This is a running account of today's proceedings in the Justin Ross Harris murder trial. Harris is charged with both malice murder and felony murder in the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who was left in Harris's SUV to die in June 2014. The prosecution rested on Friday after calling 51 witnesses, and the defense began its case with two witnesses Friday afternoon. Today is the first full day of defense testimony, and the leadoff witness is Leanna Taylor, ex-wife of Ross and mother of Cooper.
Court has adjourned for the day. Leanna Harris will return to the witness stand Tuesday morning for additional cross-examination.
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In July 2014, Taylor learned Harris had been texting with six other women the day Cooper died. She said she didn't know what to believe.
In 2012, Taylor saw another message on her husband's phone. The two went immediately to counseling. "Our goal was always to save our marriage if we could," Taylor said. Harris was not honest with her about cheating. She says she told him he could divorce her if he no longer wanted to be married. If she had known he was having physical affairs, Taylor says she would have divorced him.
Taylor says she asked Harris to leave when she found out he was talking to another woman in 2010. Taylor says she didn't think he would have an affair, but he did. Harris was sorry and apologetic, and the couple began counseling with their pastor.
Taylor says Harris was very concerned with perception and had a "larger than life" personality.
Taylor says at times, Harris was "absent-minded." One example is him forgetting to deposit a check.
"I didn't know these things that he was doing," Taylor says. "It was a part of him that he wasn't sharing with me."
Taylor says Harris often ran behind, and that it took him longer to get places. Boring tells Taylor that one day when she was waiting on him to return home, he was actually meeting a prostitute.
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Prosecutor Chuck Boring reads a string of text messages about Harris wanting to go out and leaving her home with Cooper. Taylor says she never gets to go out alone with friends for dinner or drinks.
Taylor says Harris told her he was going to a movie and would be home around 7. Shortly after 4 on June 18, 2014, the two talked on the phone. Harris said he wasn't going home before the movie.
"The things that we were struggling with in our marriage, were directly related to those things," Taylor says. She said she wasn't shocked to find out Harris had gone outside the marriage.
Taylor says she was unaware of the double life Harris was leading. "I didn't think that he would cheat on me," she said. "I absolutely did not know." Taylor says she didn't know what her ex-husband was doing. She believed he was good to her before he cheated on her, she says.
Taylor says she doesn't remember Harris telling her Cooper was wide awake. She says she isn't sure what Harris could see in the backseat, but says he would have seen him when he turned his head to change lanes.
Cross-examination begins. Leanna Taylor testifies that she doesn't know what Harris did after she left for work June 18, 2014, other than that he went to work. She says she didn't see the defendant until that night at the police station.
"Did Ross love this little boy," Kilgore asks. "Yes, he did," Leanna Harris says, through tears.
Ross Harris is seen playing a guitar in front of Cooper, who then also tries to play, in a video from January 2014. Taylor says Harris often played for Cooper.
Video from Christmas morning 2013 shows Cooper playing with toys, including a plastic drum set.
One video shows Ross Harris holding Cooper in his lap as the two go down a slide together. "Ross looks a little big for that slide," defense attorney Maddox Kilgore says. Taylor says Harris was a very hands-on father.
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Video after video is shown, including Cooper eating ice cream, putting on sunglasses and Harris trying to show his son how to whistle. A laughing Cooper is seen in his high chair trying to say banana, one of his favorite foods.
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Video shown to the court shows Cooper playing in the water on the beach a few weeks before his death. Taylor cries describing the video.
Court is back in session. Leanna Taylor remains on the witness stand.
The court is taking a break.
A family picture shows Cooper with his parents at Fort Walton Beach during Memorial Day weekend in 2014. Another picture shows the three at the circus.
Pictures of Cooper's room are being shown, including his bed and toys. Taylor says Harris painted the room while she was at work.
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Harris smiles briefly while pictures of Cooper's first birthday are shown. Harris smiles again as pictures are shown of Cooper next to a pumpkin being carved.
