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A Father Charged With Murder; Father Had Been Sexting at Time of Son's Death; Immigration Protests; Hurricane Arthur is still Category 1

Aired July 04, 2014 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna, thank you.

Great to be with you on this 4th of July. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

We have to begin though with this just bombshell after bombshell, really a blitzkrieg of bombshells against this father in Georgia, Justin Ross Harris. He is the father charged with murder, felony murder, after leaving his son in this hot car.

And you saw this hearing unfold right around this time yesterday. It was his probable cause hearing and divulged one unseemingly revelation after another. The headline was this, police allege Harris was sexting multiple women, including a minor, as his son was overheating in a car for seven hours.

Now, this hearing ultimately got what prosecutors wanted. The judge allowed the case to continue, and did not allow bond for the 33-year- old father. And as he sits in jail, investigators' case against him expands. Eight search warrants released today and they detail that after little Cooper's death, Harris was inquiring about how to get money from his son's life insurance policies.

CNN's Victor Blackwell was in the Cobb County courtroom that was packed with Harris supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What was Justin Ross Harris allegedly doing while his it 22-month-old son Cooper suffered in the back of his scorching SUV?

DETECTIVE PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY: He was having up to six different conversations with different women. The most common term would be sexting.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Stunning claims of raunchy text messages, suspicious internet searches and a plan to kill his son.

STODDARD: Evidence is showing us right now he's got this whole second life that he's living with alternate personalities and alternate personas.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Harris sat shackled and sullen as Detective Phil Stoddard of Cobb County detailed X-rated messages allegedly exchanged the day Cooper died, including with a then 16-year-old girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were photos being sent back and forth between these women and the defendant during this day while the child is out in the car?

STODDARD: Yes. There were photos of his exposed penis, erect penis, being sent. There were also photos of women's breasts being sent back to him.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): No visible reaction from the 33-year-old's wife, Leanne Harris, who sat with her family and supporters in a packed courtroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a loving father. He loved his son very much. We went on family vacations together, and he was a good dad.

BLACKWELL: But just five days before Cooper's death, Detective Stoddard says internet searches revealed that Harris watched videos online about the dangers of being trapped in a hot car and that Harris visited a web forum devoted to the child-free lifestyle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you don't have any evidence that he actually typed in a Google search or Reddit search or anything for child-free.

STODDARD: True.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting so far afield from the events of June the 18th. This has got nothing to do with those events whatsoever. The status of his marriage and his fantasy life has got nothing to do with the events of June the 18th. We're -- we're just getting so far afield, Judge. This isn't relevant to anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Judge, this goes to the state of mind in the two weeks leading up to the death of this child.

JUDGE FRANK COX, COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA (voice-over): So this occurred within two weeks?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, your honor.

COX (voice-over): Overrule the objection.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): The detective also testified the couple had financial problems and took out life insurance policies on Cooper.

STODDARD: They had a $2,000 policy through the Home Depot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The second one, is this something they got back in 2013?

STODDARD: Yes, November is 2012 is when he signed up for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And, was this something he still had at the time of the child's death?

STODDARD: That is correct. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And how much was the policy?

STODDARD: A $25,000 policy.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Stoddard laid out the strange way he saw Harris reacting the day Cooper died.

STODDARD: He started off trying to work himself up and we are watching on the cameras he's doing these things and he's walking around and rubbing his eyes, looked like he was trying to hyperventilate himself. No tears, no, you know, real emotion coming out of him, except for, you know, the huffing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And through the time you're talking with him about his son and this son's death, did you ever see any tears coming from him?

STODDARD: No.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Even more bizarre, how witnesses say Leanne Harris reacted at the day care when she was told that Cooper was never dropped off.

STODDARD: And in front of several witnesses, all of a sudden she states, "Ross must have left him in the car." and they're like, what? There's no other reason. "Ross must have" -- no other explanation, excuse me. "Ross must have left him in the car." And they tried to console her. And they're like, no, there's a thousand reasons. He could have taken him to lunch or something. We don't know yet. And she's like, no.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): And then another shocker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Were there any injuries to the child's face?

STODDARD: There were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And what were those?

STODDARD: The way it was explained, there were several marks on the child's face. It would have come from the child or a scratch being made while the child was alive. And then not healing, not scabbing over or anything like that and just soon after he passed away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Are there any injuries to the back of the child's head?

