TRIAL - Ross Harris #1

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I wonder why they keep making the point about traffic.

Defense stressing that RH never would have intentionally left a child in a car that would be seen by many drivers/passengers. :moo:
 
Key components of the defense narrative:

1. Within minutes after arriving at the scene, and with no info available other than how RH responded to LE, LE preceded as if RH was a suspect in Cooper's death, which led to RH being handcuffed and put into a patrol car, which colored witnesses' perceptions of RH and what had happened to Cooper.

2. There is an obvious pattern of witnesses who said at the scene or shortly thereafter (or simply didn't note that behavior in reports, etc) that they did not find RH's behavior odd or suspicious or abnormal, but who now claim that is what they believed at the scene.
 
I wonder why they keep making the point about traffic.


The defense is trying to lengthen the time from CFA to the intersection in every way they can, including traffic, as well as casting doubt on the reliability of the timestamps on CFA's videos.
 
The defense is trying to lengthen the time from CFA to the intersection in every way they can, including traffic, as well as casting doubt on the reliability of the timestamps on CFA's videos.

Oh, I misunderstood. I thought they were talking about at the end of the day.
 
Cross

Witness says he chose Det Stoddard because of his experience with crimes against children.

Cathy ‏@courtchatter 50s50 seconds ago
#RossHarris - Capt. Ferrell - "If you lock a child in the car and that child dies, it's a criminal case.

Jen's Trial Diaries ‏@TrialDiariesJ 56s57 seconds ago
Captain Ferrel was delegating duties and over seeing the crime scene.

Captain again talking about the smell of diapers and death. Says it might be gases released from the body, upon death.

Defense atty questioning captain about the untimely police report.
 
Next witness- James Ferrell, captain with police dept.

Wild About Trial ‏@WildAboutTrial 43s44 seconds ago
Ferrell got in touch with multiple detectives to respond to the scene.

Jen's Trial Diaries ‏@TrialDiariesJ 1m1 minute ago
The fact this call had 2 do w/ a child the Captain had a detective trained in the field of children respond 2 scene.

Jen's Trial Diaries ‏@TrialDiariesJ 1m1 minute ago
The Captain wrote a supplemental to his report a year later when the case was being put together.

Ross Harris Trial ‏@HarrisTrialFOX5 56s57 seconds ago
Ferrel says that there was an odor in the car. Describes it smelling like a child's diaper, and the distinct smell of death, inside the car.

Jen's Trial Diaries ‏@TrialDiariesJ 52s53 seconds ago
Medical examiner was communicating with the Captain while he was compiling his report

Wow. That is very suspicious, isn't it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
all these "reports" are concerning to me. JMHO Def going to have to go back an review tonight. Hope the jury is taking good notes as they can't.
 
This morning's update:

9:25 a.m. Court resumes after hurricane delay.

9:28 a.m. State calls first witness, Kyle Weston, to the stand. Weston worked at Chick-fil-A in Vinings where Harris and his son had breakfast the morning of his death.
Chik Fil A manager talks about video cameras in store; jurors likely to see Ross and son eating breakfast soon. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/7Qq6yaCUe4 — Ross Cavitt | WSB-TV (@RossCavittWSB) October 12, 2016

9:36 a.m. State enters surveillance video from Chick-Fil-A the morning of June 18, 2014 into evidence.

9:40 a.m. Weston walks jurors through video that shows Ross Harris' visit to Chick-fil-A that morning. As he enters the restaurant, he is holding Cooper in his arms.
Video from inside Chick-Fil-A the morning Cooper died shows Harris holding Cooper as he walked inside the restaurant https://t.co/sfcgxFUk8T pic.twitter.com/SPXsK4LpCU — Ross Harris Trial (@RossHarrisTrial) October 12, 2016

10:03 a.m. Defense and Weston walk jurors through the parking area of Chick-fil-A and the surrounding streets that Harris drove to get to work that day.

10:20 a.m. Weston steps down. State calls Chris Redmon, who was also working at Chick-fil-A the morning Harris came in.

10:26 a.m. Redmon, who was the general manager of the store, says he was familiar with Harris from his visits to Chick-fil-A. He considered Harris a regular there. He says he had met Harris about a dozen times in the past year.

