Closing arguments set in Georgia trial over son's hot-car death

[November 07, 2016]  By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Closing arguments were scheduled on Monday in the case of a Georgia man who jurors will decide either intentionally or accidentally left his toddler son to die, strapped inside a car for seven hours on a sweltering day.

Prosecutors will argue Justin Ross Harris, 35, killed his son so he could pursue a child-free lifestyle, as evidenced by sexually charged texts sent to women while his son suffered.

The defense will counter that Harris was a churchgoing, but flawed man who simply forgot his son was in the car in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta.

If convicted, he faces life in prison for the death of 22-month-old Cooper Harris and other charges.

Harris told Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark on Friday he would not to take the stand in his own defense.

The defense contends that on that day in June 2014, Harris drove straight to work after having a father-and-son breakfast at a Chick-fil-A with Cooper, instead of taking a U-turn towards daycare. Whatever Harris' sexual sins, this case was no different than the many others of parents forgetting a child in a car, defense lawyers have said.

His former wife who, in tearful testimony, said on the stand that Harris "ruined her life" and declared that she never wants to see him again, nonetheless told the jury that Harris loved his son and would never intentionally harm him.

Harris wept many times at the defense table, especially when pictures of his dead son were shown to the jury.

The prosecution said Harris led a "double life of deception, buttressed by a trail of emails where Harris told women online he wanted to be free of the burdens of fatherhood. He called his son a drain on his paycheck and that he would leave his wife if not for the child, according to emails entered as evidence.

Justin Ross Harris, who prosecutors said intentionally left his 22-month-old son strapped inside a hot car to die because he wanted to live a child-free life, sits in Cobb County Magistrate Court in Marietta, Georgia, U.S. July 3, 2014. REUTERS/Kelly Huff/Pool/File Photo

The backdrop for Harris' case is an unsavory trail of extramarital affairs, encounters with prostitutes and sexually charged texts and naked pictures sent to women and underage girls.

About 70 witnesses including a prostitute, memory experts, friends, co-workers and detectives, several teenaged girls and forensic experts testified in the six-week trial. The trial was moved to Brunswick, Georgia, some 300 miles (500 km) from suburban Atlanta, after the court failed to seat an impartial jury last spring.

Even if cleared of murder, Harris could face a life sentence for criminal negligence.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Alan Crosby)

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