STODDARD: Yes, there were abrasions to the back of the child's head.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): After three hours of stunning testimony, Judge Frank Cox denied Harris' bond, the defense maintaining --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It's not criminal negligence. It's a horrible tragedy and an accident.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Victor Blackwell, CNN, Marietta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Victor, thank you for that.

Now, these allegations of sexting and odd behavior and disturbing online searches may show that Justin Ross Harris is a bad dad and a bad husband. But does it really show what counts in this is case? His guilt. That what he does was, in fact a crime.

Let's walk through this with CNN legal analyst, Sunny Hostin and Danny Cevallos. Welcome to you.

There's so much to talk about, Sunny, I mean you watched this whole hearing yesterday. You've been a prosecutor. What was your biggest take away or biggest bombshell for you?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANYALYST: I think it was sort of the combination. Because I kept on asking myself when we first heard about this case, Brooke, what father would do something like this? And the most important question is why? I needed to hear motive. And we heard motive. We didn't even hear sort of one theory of motive. We heard several theories of motive. We heard he was on the internet searching about having a child-free life. That is a motive. We heard they were having financial difficulties and that he had these life insurance policies out on his child. Who does that? That's a second motive.

Then we hear about the sexting. We hear that he was searching age of consent in Georgia, because one of the people that he was searching for and sort of sharing these explicit pictures was under age. And so when you have those sorts of themes all together, I think that combination is really significant.

BALDWIN: OK. So that's your combination.

Danny Cevallos, what did you see? What was your takeaway?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, my takeaway was the most shocking piece of evidence was at the same time the least legally relevant piece of evidence to me. And that was obviously the scandalous sexting allegations.

From a moral perspective, they're shocking. The -- whether it is the allegations it was an underage child he was sexting with. But from the perspective of the prosecution making their case in chief, that really falls into the Category and the defense attorney made this point of character evidence. Now, the prosecution is going to say that goes to motive. But what the prosecution has to prove is that he intended to kill the child on a particular day.

So in that sense, the evidence that his work was 30 seconds away from the Chick-Fil-A is more compelling than actually the sexting, which the defense attorney made the point was arguably improper character evidence at this stage, especially when considering that yesterday's hearing was about charging him with criminal negligence. So all that evidence of motive went to intent, which really wasn't the subject of yesterday's hearing.

BALDWIN: OK. But it all, all these new nuggets and details came out through this three-hour normally long probable cause hearing with all of this being hurled against him. You know, I watched him and I know you two did too, sitting there in his orange jumpsuit, sat virtually emotionless and I took the note when I saw the tear coming down the left cheek when there was the eyewitness. This is one of the first people on the scene as they saw little Cooper being pulled, you know, on to the concrete, sitting upright as if he was still in that car seat when he was removed from the car. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEONARD MADDEN, EYEWITNESS: Well, he was saying "Oh, my god, oh, my god, my son is dead. Oh my god, my son is dead."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And did he say it matter of factly or plainly like you're speaking or was it with any particular inflection?

MADDEN: It sounded as though he was saying it out of hurt and disappointment, of desperation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Was he screaming?

MADDEN: He was yelling, he was hollering, he was screaming. Much as I would if I were in that situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And did you observe him sobbing, crying anything of that nature?

MADDEN: All of that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Say again?

MADDEN: All of that. He was crying, he was hollering, he was -- yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So, the defense here, you know, putting this witness on the stand, trying to show that there was no way Justin Ross Harris would have done this intentionally.

But to your point a minute ago, Danny, with all of this testimony, all these new details, how much of this would an actual jury hear if this goes to trial?

CEVALLOS: The defense's strategy going forward is to file what's called a motion in limine to get rid of the evidence the prosecution would like to have introduced to show that the defendant is a cheater, a sexter. The defense is going to argue anything that wasn't close in time to the incident is going to be more prejudicial than it s probative. And there is a specific rule for that.

On the prosecution side, they're going to make the argument and reasonable minds can differ, that this evidence, especially texting the same day his child was sitting in the car dying was very probative of his state of mind at the time this crime occurred. So reasonable minds can differ. The judge will have to sort it out.

BALDWIN: OK. Sunny, I want to get to this point about the online searches. And we have been hearing -- we heard before this probable cause hearing he and his wife had researched and Googled hot, you know, hot car deaths for kids or for animals. It's unclear exactly when they were searching this. But let me play one more exchange, because this is the exchange between Harris' attorneys -- this is the defense attorney and his lead investigator.

