Crimson Red Sports

A Tuscaloosa native, high school classmate of mine, and a fellow Bama alum needs your prayers and help.  You may have heard about this on the news.  Ross Harris forgot to drop his son off at daycare Wednesday and left him in his car while he went to work.  This has happened to many other people and is not an indicator that Ross is a terrible person or a bad parent.  Cobb County has charged Ross with felony murder and child neglect and is being held without bond in jail, leaving his wife to grieve alone and make funeral arrangements without her husband and the child's father.  Regardless of whether you think he deserves to be charged or not (personally I think it's absurd) it's a terrible injustice to keep him locked up at this time.

Here's a brief story on the most recent developments:

http://www.abc3340.com/story/25829671/tuscaloosa-man-charged-in-toddler-sons-death-in-hot-suv-denied-bond

There's a fundraiser that's been set up to help the family with funeral, living, and legal costs if you have the ability and willingness to help:

http://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/harris-family-fund/193175

And here's an online petition asking Cobb County officials to drop the charges:

http://www.change.org/petitions/cobb-county-district-attorney-drop-murder-charges-against-justin-harris-for-son-s-accidental-death?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_mobile&recruiter=113870040

(If one of the mods wants to move this to another forum that's fine.  I put it here so people will see it more easily.)

Thank you for posting this bamaphil.  My wife knows Ross...  This is a tragedy, a terrible, terrible heart-wrenching mistake, no amount of criminal prosecution can punish Ross more...

Don't mean to be insensitive, however, criminal or not, how can a father FORGET to drop off his child at daycare?  Is there more to this story?

I, too, find these situations incomprhensible. People become too engrossed in other things, like work, finances, daydreaming, etc. The number 1 priority is the kids. Plus, the parent does not even realize it for many hours. I just don't get it.

I think it's the fatigue factor.  Father normally didn't drive the kid, so probably went on autopilot on his drive into work.

He needs some prayer and then more prayer. I do not know his state of mind but I am sure it is not up to normal. I too think maybe they should research the story more before incarceration. JMHO. RTR!

That could be part of it, but to be on autopilot for 7 hours & never once think of your child? I still don't get it. I guess it's about priorities.

The first time I heard of a case like this I thought the same thing.  But if you do a little research you'll learn that this happens around the U.S. multiple times a year to a wide spectrum of people.  There was a case in Birmingham last year.  If I remember correctly the woman had tried for years to have a child, finally had one, was described by everyone as a wonderful loving mother, but one day she left the child in her car for entire day while she worked and he/she died. 

Regardless of the "why's" about this incident it is truly sad.  The poor child had to suffer even if it was just for a few hours until he died.  No child deserves that kind of death.  I truly hate this happened and I hope that the child's mother can somehow find some comfort.  I do have a very difficult time giving the dad here a pass though.  When a couple becomes parents their priorities have to shift to #1 being that/those children, no matter what!  Whether fatigue or distracted by his cell phone (as so many young people are these days) he should know that nothing comes before the child and I mean NOTHING!  One cannot simply "forget" they are in the back seat for any reason.  While I can forgive him if I need too I still feel that he should face his legal responsibilities and be made to accept whatever justice a jury of his peers and/or the judge deems appropriate.

no winners here , none at all   :pray: :(


after raising four , this is a good time to
thank God a tragic event like this never happened
in Jesus name I pray , Amen

Truer words were never posted. Prayers to the entire family. In one fell swoop, the mother/wife lost a child and husband.

Agreed. Although I cannot absolve the father here of his responsibility, from what I can tell by those who knew him he probably would gladly trade places with his child at this point. It is a truly terrifying and unbelievably tragic situation, and I just pray for the mother AND the father at this time.

Apparently the matter is still under investigation:

http://us.cnn.com/2014/06/21/us/toddler-car-death-probe/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook


But yeah, this should be moved to ... Ferguson?

here we go  ....   :(

Uh oh, sounds like they are hinting at premeditated murder. Did they find an insurance policy, did he not want too have a child, was the wife talking about leaving him? This sounds like it is going to get much worse.

Dear Lord, let us hope and pray that this was a horrible accident and not some premeditation.

I cannot fathom the later.

And then sometimes life really sucks.  :(

I don't want to believe the worst about someone I've known since middle school, but I'll wait until the facts are revealed. 

I don't blame you for that and would be disappointed in you if you had changed your mind before hearing the whole story.

I hope some answers come soon.  A lot doesn't make sense right now.  Reports from the scene say the officers who responded cuffed him pretty quickly, even interrupting a call to his wife to tell her what happened.  If there was evidence that apparent that something worse than an accident had taken place, why haven't the police and prosecutors told the public what they know, or at least given something beyond vague statements that can later be brushed off as having incomplete information?  If the evidence is so compelling that he was arrested immediately, then charged with felony murder and denied bond within 24 hours, why can't they say so?  The most recent story almost feels like an attempt to deflect criticism from the way Cobb County officials have handled the case. 

sometimes the investigation can be almost as bad as the crime itself
on a family and friends ...

 :pray: :pray: :pray:

I would guess that the police don't want to chance having this case thrown out by doing some press releases.  They would actually be corrupting the potential jury pool by doing so.  I for one prefer that absolutely nothing be released publically until after the jury trial (if it comes to that) is completely over.

As for why he was cuffed so quickly, the original story I read said it was to let emergency personnel (trying to help the child) work as efficiently as possible.  Just sounded like he was hysterical in the moment and needed to be restrained for his own good.  I could see that being reasonable.