A smiling baby Cooper is shown in one picture wearing a University of Alabama jumpsuit. Another picture shows Cooper with his parents at Piedmont Park. Taylor is describing each photo to the jury, including from holidays and trips.
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Taylor cries when a picture is shown of baby Cooper dressed as Batman for his first Halloween. Baby Cooper was sick and fell asleep early on his first Halloween.
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Picture after picture show a smiling Harris holding pictures of Cooper at the hospital. The family spent four days in the hospital because Cooper had elevated white blood cells and jaundice, Taylor says. A picture of Cooper's bath is also shown. His father wanted to be the first to give him a bath, Taylor says.
Kilgore is showing pictures to the court on a large screen, including an ultrasound picture and a photo from the hospital when Cooper was born.
Taylor says Harris wanted to take a trip with friends without Cooper, but she said, "No." Taylor says she didn't want to leave her son because she had recently traveled for work. Taylor also she didn't want to go on a trip with family members without Cooper.
Taylor says Harris was involved in a fireworks accident on New Year's Eve 2005. A bottle rocket went inside his ear and exploded, and Harris had surgery to repair the damage. The couple was not married at the time of the accident, she says. Taylor says Harris was deaf in his right ear.
Harris had applied for a job at Chick-fil-A and had gone on an interview, but did not get the job. The company also offered a free day care for employees.
Inside the wallet are two Chick-fil-A receipts from the day Cooper died.
In November 2014, Taylor filed paperwork to obtain property belonging to Harris, including his wallet and driver's license.
Taylor says the couple has a friend with a "secret room" in her home. Harris, she says, was intrigued by the "panic" room.
On June 5, Taylor took a trip to visit Alabama, so she took both the forward-facing and rear-facing seats. She and Cooper returned June 9. The couple left the forward-facing car seat in her car.
Harris installed the forward-facing car seat on May 12 and took Cooper to day care the same day, Taylor says. The family took the same seat on a beach trip that month.
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Despite what the pictures show, Taylor says Cooper fit in his car seat with adequate room. In mid-May, Harris and Taylor purchased a forward-facing car seat.
Taylor says Harris was so emotional while speaking during the funeral, that she couldn't understand what he was saying. "Most of it was just crying," she says.
Court has resumed following a lunch break. Leanna Taylor has returned to the witness stand.
Do you know whether Cooper was big or small for his age? Where he was on the spectrum?
He was small. He was always small. Since he was born, he kept up steady growth but always at the bottom (growth percentile).
The judge calls the lunch recess at noon.
If Cooper was ready to go to sleep, he was going to sleep. ... He was so used to traveling that (he could easily) fall asleep in his car seat. ... It wouldn't be unusual, for example, for him to fall asleep in his car seat just on the way home from church.
I didn't really think we were ready to buy a house. We didn't have a downpayment. We had purchased a home in the past and had to move after five years, and it was kind of a dicey situation ... with the market the way it was. ... I felt like we needed more income, a little more in savings. ... Let's take a little time, let's not jump in and buy a house until we're ready.
We wanted to make sure if we bought a house it would be something that would be big enough in the future. Cooper was our only child, but we were planning to have more children.
Can you talk to us just a little bit about your knowledge of deaths in cars? ... Did you ever do any research into that subject?
I didn't.
Did you ever tell police that you had done research into deaths in cars?
I didn't.
Taylor says she did research into car seat, most recently to see whether Cooper was too big for his rear-facing seat.
... I was the one doing research on that. I watched video after video of car seat reviews and why this one was good. The one we ended up getting was one that was either rear-facing or forward-facing. ... You could use it until he was 4 or 5 years old. It was a very intentional purpose.
I want to talk to you specifically about (the seat in which Cooper died). What was yuour understanding about how long he should stay in his rear-facing car seat.
That was something our pediatrician always asked us. ... He told us to keep him in a rear-facing seat until 2 years of age.
