This is a running account of the sixth day of testimony in the Justin Ross Harris murder case. Harris is charged with murder in the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, by leaving him in his SUV for hours on a hot June day in 2014. For a linear chronology, start with the last item first. Court starts at 9 a.m.
The judge urges jurors not to talk about the case. Court is adjourned until Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Doerr is allowed to leave the witness stand.
Doerr says the man who came to her three times in May 2014 was Ross Harris.
Doerr says she usually had three or four customers a day. “I didn’t take every caller,” Doerr says. “I did what I needed to make sure that I was OK.” The majority of her clients were middle-class, white males.
Doerr said she had been using the Backpage.com website since March or April. She first met with the man during the week of May 18, her birthday. The first meeting between the two lasted 15 minutes. A second visit lasted 30 minutes. The two met at the Econo Lodge on Franklin Road.
Doerr said she remember the man because he was white and she preferred African-American clients. She said she engaged with sexual acts with him three times. The man, she said, was very relaxed and "strictly business."
Detectives came to her hotel room because her number showed up on a phone during an investigation, Doerr said. She was shown a picture, and Doerr said she knew who he was. She had seen him in May 2014.
Credit: WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV
Daniela Doerr takes the witness stand. She says in June 2014, she was living in a Marietta hotel and working as an escort. She advertised her services on the Backpage website. Doerr says she performed sexual acts for money.
Coalson says she ran a program on the laptop to search the contents. Those findings were then put on a disc for detectives to review, she said. Some of the key words she searched included "murder" and "child cruelty."
Coalson says detectives told her to look at internet history and anything related to the crimes of murder and car deaths on a laptop belonging to Ross Harris.
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The case continues, and retired Cobb County police officer Pam Coalson is called to the witness stand. She worked for the department for 27 years.
Yeager is allowed to leave the witness stand. Court is taking an afternoon break.
"I don't report what I don't find," Yeager tells the defense attorney. Yeager says he spent hours and days analyzing the electronic devices.
Defense attorney says Ross Harris looked at the "childfree" links on the Reddit site on one day, April 28, 2014, and never again.
Defense attorney has Yeager show the search history on Ross Harris' computer. Search history shows Harris never searched "child free." Yeager says he didn't search the words, but typed in the URL directly.
Defense attorney says that although Yeager was told the Harrises allegedly told police they had researched hot car deaths, no evidence was found of those searches.
Yeager says from pictures, he believed Cooper was too big for his car seat. A father of five and grandfather of nine, Yeager said he knows how car seats work.
Defense attorney says while looking at Leanna Harris's computer, Yeager also looked at her resume, addresses, sonogram image, a poem about the loss of a loved one and multiple images of Cooper in a car seat.
Defense attorney argues that not all text messages between Ross and Leanna Harris were pulled during the initial investigation. Yeager said the software used to extract information has upgraded since the initial analysis of the phone's data.
Court resumes after a lunch break with Yeager back on the witness stand.
The court will take a lunch break until 1:30.
Defense attorney Carlos Rodriguez tells Yeager his report to detectives didn't provide all of the videos from Ross Harris's phone.
Yeager says there were 32 search warrants in the case, and he did not read through all of them.
Yeager says he found no evidence that files were hidden or modified to avoid behind found on the electronic devices.
During cross-examination, Yeager says he probably didn't look at every file on each device due to the number of them. Two phones, a tablet, 4 laptops and other storage devices with a total of 1.5 terabytes were examined.
On June 26, Yeager found five URLs to the Reddit website, where the search included the phrase "childfree."
Yeager was given a work laptop belonging to Ross Harris on June 20. Five days later, he was unable to get a code from Home Depot to unencrypt the computer so he could access the data.
An external hard drive was the next device Yeager searched. He received the device July 8.
Numerous devices were searched, including a laptop belonging to Leanna Harris. Yeager said he copied the entire hard drive, and the copy was used for analysis.
Yeager said one of the last people Ross Harris communicated with was a contact in his cellphone named Angie Kay, or Dark Phoenix 1982.
The trial resumes with Yeager on the stand.
The court is taken a break, but expected to resume shortly.
As the various devices were brought to Yeager, they were cataloged. But before he could examine the device's contents, he must have a search warrant for each specific device.
Yeager describes how he analyzes the data on cellphones and computers, which take more time to examine because there is more memory space. Investigators use a program called Cellebrite to extract information from mobile devices.
Yeager says on June 19, 2014, he was assigned the task of analyzing the numerous digital devices that belonged to the Harrises.
Yeager was previously employed with the Cobb police high-tech crime squad, which did forensic analysis of digital devices. His background includes extensive work both in IT and law enforcement. He is now retired and works as a part-time reserve officer.
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The state calls the next witness, Ray Yeager, previously employed with Cobb County police.
Houston said in the days after Cooper's death, he tuned out news coverage because he was upset over the boy's death. "That was too much for me as it was."
Houston says Leanna Harris, Cooper's mother, was emotional when he first encountered her, asking where her husband and son were. But after the television news reported a story of a toddler being found dead in the back of a car, the mother's emotional state changed, the security guard said.
"She went from hot to not with me," Houston said.
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The prosecution has a video clip of Harris leaving the office building the day of Cooper’s death. Harris, Houston said, mentioned who he was going to the movies with.
The clip shows Harris in a red and white shirt saying goodbye and leaving the building at around 4:15 p.m.
Later on, the local TV station was playing on a big screen TV in the lobby, where Leanna Taylor had been brought. On the screen was a breaking news alert about Cooper.
"She was sitting down at that time like she was just cold," Houston said. "Emotions were just fading away as she was sitting there."
"When she first came in, she had a whole lot of steam," Houston testified. "Over time, her emotions died out."
Houston said he was working security at Harris’ office building the day of Cooper’s death, June 18, 2014. He saw Harris leaving his office building. When Harris was leaving the building, he told Houston you have a good night too or “something like that and he was going to the movies,” Houston testified.
That got Houston’s attention because Harris had never before told him a personal detail like what he was going to be doing after work.
An employee came over to Harris’ office building, walking quickly, with Harris' now ex-wife, Leanna Taylor.
“It was like wow, something is really wrong,” he said.
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Assistant district attorney Susan Treadaway has called the first witness, Wesley Houston, who works as a corporate security officer at Home Depot.
In 2014, Houston was at the corporate offices where the Little Apron Academy was. He sometimes worked at the daycare and greeted the parents.
Houston said he recognized Justin Ross Harris as a Home Depot employee. Houston said he would typically say hello in the morning and have a good evening at night.
Were you aware this defendant had a child, Treadaway asked. Yes, Houston replied.
Trial is now in session.
Justin Ross Harris sits at the defense table in a tan suit and blue tie.
The lawyers are discussing various issues with the Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark, including Harris’ complaint that he’s having a hard time seeing a video screen being used by the prosecution to show evidence to the jury.
Kilgore is asking that screen be pushed back further so Harris and his team can better see it.
The judge asked Harris to swap places with one of his attorneys so he can see better.
The jury has not been called in yet.
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