10:30 a.m. Redmon says he said hello to Harris and Cooper that morning when they walked up to the register. He says he had never met Cooper before so he asked Harris about him. Harris said his name was Cooper and Redmon said, 'Hey Coop,' before continuing with his work.
Redmon says he had a quick interaction with Harris at Chick-fil-A the morning of his son's death. #HotCarDeath pic.twitter.com/czKFQAz9pw — Ross Harris Trial (@RossHarrisTrial) October 12, 2016

10:36 a.m. Redmon says Harris, who usually appeared clean shaven, had a bit of a 5 o'clock shadow that day, something he called "unusual." Says he didn't notice anything else out of the ordinary.

10:45 a.m. Redmon says from what he saw, "(Harris) seemed to love his child."

10:46 a.m. Redmon says Cooper was awake when Harris left. Harris was holding Cooper in his arms as Redmon said goodbye.

11:05 a.m. Court returns from break. State calls Peyton Barwick, a paramedic, to the stand.

11:14 a.m. Barwick says when they pulled up on scene he saw Cooper on the ground and immediately checked his pulse. He did not have one. He says when he arrived no one was doing CPR and Harris was already in the back of the police car.

11:17 a.m. Barwick says as soon as they pronounced him dead they covered his body in a sheet. "It's a 2-year-old boy lying on the ground in the middle of the parking lot. No one needs to see that."

11:25 a.m. After declaring Cooper dead, Barwick spoke with Harris in the back of the police car to get information about Cooper. He described Harris as dry, emotionless and not crying.
Harris #HotCarDeath Trial: Paramedic who declared Cooper dead said Ross Harris "showed no emotion" when he spoke with him afterwards. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/0NMzvJQNCu — Ross Cavitt | WSB-TV (@RossCavittWSB) October 12, 2016

11:30 a.m. Barwick says he completed his report immediately after the call because he had a feeling he may need to testify in court about this case.

11:35 a.m. Defense questions why Barwick didn't put his description of Harris as emotionless, dry and not crying in his report. Barwick says his report pertained to the patient and not to Harris' actions or demeanor so he did not include it.

11:38 a.m. Barwick says when he spoke to Harris in the back of the patrol car Harris asked him if Cooper was dead. He said, "Yes, he is deceased." Barwick says that's when he noted Harris' lack of emotion.

11:43 a.m. State calls Cobb County Capt. James Ferrell to the stand.

11:48 a.m. Ferrell says he was responsible for assigning detectives to this case. He chose Detective Phil Stoddard as the lead detective. Ferrell says Stoddard had experience working in crimes against children and homicide. "I thought his knowledge and his combination of experience would be very good to put on this case."

11:56 a.m. Ferrell said he could clearly smell an odor when he went to the car. He says it smelled of a combination of a diaper, sweat and death.

11:58 a.m. Ferrell said he immediately noticed the car seat. "It was plainly visibly from the driver's side door. When I was looking in I could see it."

12:03 p.m. Defense begins cross-examination of Ferrell.

12:11 p.m. "If you leave a child inside the car and the child dies it's a criminal case, so there was no doubt in my mind that it was a criminal case," Ferrell said on the stand.
Ferrell: "If you lock a child inside a car and the child dies, it's a criminal case." https://t.co/sfcgxFUk8T #HotCarDeath pic.twitter.com/ax4eMp3C2F — Ross Harris Trial (@RossHarrisTrial) October 12, 2016

12:14 p.m. Ferrell says he was with the crime scene technician when he photographed the crime scene and the body.

12:23 p.m. Ferrell says he told lead Detective Phil Stoddard about the smell inside the car later that night.

12:25 p.m. Ferrell says he told Stoddard he would write a (supplemental) report about the day but forgot. His report was not submitted until nearly a year later. "There's no excuse I just failed to write that report in a timely manner."

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/ross-harr...nute-day-4-of-the-ross-harris-trial/456365088
 
IMO the defense is making a strong case that LE mishandled the initial "crime" scene; for possible collusion (for lack of a more neutral term) between responding/reporting LE; for an unsupported assumption from the get go of RH's guilt, and that witness accounts seem to have been tailored after the fact to support LE's assertions about RH's behavior.