And he would have been 2 years of age in August (of 2014).
Yes.
Questioning then turns to Harris's habit of photographing Cooper when he delivered him to daycare each day. Taylor says she took him one day and tried to get a picture of him but he was moving around too much. She says she later told her husband that she understood things were different now -- Cooper was more mobile than before and harder to capture -- and he didn't have to keep taking photos of him.
This was an important point during the prosecution's case-in-chief. Witnesses pointed out that, just weeks before Cooper's death, Harris stopped taking daily photos of him at daycare.
This was something that was really important to him. ... His recollection of family vacations during his childhood, he didn't have very many. He didn't want it to be like that for Cooper.
Do you have any recollection of whether this was somethign you had discussed with your brother- and sister-in-law?
We did. ... They have a family of six.
Do you have any knowledge about whether Ross was talking to a travel agent about a cruise?
I don't. There's just so much -- some details that I've lost.
I lost my son, I lost my husband. I buried my son. I came back. And now they're at my door wanting to search my home again. And they weren't very nice. ... It was basically, we're here, we're going to do this whether you like it or not. It was scary. I've never had any experience with law enforcement other than getting a speeding ticket or something of that nature. Never had a car searched. Never had a home searched.
"I didn't want to go in my home. It was like I knew, if I went through my door, it would be real. And I didn't want it to be real. So I sat down on the sidewalk. ... We finally went inside and I ... walked into Cooper's room, and I just cried. I finally was able to cry."
Did you subsequently lean that you were a suspect?
Yes.
Was your computer seized?
Yes.
Was there anything precious to you on that computer?
All my pictures, all my videos (of Cooper).
Are you aware that the images on your computer were ever given to your attorney?
He was given a disk. I was never able to get them, I didn't have anything to dump them onto. (The police had her computer.)
The funeral was public, wasn't it? Do you have any recollection of saying anything at that time?
Kilgore then asks whether Harris was permitted to come to the funeral.
Before she can answer, Boring objects on the grounds of relevance.
Instantly both attorneys approach the bench for a sidebar, off the microphone
Kilgore asks whether Leanna had been afraid of leaving her son in the car. She says yes. She also says she and her then-husband talked about that, and she mentioned her fear to detectives when they interviewed her.
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Kilgore: I want to the jury to hear from you what you observed face to face with your husband.
It was very difficult to see him like that. That's not a side of Ross that I'd seen. Just very broken. Beside himself. Having to watch it on video, I can't even deal with that. It's just wrong. It was just wrong.
Have you ever seen your husband cry out like that before?
No.
Did he have tears streaming down his face? Was he crying.
He was crying enough that he needed a tissue. I remember his shirt being wet.
Did he tell you that he learned that he had been charged?
Yes.
Do you recall as y'all were sitting face to face, saying something to the effect of, Did you say too much?
I did.
Do you have a recollection of saying that?
I do. ... I know how Ross responds to people, especially people he doesn't know. He talks a lot, even if he doesn't have anything to say. I couldn't understand what was happening. I didn't understand why he was being charged. I didn't understand the actions that were being taken. The only thing I could think of in my head was, "What did you say?" And those are the words that came out.
Do you remember Ross chatting up Det. Stoddard.
I do ... I think he asked him how long have you been in law enforcement. As soon as those words fell out of his mouth, I thought, why are you saying that. It's not a chatty situation. We need to do what these people tell us to do. The thought that crossed my mind was, that's typical. That's very typical of Ross.
It was like an out-of-body experience. I was out of my mind. ... I thought, Just let me answer the questions.
Did you have an opportunity togive your opinion to police about what you thought could have happened.
I did.
Do you have any sense of time, how long you were in there speaking with those detectives?
I really don't.
Did they let you see your husband?
Yes, they did.
Take us from your first memory of how you came to be meeting with him and what happened in that room.
I did ask to see him. I don't know how long it was before they finished my interview. They said, "We're going to see about getting y'all together." Then the left me, and the next time the door opened, it was Ross coming in.
