MARIETTA, Ga. — The suburban Atlanta father who prosecutors say purposely left his 22-month-old son in a hot car for seven hours in order to kill the boy has been indicted for first-degree murder and faces the death penalty if convicted.
On Thursday morning, a Cobb County grand jury indicted Harris on eight charges related to his son’s death including malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children.
Harris was arrested on June 18, 2014, the day his son, Cooper, died and has been held without bail in the Cobb County Jail ever since.
Ross police he took his boy to breakfast at a local Chic-fil-A and then had planned to drop the tot off at day care.
But sometime after the two finished up breakfast, Harris forgot Cooper was in the backseat, he said. He drove to his job at Home Deport instead, accidentally leaving the almost 2-year-old inside the SUV.
He found the boy seven hours later, but police said Cooper had been dead for more than four hours by the time Harris returned to the locked SUV.
Harris’ wife, Leanna, was not charged in the death of their son, even though she came under intense national scrutiny and was questioned by authorities because she researched hot car deaths prior to Cooper’s demise.
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