BRUNSWICK — Dozens of Glynn County residents will arrive at the courthouse here today and discover they may ultimately have to sit in judgment over the highly sensational hot-car murder trial of Justin Ross Harris.
Four months ago, Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark determined a fair and impartial jury could not be picked in Cobb County. She then moved the trial 300 miles away to this coastal city by Georgia's Golden Isles. Summons went out to prospective Glynn County jurors last month.
Staley Clark has set aside two weeks for jury selection and is then expected to take a week off. Opening statements and testimony are scheduled to begin Oct. 3. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
Harris, a former Home Depot web developer, left his 22-month-old son Cooper to die in his SUV in the office parking lot in June 2014. That day, as his son was dying in the hot car, Harris was sexting with other women, Cobb police say.
Harris stands accused of both malice murder, which gives jurors the option of finding he intentionally left Cooper in his hot car, and felony murder, which would allow jurors to find Harris guilty of criminal negligence. His attorneys have insisted Harris left Cooper in the car by mistake and have called the incident “a tragic accident.”
Separately, Harris is also being tried for engaging in sexually explicit chats with underage girls. He faces two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and six counts of disseminating harmful material to a minor.
Harris is the subject of the second season of the AJC's podcast series "Breakdown," which will follow the trial's developments.
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