Were you told you were going to be recorded?
I was not.
He just walked into the room, and I knew I needed to support him, I needed to be strong for him. ... Ross's parents had asked me to be srong for him, that we needed each other to get through this. ... I tried to be supportive, just kind of be the rock in that room.
Have you seen the recording?
I have.
Do you remember that you were not crying during that meeting with your husband?
I can't remember whether I cried or not. .... I did not recognize who that was, myself. I did not know that you could react the way I reacted. It was like somebody else took over my body from me while I was outside my mind trying to figure out what happened. I didn't recognize myself. I didn't recognize my voice, my mannerisms. Everything was foreign when I went back and watched that.
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Defense attorney Maddox Kilgore: What was going on (at police HQ)?
Taylor: While I was sitting there in the chair, there were several people who walk by me. I said this before. I didn't feel real to me. I didn't feel like it was happening. I felt like I was in a dream. I kept going back and forth, praying, Please God, don't let this be true. This can't be happening. ... I knew at some point I was going to see Ross. I knew he was going to need me to be strong for him.
She then says she knew Ross hadn't intended for this to happen, and prosecutor Boring strongly objects.
Kilgore: did you know where youj son was at the time?
No.
Did you try to find out?
Yes.
Who were youy tryhing to find out from?
The first person I asked said he didn't have an answer for me and said you have to speak to the detective.
Kilgore: While you were sitting in the waiting area -- the office you described -- were you able to get any information on where your son was?
Not then, no.
I have seen it. I've reviewed the transcript. Parts of it I remember. A lot of is very hazy. ... They did go through my purse, searched my wallet.
Do you have any recollection of whether they read you your Miranda rights?
No, they did not.
The two lead attorneys confer briefly off the microphone with the judge. The jury is now led back in to the courtroom. Leanna Taylor is standing in the witness box as the jury files back in (the court asks everyone to stand when the jurors come in).
Court is still in recess for the midmorning break. The direct examination of Leanna Taylor by lead defense attorney Maddox Kilgore will continue shortly. She has been on the stand since 9 a.m.
Taylor says she finally called police. They told her to stay where she was, at her husband's office building, and said they would come to her.
Ultimately, she says:
They told me that my son was deceased. I can't remember exactly. I didn't know what had happened. I didn't know if Ross was OK. I didn't know anything. I just wanted them to tell me what happened. I needed more information . . . It just wasn't real.
Kilgore: Were you aware that conversation was being recorded?
I'm aware now, I wasn't aware then. .... I didn't even recognize myself (on the tape). It was like another person took over my body. It was like I wasn't even there. I didn't understand. It was like it wasn't real.
They just told me this, and I can't even cry, and I didn't understand why.
Things get very fuzzy. There are things that stick out in my memory. There are things I've completely lost. They sat me down in a chair ... and said I would get to see Ross and basically sit there.
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On the day of Cooper's death, Taylor says she was working in Conyers. She says she and Harris discussed his plans to go to a movie that afternoon and agreed that she would be the one to pick up Cooper from daycare.
Defense attorney Maddox Kilgore shows her an exhibit -- a printout of text messages between her and Harris. It said:
"Get to work OK?"
"Yup yup."
"We're going to go to an early movie, so I should be home close to 7."
(She responded about an hour and half later:) "OK."
At 3:16 p.m., he texted: 'When are you getting my buddy?"
"He referred to Cooper a lot as his little buddy. We both did, but I think Ross used it more often than I did. I probably picked it up from him,.
Kilgore: You showed up at Little Aprons. Do you remember what time it was?
I really don't. Probably sometime between 4:30 and 5. I think Ieft Conyers about 4, and it would have taken me about 50 mimutes to get there.
Kilgore: What happened when you got there?
I walked into daycare just like any other day. They have a computer system you use to check the child in and out. I checked him out, but he hadn't been checked in for the day. That had happened before, so I didn't think anything of it.