The latest reports lead me to believe that the medical examiner could be questioning the actual cause of death (mostly since the police said they could not even confirm that the kid was actually in the car when he first got to work).  That's purely speculation on my part as to why they would be looking into this more closely.  The authorities have also said his story has been weird and filled with a lot of inconsistencies and holes from the beginning.  Of course, what loving father would be able to think clearly in that situation even if not guilty?

One thing I know for SURE is that Cobb County law enforcement are by the rules at all. Thhey have always been rough, rude, and hateful people in law. Not my opinion. I knnow for sure. RTR!

I have a friend in law enforcement who works for an adjacent county. I thought he might have had some good info on the situation, but he doesn't know any more than we do.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/cops-cobb-toddlers-death-investigation-continues-t/ngRfn/



If true, our worst fears are realized, as if it wasn't already horrible enough.  :(

The odd thing to me is that he allegedly didn't notice his son in the back seat when he got back in the car.  If what the police are hinting at is true, maybe he wanted to get off of his work property.

Could it be the child was dead when he was put in the car and he was wanting to make it appear that he forgotten about him and the heat killed him.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2014/06/alabama_man_knew_toddler_was_l.html#incart_m-rpt-2

That is the inference the police have been making. Plus, an autopsy would easily determine if a death is from heat stroke or some other means.

And they aren't releasing the results of the autopsy.

New info. Now I'm really puzzled.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/cops-cobb-toddlers-death-investigation-continues-t/ngRfn/

If this was truly an accident, surely the grief that the father will suffer the remainder of his life is enough punishment. The same with parents to back out of the driveway and run over their toddler or cause other fatal accidents.

Here's a quote by the English poet and author John Gay: "A moment of time may make us unhappy forever."

How sadly true.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/25864933/sources-toddler-death

 

I had heard this from a source of my own, who said this was unconfirmed.

Dear Lord, I hope that is not true.

I think they would have a hard time showing it was his search, assuming that's what they found.

The downgraded charge doesn't make a lot of sense if all the news is true.

I'm sure every employe has their own unique password to access the computer. This way the company would know who is doing what on the computer, such as porn, playing games, etc.

 :-[

If this was an "auto-pilot" situation, he would have left his desk and walked to the onsite daycare, like he usually does, and it would be then that he would have realized what he had done. This was a deliberate murder and an attempt to cover it up.

That's my gut feeling on this matter, but downgrading the charges is confusing.


 :dunno:

It's looking more and more like this wasn't an accident, which truly shocks me.  It is curious though that they would downgrade the charge.

I think the downgraded charge most likely came from the DA's office.  Maybe not enough evidence for the First Degree charge, and they don't want to let the guy off the hook.

regarding the charges...they downgraded the cruelty charge to 2nd degree, but what happened to the original murder charge.  Has that been dropped all together?  If the DA doesn't think it can get a 1st degree cruelty charge, I'm not sure how they could get something other than a negligent manslaughter or the like regarding the death.

My thinking, as well. I watched CNN last night and Cooper Anderson had 2 DA's and 2 attorneys on, talking about it. I think all 4 were leaning to it being accidental. If they knocked the child cruelty down to 2nd degree, I can't think of any other situation that it could be other than negligence instead of intent.

Computers on a network like HomeDepot uses build a "user profile" when a person logs on with their username/password.  This profile is where they will search for any internet activity he may have done.  If they say he searched on how long it takes for an animal to die in a hot car then either he did that search or he left his profile open and another person searched for it using his account. 

Some interesting info about the charges in this case.





2nd Degree Child Cruelty






http://rolfjoneslaw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28&Itemid=4


http://law.onecle.com/georgia/16/16-5-70.html

Here's an update.

http://www.weather.com/news/georgia-boy-cooper-harris-hot-car-death-20140628


But much of the article talks about friends and neighbors giving testimonials about how great the parents are. We probably won't know the real details until it goes to trial.

In today's developments, it appears that he may have been unfaithful to his wife, and engaged in sexting with several other women, one of who is alleged to be 17 years old. None of that is necessarily related to whether he is guilty of a crime in the death of his son, but may bear on the question of whether one should support him in all this.

He is also apparently building a defense around psychological problems, including multiple personality. That is the hail-Mary pass of criminal defense.

This is just getting weirder and weirder. I don't know what to believe and I have no personal ties to the family, so the only thing I can continue to think of is that a precious child is gone forever. Thinking about that makes we want to go pick up that seven-year-old boy playing in his room right now, get him in a big bear hug and not let go.  :(

Please forgive me for soliciting donations.  It's probably been ten years since I've seen Ross in person, but we've been Facebook friends and I'm stunned at the new evidence.  It appears that even though those who knew him recently didn't really know him. 

I'm a Calvinist pastor who teaches the total depravity of man regularly.  I probably shouldn't be shocked by something like this, but I am.

You have done nothing wrong except believing in a friend. Let's wait to see how this case finishes and don't feel embarrassment.

I second that bro. You're a good man for stepping up for him. Not your fault that he appears to have been unworthy of your trust. At this point I think we're just following the story. None of that is directed in a neg way toward you.

I third it, phil. You were doing what probably anyone would have done in a similar situation. I know I would have if it was a good friend of mine. I happen to be Calvinist myself, so I completely understand what you are speaking of.

a guy I work with knew him too , when he speaks of him he sounds
a lot like you
apparently , there are many people like ya'll that thought well of
this guy .

I'm sorry there is a reason for any doubt here and the pain it causes
like you , my co-worker is floored by this as well

like I said before , there are no winners here , none .

you were doing the right thing , no apology ever needed for that
the worst it means is you're a good friend

I be glad to have you in my corner