Jury selection continued Tuesday in the hot car murder trial with a hot courtroom.
Shortly before court convened, a member of the judge’s staff entered the courtroom and announced what everyone already knew: “We have no air conditioning.”
By mid-morning, courthouse staff had brought in some fans and much-needed circulation. As prosecutor Chuck Boring questioned one prospective juror, he made note of the everpresent humming sound. “You’d think we’re in 1920s South Georgia, bringing in box fans,” he said.
As the selection process continued, yet another potential juror said she had a fixed opinion that Ross Harris is guilty.
“He disgusts me,” the Vinings woman wrote in her juror’s questionnaire. “I think he’s a psychopath.”
A partner in a consulting firm, the woman said she believes in due process and is well aware of her civic duty to serve as a juror. But there is no way she could set her opinions aside and be impartial, she said.
“It’s impossible for me to imagine this wasn’t purposefully done,” she said. “I think he did it.”
The woman noted that she lives just down the road from the Chick-fil-A where Harris and Cooper ate breakfast the morning of June 18, 2014. Knowing the area so well, she said she could not see how Harris could forget Cooper was in the car by the time he reached the intersection where he should have turned left to take Cooper to daycare, instead of driving straight through to his Home Depot office about a quarter mile away. Cooper died hours later inside Harris’ hot SUV in the parking lot.
The woman noted that she was also disgusted by allegations Harris has been sexting that day with a minor and said she believed Harris showed no remorse about his son’s death.
At one point during questioning, the woman told Harris’ lawyer, Maddox Kilgore, “I’m troubled for you.” She said she would rather be sitting at the prosecution table because Harris “needs to go down.”
She will almost certainly be struck for cause during the next round of challenges.
Also likely to be struck will be Juror #68. He’s a claims recovery specialist from Home Depot, where he’s worked for a decade rising up the corporate ladder from store cashier to a job in the corporate office.
The Smyrna man, who is married with a young daughter, said he’s followed the case closely in the news. He said he cannot put his opinion aside that he thinks Harris is guilty and instead listen to the evidence brought into the courtroom and the judge’s instructions. He said he’s told family, friends, co-workers and his manager that he believes Harris is guilty.
Two other prospective jurors questioned Tuesday appear likely to be qualified to serve. Both said they knew next to nothing about the case and had formed no opinions about it.
A Kennesaw man, who’s an online student and member of the Army reserves, said he was living in Alaska at the time of Cooper’s death. The other prospective juror, a financial services consultant from Mableton, said he frequently travels out of state to meet with clients and has not kept up with the hot car murder case.
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