HOSTIN: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Isn't that true that what Ross told you was he couldn't believe that this had happened to him, because he had just seen a story on FOX 5 about the governor's Look Again campaign?

STODDARD: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): He didn't tell you that.

STODDARD: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So just a little background, Sunny. Look Again. You know this. I don't know if our viewers do. This is a campaign to prevent hot child car deaths. It just launched in Georgia, and just brings under the broader point. When you think about -- listen, I often talk about a Google Vortex. I may find myself in. People search a lot of different things on a lot of different computers. So I mean, is this fair? It's questionable, perhaps, what he searched. But is it fair? Would that hold up in court?

HOSTIN: I've got to tell you, I disagree with Danny. Everything is coming in, Brooke.

We've seen it in case after case after case. We saw all the searches come in Casey Anthony. We saw all the searches come in the Scott Peterson trial.

BALDWIN: But they didn't convict Casey Anthony.

HOSTIN: That's right. But that's not to say it won't come in.

BALDWIN: OK.

HOSTIN: And it is -- it is coming in, because it matters. I think juries want to see that. I think if you're a prosecutor and you've got to show motive, even though it's not an element of the crime, you've got to tell -- explain to a jury, why would a father do something like this? Well, that -- those searches go to intent. So the sexting is coming in. The searches about hot child deaths are coming in. All of the searches about how to live a child-free life. All of that is coming in. And given all of those coincidences, I think it's going to be really difficult for, you know, a defense team to combat that.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll talk next hour, because I really want to also bring up some of the new information as it pertains to the wife, who sat there in court, as well.

Sunny Hostin, Danny Cevallos, thank you so much. We'll see you back here in a bit.

Much more coverage on the trial. We'll actually talk to someone in 20 minutes who is sitting inside the packed courtroom in Georgia.

How did his wife respond when she heard about the sexting allegations?

And we'll tell the moment that caused the biggest gasp among those in the courtroom.

And look at this, tensions rising in Murrieta, California, live pictures, protesters lining up here. The city this new battleground for this immigration debate. A bus full of undocumented immigrants is scheduled to arrive any moment. We are live there. We will see what happens when that bus arrives as they square off, potentially.

And Hurricane Arthur gave us a holiday scare. There was certainly some flooding. Thank goodness no lost lives.

Are we out of the woods yet?

We'll talk to Chad Myers, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back, I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Buses bearing more Latin-American migrants obtained in the U.S. border are to arrive today, somewhere in Southern California. So there is this border patrol station in the town of Murrieta. But after the chaos in that town Tuesday when buses were turned away by these anti immigration protesters, authorities aren't saying exactly where are these new migrants might be headed.

CNN's Kyung Lah is live right now in Murrieta where tempers are flared already on this 4th of July. Kyung, who is behind you there?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The people who are behind me are actual pro migrant groups and anti immigration groups. We are trying to avoid all the ruckus from Tuesday. What police have done is try to divide everybody up.

Take a look over here. You can see a sizable police force, a line of officers and then behind that police tape, a number of protesters resting both sides. And then if you can swing around and take a look, down the roadway, you can see this large group of press here. What everyone is pointing at is the roadway. That roadway is where we expect sometime in this hour for those buses to bring an unknown number of migrants. But immigration and customs enforcement is clear; they don't want

anyone to know exactly where they're going, what the plan is, citing safety concerns. But on this 4th of July, a lot of protesters are saying, from both sides, that there needs to be immigration reform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love -- we're a nation of immigrants, you know. We're -- most of us have immigrants from somewhere. This isn't about that. It's about we're a nation where borders. We're a nation with laws. We have orderly immigration policies so that people are safe, so our citizens are safe so that people are trying to get here are safe. You know, we're not a borderless nation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's 11 million undocumented people here. And there's people that keep migrating in the United States. It's not an us versus we situation. It's a -- we. It's everybody together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Now, it did get quite ugly at the Tuesday even outside the border patrol station at that protest. It was also -- got a little heated the following day at a town hall meeting with many people in the town coming out to express their emotions. Police hoping to avoid that ugliness, Brooke, by making sure they stay segmented and separate as and if these buses arrive today.

BALDWIN: Kyung, let me just ask you quickly because we been focusing so much on this recently, on these thousands of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, many of whom are children. I don't think on Tuesday there were kids on that bus. Do we know if children are to arrive in this bus coming within the hour?

