There was Cooper Harris at the hospital on the first day of his life, his elated father holding his son and smiling at the camera. Another showed Ross Harris giving his son his first bath at home. But it was the photo of Cooper dressed up as Batman that made his mother break down.
» Hot car death trial live stream: Watch Leanna Taylor take the stand.
“That was his first Halloween,” Leanna Taylor said, her voice breaking, tears appearing in her eyes.
On Monday afternoon, defense attorney Maddox Kilgore presented one photo after another to the jury in the hot-car murder case against Ross Harris. Harris is accused of intentionally leaving the 22-month-old child in his car for seven hours so he would die from the heat. Harris' lawyers say the June 18, 2014, incident was a horrible accident.
The touching photos were displayed to jurors to try and show jurors that Harris loved his son so much there is no way he would have made him die such a horrible death.
Kilgore showed Taylor, who is now divorced from Harris, photo after photo after photo of her young son, often being held by his beaming father. There were photos of the family at a Braves game, the Varsity, Piedmont Park, Kennesaw Mountain and Fort Walton beach over Memorial Day weekend, just weeks before Cooper’s death. There were also some photos of Harris wearing his University of Alabama jersey on gameday, with Cooper also decked out in Bama gear on gamedays.
Other photos showed Harris sound asleep either in bed with his son or with Cooper dozing on his belly.
After the photos, Kilgore played home videos of Cooper, showing him at the pool, being fed a banana by Harris for breakfast and being held by his happy dad on a sofa.
Taylor broke down watching these videos, wiping her eyes with tissue.
As Kilgore displayed the photos and played the video on a large-screen monitor, Harris watched them intently. Early on, he wiped his eyes with tissues. But as the presentation wore on he began smiling at the photos that showed he and Cooper enjoying their company together.
Before the photo gallery, Kilgore asked Judge Mary Staley Clark to allow Taylor to talk about Cooper’s funeral and Harris listening to the proceeding over a phone at the Cobb County jail.
Prosecutor Chuck Boring objected, saying it was both inadmissible hearsay and not relevant to the trial.
Staley Clark allowed Taylor to tell jurors her husband listened in and gave a statement.
“Most of it was just crying,” Taylor said, adding she couldn’t understand what he was saying because he was so overwhelmed with emotion.
About the Author