The teacher looked at me and said, "What are you doing here?"
I said, "I'm here to get Cooper."
She said, "Cooper's not here."
I didn't understand. I thought she was joking. I even said, "Are you joking?" and kept looking around for him.
She said, "He didn't come today."
I just went into a panic. I didn't know what to do. I left the room and ran down to the front desk. "They're telling me Cooper wasn't checked in today. Where's Cooper? I can't find Cooper." I don't remember the exact words I said. I was starting to lose my ability to understand what was going on. I was -- it didn't make sense. ...
Ross must've left him in the car. That was the only thing that made sense. The only thing that clicked in my mind as a remote possibility. She begins weeping. He was never checked in.
They tried to get me to stay. I said, I'm not staying anywhere. I need to find my son and I need to find my husband.
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For the most part, Taylor is composed, articulate, convincing.
In 2011, she says she became obsessed with conceiving a child. She describes Harris as "supportive of everything I was doing to have a child." She says they both had tests because she was not getting pregnant. Her doctor found that she was healthy and normal. Her husband's sperm count was low but normal, she said.
"I finally got pregnant in November of 2011."
"Was Ross happy about that?"
"Yes. We found out I was pregnant on his birthday. He was very excited."
Kilgore and Taylor, back and forth:
Since Ross was arrested, you've become aware that there were a lot of sexual issues outside your marriage?
Yes.
Did you know that Ross had engaged in meeting a woman at a park to have fellatio with a woman in a car?
No, I did not.
Did you know that Ross had more than one woman come into your home to have sex with them?
No.
Did you know that he would actually express love for other women.
No. Did you know that he woiuld enage in sxual acts with a prostitutes.
No. If I had I would have divorced him right then. ...
Did the time come when you talked to him about divorce?
Yes. ... I just very bluntly one night said, "Do you want a divorce. If you want one, I will give it to you. And his response was, 'That's the last thing I want."
She says they went into counseling at their church. Later, they began experiencing problems with erectile dysfunction, and Taylor says she didn't react well to them. She says she was afraid it was her, that he no longer found her attractive.She says they were in a small group at church going through a book called "Sacred Marriage." Toward the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013, when she next discovered him viewing pornography on his phone, she called the woman who coordinated that group and asked for a referral.
At the time, Taylor says, she still loved her husband.
I picked up his phone. Very similar situation to the last time. Wanted to get a reading on the time (before a dinner engagement with Harris's brother). I picked up his phone and clicked it on. The message was sexual in any way, but it said something like, "I know, babe."
"I exploded. I was very, very angry. I said we're not going anywhere. You can tell y our brother why we're not going (to dinner). It was the most upset I've probably seen Ross. HE was very concerned I was going to leave him, very concerned I was going to take Cooper. I thought it was a huge item."
"Did you want to work it out and save your marriage?
"Yes, I texted our counselor that night and saiud we needed an emergency session. ... She says Ross never rsisited counseling.
The photo she mentioned was made in March 2014. Taylor says she doesn't know or doesn't remember whether Harris took Cooper to Chick-fil-A at all during April or May of that year.
Taylor says Harris was managing the family's money at "the time everything happened," although she had handled the money before. She said she was more detail-oriented than he.
"I want to talk to you about a very difficult subject, about some problems in your marriage, OIK?
"OK."
"You and Ross had some problems"
Taylor: "Yes. ... The way I would group our problems would be intimacy problems. Sexually related. As far as how we got along, and how we managed our home and coparented everything was very normal. We didn't fight a lot, we didn't have issues in that aspect. It all came back to the sexual. 'There was just no sexual relationship It was very forced. IT was very difficult to engage with each other. Just a loss of intimacy."
"The first thing that came up was in 2008. ... He told me he had a problem with pornography. At that time it shocked me but I didn't think it was a huge issue. ... Two years after that -- around 2010 -- I found a message on his phone that, I guess you would describe it as sexting. I didn't see it in that way then. It wasn't something that I had a lot of knowledge of. The message was something along the lines of, show me your boobs. I was in bed and I picked up the phone to see what time it was. "
She said she shut herself in the bathroom and asked him to leave. But he wouldn't.