If LE's conduct was the subject of this trial, imo an impartial jury would be hung or would vote to convict. Sadly for RH, no matter how successfully the defense destroys LE's credibility (if it does), this isn't a whodunnit or any other kind of case in which LE's conduct is integral to disproving (at least) some of the charges against RH.

What the defense must understandably be most concerned about refuting is the State's charge of malice murder, and imo, impeaching LE's narrative about RH's behavior, etc. contributes to that goal.

That said, nothing LE did or said changes the indisputable fact that Ross Harris is responsible for leaving Cooper, his barely a toddler son, in a hot car for 7 hours, to die a terrible death. IMO, the felony charge of 2nd degree cruelty to children is unaffected by anything the defense has or can do to destroy the credibility of LE.
 
Yet Cooper was covered up by sheet when Ferrell allegedly smelled the diaper smell (not a dirty diaper smell he said) sweat and odor of death. :thinking: no one else has noted this.
 
Yet Cooper was covered up by sheet when Ferrell allegedly smelled the diaper smell (not a dirty diaper smell he said) sweat and odor of death. :thinking: no one else has noted this.

Smells like that don't just disappear after the deceased is removed.
 
IMO the defense is making a strong case that LE mishandled the initial "crime" scene; for possible collusion (for lack of a more neutral term) between responding/reporting LE; for an unsupported assumption from the get go of RH's guilt, and that witness accounts seem to have been tailored after the fact to support LE's assertions about RH's behavior.

If LE's conduct was the subject of this trial, imo an impartial jury would be hung or would vote to convict. Sadly for RH, no matter how successfully the defense destroys LE's credibility (if it does), this isn't a whodunnit or any other kind of case in which LE's conduct is integral to disproving (at least) some of the charges against RH.

What the defense must understandably be most concerned about refuting is the State's charge of malice murder, and imo, impeaching LE's narrative about RH's behavior, etc. contributes to that goal.

That said, nothing LE did or said changes the indisputable fact that Ross Harris is responsible for leaving Cooper, his barely a toddler son, in a hot car for 7 hours, to die a terrible death. IMO, the felony charge of 2nd degree cruelty to children is unaffected by anything the defense has or can do to destroy the credibility of LE.

I agree. At this point, it seems they aren't even defending that charge. It appears their strategy is to refute the premeditated murder charge. IMO
 
I agree. At this point, it seems they aren't even defending that charge. It appears their strategy is to refute the premeditated murder charge. IMO


The trial is just getting going, and the defense hasn't had their turn yet. I imagine they'll address the 2nd degree charges through the testimony of their memory experts.
 
The trial is just getting going, and the defense hasn't had their turn yet. I imagine they'll address the 2nd degree charges through the testimony of their memory experts.

I meant in their cross.

They will definitely try to refute both charges when they present.
 
I would tend to agree, just that no one else has noted that (or in their orig reporting)


Which, imo, they would have noted, if not in the chaotic and awful minutes of seeing Cooper the baby's dead body and what came next, then afterwards, when each replayed that scene again and again in their minds, each time processing and remembering a few more details.

IMO there is little possibility that anyone who was within a few feet of that car, much less inside it, could possibly have not noticed the totally unique and extremely strong smell of decomp, even if they didn't know immediately what label to put on it.

This is one of the points I believe is most hinky about LE's account. (Expecting stones to be thrown here, but....) IMO the "smell of death" is a detail LE likely added after the fact to bolster their case of malice murder.
 
Next witness- Det Carey Grimsted w/Cobb County Police Dept. Is a crime scene detective.

Wild About Trial ‏@WildAboutTrial 2m2 minutes ago
Witness 14, , Crime scene detective Carey Grimstead. He will be the last witness for the day.

Veronica Waters ‏@MissVWaters 2m2 minutes ago
#RossHarris trial: Last witness of the day is Cobb Co. Police Det. Carey Grimstead; discussing 3-D mapping technology now.

Ross Harris Trial ‏@RossHarrisTrial 38s39 seconds ago
Grimstead says his role was executing a search warrant on Harris' car

Noted heavy odor of urine,sweat and death. Also describing contents of car and the appearance of car. Det could see the car seat from the exterior.

Ross Harris Trial ‏@RossHarrisTrial 55s56 seconds ago
Grimstead goes through the photos he took of Harris' car.
 
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