Season 2 of AJC's 'Breakdown' podcast premieres Tuesday
Breakdown, the AJC's exclusive podcast, premieres on Tuesday with an all new season. Season Two — "Death in a Hot Car: Mistake or Murder?" — tells the tragic and notorious story of the Justin Ross Harris murder case.
Did Ross Harris really intend to kill his little son, Cooper, by locking him in the back of the family SUV for more than seven hours on a sweltering June day? That's what the Cobb County district attorney believes: he has charged Harris with malice murder in Cooper's death.
Harris, of course, has always maintained that he never intended to harm his son, that he simply forgot Cooper was in the back of the car when Harris parked at his office in Cobb County and went inside for the day.
In this season of Breakdown, AJC legal affairs writer Bill Rankin takes you inside the Harris case. What do we know, and what have we only surmised?
In the first episode, which uploads on Tuesday, Rankin explores the enormous liabilities facing Harris as his case heads for trial on April 11. Before they ever establish whether Harris actually meant to kill his son, the prosecution will introduce scandalous evidence of Harris's marital infidelities and obsession with sexting. Indeed, Harris was in touch with six different women at various times on the day his son died, including an underage girl with whom he exchanged lewd photos.
The prosecution says these salacious facts, which first came to light during the probable cause hearing for Harris in the summer of 2014, provide them with a motive for murder. Harris, they say, wanted to be free of both his wife and son so he could pursue a libertine lifestyle.
But even some of Harris’s female sexting partners say that Harris truly loved his son and would never deliberately harm him.
And there will be a surprise witness for the defense.
To listen to Season 2 of Breakdown, go to breakdown.myajc.com or to the podcast section of the iTunes store (or to Stitcher for Android users).