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Leanna Taylor says Ross took their son to daycare most days, and she picked him up most days.
Cooper had his breakfast most mornings at the daycare, she says.
Kilgore: "Are you aware if Ross would call the daycare if if he was running late to let the know to hold breakfast for him?"
She says he told her had done that.
Kilgore: "Were you aware that on occasion that Ross would take Cooper to the Chick-fil-A in Vinings before he took him to the daycare?"
Taylor: "Yes. ... I wouldn't say it was every week. ... I know there was a day when he sent me a picture of Cooper eating at Chick-fil-A." She said he called it a "daddy-son breakfast."
Kilgore: "Did you ever see Ross express anger or hatred or malice toward his son, ever?"
Taylor: "No. Never."
Kilgore: "Was Ross an emotional kind of person who cried easily or was he a little more stoic in his personality?"
Taylor: "He stayed in the middle of the spectrum. ... There weren't many situations in which he would be down and sad." She said if felt insecure about something, he compensated by being overconfident.
In response to a question, Taylor says Harris was not the kind of father who pushed their child off on her in the evenings. She also says Harris was home for dinner most nights.
Harris, sitting at the defense table, is weeping.
Taylor says she was married Harris for 9 and 1/2 years.
Kilgore: "Tell us a little bit about Ross's personality."
Taylor: "He always had a large personality. He grew up in the town we met in. He would know five different people. He would talk to everybody. He was very outgoing, very vocal. He never met a stranger. It was not unusual for him to reach out to a person at a table next to us, overhearing their conversation, and say, 'Oh, yeah, I saw that game, too. What did you think about this?'
"He was very confident, very sure of himself, he liked to be the center of attention."
Kilgore: "Did Ross have tendency to exaggerate?"
Taylor: "Yes. Because I was with him in several different situations, if he was going to tell a story, I would hear that story several times. Each time he would tell it, it would get a little bit different. ... "
"I would say he was easily distracted. I would have to call attention to things as far as financial -- I guess a good example would be getting a paycheck and forgetting to cash it. I would call his attention to time. We need to leave at 7; don't start getting ready at 6:50. ... "
She agreed that she would characterize him as absent-minded. She also says he "never" got angry. Asked for an explanation of "never,", she added, "He never got overly angry."
Leanna Taylor confirms that she is Harris's ex-wife and Cooper's mother. She begins to sob almost immediately after answering Kilgore's question about Cooper, but she then regained her composure. "Cooper was the sweetest little boy. He had so much life ... He was everything to me. He left to smile. He loved playing. He would smile and talk to anyone, no matter whether it was a stranger or not. ... He loved bananas. ... He was just amazing. I miss him so much."
She says Ross was a "very involved dad." "We were both very involved, diaper changes, baths, meals. Everything was very evenly split."
Kilgore: "Tell us about how he would treat Cooper in public or around strangers."
She smiles. "Like I said, Cooper was very friendly to everybody. He would smile at strangers, and Ross would say, 'Yeah, that's my boy. That's my baby.'"
Kilgore: "Is it fair to say he liked showing Cooper off?
Taylor: "Yes."
Attorney Kilgore: "Judge, we call Leanna Taylor."
Lead prosecutor Chuck Boring questions the relevance of a sonogram of Leanna Harris's womb showing the developing fetus that became Cooper. Lead defense attorney Maddox Kilgore says that sonogram is relevant because of Harris's joyous reaction to it. The judge says she'll allow it. She orders the jury brought in.
Leanna Taylor is expected to be the first witness on the stand today. Taylor is Ross Harris's ex-wife and the mother of Cooper. She divorced Harris earlier this year but is expected to support her ex-husband in testimony. Court should convene for the day shortly.
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