.
He could see that his friend had plunged deeper into the world of illicit sex. Visits to hook-up sites such as Ashley Madison and Adult Sex Finder started turning up in the notifications from Covenant Eyes, Kirkpatrick testified.
“For my part, that was my responsibility and I dropped the ball,” Kirkpatrick said. “He is responsible for his actions. But if I take on the responsibility and the commitment to be his Covenant Eyes partner, then I should have done a better job. I guess I felt at that point I was ruining the marriage of my best friend.”
Boring asked Kirkpatrick if he knew Harris had exchanged nude photos with underage girls or visited public restrooms for sexual encounters. Kirkpatrick said he did not.
“I don’t think I could’ve stopped him from anything,” he said.
Court recessed early on Wednesday. Only a handful of witnesses remain for the defense, which is expected to wrap up its case next week.
About the Author
A native Atlantan, Boone joined the AJC staff in 2007. He quickly carved out a niche covering crime stories, assuming the public safety beat in 2014. He's covered some of the biggest trials this decade, from Hemy Neuman to Ross Harris to Chip Olsen, the latter of which was featured on Season 7 of the AJC's award-winning "Breakdown" podcast.
