The tables quickly turned Wednesday on a gregarious and outspoken prospective juror who spoke expansively about his opinions in the Ross Harris hot-car murder case.
After the juror had been answering questions for about 30 minutes, prosecutor Jesse Evans went into full cross-examination mode. He challenged the validity of Juror #57’s answers on his questionnaire and then asked why he didn’t report that he had three prior arrests, not just the one he admitted to.
Juror #57 is a managing partner of a financial planning firm and is married with two young boys. During an initial round of questioning by Evans and Kilgore, the prospective juror admitted he had strong opinions about the incident.
“As a father of two boys, it’s unfathomable what occurred,” he said.
He said if he’d bought a sandwich and left it in the car, he’d probably remember it after an hour. “I wouldn’t do that with a child,” he said, adding that he couldn’t understand why Harris didn’t remember with “his kid roasting in the car.”
The case, however it turns out, will “pull on your heartstrings,” he said. “If he didn’t do it, he’s going to live in hell forever. … He’s guilty of stupidity. I don’t see how you don’t remember your child, no matter how old they are.”
Even though the prospective juror had strong opinions, he said he could set his thoughts aside and follow the judge’s instructions and listen to the evidence. “Sound bites don’t convict anyone of a crime,” he said. “I would press the reset button and hear the facts as stated.”
Later, he said, “Being a bad father is not a crime. I don’t know if he’s guilty of a criminal offense or not. … I know there are crappy fathers everywhere.”
When Evans arose to question Juror #57 again, he went into attack mode.
He told Juror #57 that they’d looked into databases for business licenses he claimed to have and could not find his name for any of them. Juror #57 insisted he had them and some were hanging on his office wall next to his college diploma.
Evans then asked Juror #57 about his departure a few years ago from a national insurance firm. Evans produced a document that said the prospective juror had been the subject of a criminal investigation and had been fired.
Juror #57 said he was never arrested and had been accused of violating “company policy, not industry police.”
Evans also noted the prospective juror had acknowledged on his questionnaire. he’d been arrested more than 20 years ago for possession of marijuana and that the charges had been dismissed. But what about an arrest for battery in 1998? Evans asked. And what about an arrest in 2004 when police executed a search warrant into his home and found one and three-quarters pounds of marijuana?
Juror #57 said he was merely “detained,” not arrested, for those two other incidents and all charges were dismissed.
For perhaps the first time, Evans returned to the prosecution table and sat down without thanking the prospective juror for his answers. When Judge Mary Staley told Juror #57 he could be excused, he abruptly left the courtroom.
Juror #72, a lab manager from East Cobb, was also questioned early Wednesday.
“Honestly, I don’t know how an adult can leave a child in a car,” she said. She said she believes Harris is guilty and said her opinions are so fixed she can’t put them aside and be fair and impartial.
The woman, who has two children and three grandchildren, is married to a police office who works for the Department of Defense at Dobbins Air Force Base. When asked what she remembered about the case, the woman said she thought Harris had searched on the Internet how long it takes a person to be in a hot car before they die and how to survive in prison.
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