LAH: There were children on that bus. There were a number of children, many women and children. As far as the people who are arriving today, immigration customs enforcement making clear they're not sharing any of that. But the fact that there are children involved here, that is certainly an issue they're talking about. Where there should be more compassion, perhaps, for these migrants coming here from Central America.

BALDWIN: Kyung Lah, we will stay in close contact with you as we await that bus and the scene growing in Murrieta, California. We appreciate it.

Live pictures again as we watch the road and wait.

Clashes broke out today between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, they touched off by this funeral for the Palestinian teenagers abducted and killed earlier this week. We'll have a live report on the growing tensions in this region for you.

And ahead, cleaning up after Hurricane Arthur. How much damage did this holiday storm leave behind? Are there other areas in danger?

Stay with me. You're watching CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hurricane Arthur is still Category 1. It did leave minimal damage after slamming the Carolina coastline as a Category 2 late last night. The fast-moving Hurricane dumped heavy rains, brought severe winds and as promised, those dangerous rip currents. Now Arthur is back out to sea, spinning toward the northeast.

CNN is keeping you updated, of course, on Arthur. Meteorologist Chad Myers back with us after staying all overnight to cover this thing. And Correspondent Joe Johns is back out at the beach today at nags head at North Carolina, outer banks.

Chad Myers, to you first. Where is he? How is he looking?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Looking pretty good.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MYERS: Ninety miles per hour still. Still Category 1, 96 to get to Category 2. But not growing now. In cooler water. So things are going to start to calm down. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to be perfect by the time it gets to Cape Cod and Nantucket, still going to be a tropical storm, storm-force winds.

So what I really want everybody to take away from this storm is that making landfall, Arthur was 30 miles per hour stronger than Sandy. You think, how could that possibly be? The problem with Sandy is that at one point in time, it was a large, major hurricane and had that bubble of water that we all know what happened near Jersey and Staten Island and Long Island. All that water was a bubble under a very major hurricane. Then it kind of died off. But the bubble of water didn't die off.

What Arthur was, was a small storm that became a Category 2 briefly and quickly made landfall so didn't have that bubble of water, didn't have that huge storm surge, that superstorm Sandy did. And so, always have to take a look at what the big effect will be, every Category of a hurricane doesn't mean that I going to act the same. This one certainly didn't.

Ninety miles per hour east right now of the Delmarva Peninsula, moving on up here already spreading rainfall into New York, into Connecticut, all the way even up to Vermont, New Hampshire and Boston. And Boston, you're happy you moved your --

BALDWIN: Boston pops last night.

MYERS: Fourth of July plans to the third already of July, aren't you? A lot of rainfall coming down, Brooke, flooding with this . This is the end, though. This is the beginning of the end of Arthur as it finally winds down in much cooler water.

BALDWIN: I like to hear that at the end of this thing. Chad, thank you. To Joe Johns in North Carolina we go. We know that the North Carolina

governor reported minimal damage. Are there still concerns out there where you are, storm surge and the like?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think there are some still some concerns. They're warning people to look for the occasional dangling power line, Brooke. They're telling people to watch out, certainly, for problems in the water. As you can see or hopefully you can see, water sports going on here on the sound behind me right now. Things and people are hoping are getting back to normal. This is after just a crazy night last night. People thanking their lucky stars that that storm got in here, and got out of here as quickly as it did.

I know none of us has been in a Category 2 storm very recently, and I certainly had forgotten what it was like to be very close to the center of such a storm. And during the night, it was quite surprising, the amount of wind, the amount of rain, how hard it was to stand up outside.

But now bright and sunny, they're saying to us. It looks pretty good. In fact, they did not have anything like what they were expecting. Not even down at Hatteras, as a matter of fact, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I like hearing that, but pictures on the right side of the screen, clearly flooding issues because of the storm overnight. But I'm loving the blue skies so hopefully you and crew and everyone else vacationing in the outer banks can enjoy what is left of this weekend.

Joe Johns, thank you very much. Happy 4th to you.

Coming up next here on CNN, at age 20, this guy is one of the youngest players on the men's national soccer team. He just competed in Brazil. His first World Cup. The phenom making an impact on the field and in the minds of soccer fans. We'll talk to him.

DeAndre Yedlin joining me, live. We will ask him his about his experience in the World Cup, the U.S. run. Also something he's a tad famous for. This going on up here? Hair? Wicked-good hair, DeAndre. We'll talk about that, next.