Prosecution rests in hot car trial; defense starts its case

Cobb County prosecutors on Friday rested their case in the hot-car murder trial, hoping they convinced jurors that Ross Harris intentionally killed his 22-month-old by leaving him inside his SUV.

Fifteen days of state testimony wrapped after 51 witnesses, hours of videotaped recordings and hundreds of exhibits. The trial so far has included 16 days of opening statements and testimony. Harris’ defense team is now presenting its case, which is expected to last another week or two.

The state concluded with a 3D look inside Ross Harris’ SUV, using a life-size doll of his dead son Cooper strapped into his red, rear-facing car seat, where he spent roughly seven hours on June 18, 2014.

A MATTER OF INCHES Prosecutors displayed the 3D stills and videos to show jurors how close Harris would have been to the top of Cooper's head inside his 2011 Hyundai Tucson. The separation is minimal — just a few inches between father and son — but the top of Cooper's head would have been a little bit behind and to the right of Harris. The 3D scan appeared to show, however, Harris could have been able to see his son in his car seat had he looked over to the right. (That is how Harris said he discovered his child, looking to his right while making a lane change.)

NEW TECHNOLOGY The 3D laser scans were admitted into evidence over the objections of the defense, which argued the photos and video did not provide accurate depictions of the scene. Because laser-scanning technology cannot accurately capture glass, David Dustin, an expert in 3D scanning and image mapping contracted by Cobb County, removed glass images from the scans shown to the jury. Because of that, many scans of Harris' SUV did not have front or rear windshields or window panes. Also, during a video "fly over" of the car that depicted the Akers Mill Square parking lot where Harris pulled over after he said he first noticed Cooper's lifeless body, the roof of the SUV suddenly disappeared. This gave jurors an unencumbered view inside the vehicle where the doll depicting Cooper could be seen strapped inside his car seat.

RULED OUT When lead detective Phil Stoddard was on the witness stand earlier this week, Judge Mary Staley Clark granted a prosecution motion prohibiting the detective from testifying about more than two dozen search warrants that the defense contends were riddled with false statements. Stoddard didn't have to testify because he was not the author of the warrants, the judge said. On Friday, the defense called as its first witness Det. Shawn Murphy, whose sworn statements to a magistrate were the bases for the warrants. But Staley Clark ruled out Murphy's testimony on the issue as well.

Defense attorney Bryan Lumpkin told Staley Clark her ruling denied Harris his right to a fair trial. From the start, Lumpkin said, a primary focus of the defense has been to attack the credibility of the police investigation. The warrants were fraught with misrepresentations and “outright lies,” Lumpkin said, such as Murphy’s repeated assertions that Harris had conducted web searches on child deaths in cars and how hot it needed to get inside a car to kill a child. There has been no testimony to support this, Lumpkin said. “We simply want the truth to be out to these ladies and gentlemen,” Lumpkin said of the jury, asking the judge to reconsider. But Staley Clark stood by her initial decision.