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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Secrets that lead to the murder of Cooper Harris
Aired July 11, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN ANCHOR: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell.
Tonight on "Secret Lives," new details pouring in on the dad charged with murdering his son in a boiling hot SUV. Ross Harris was hiding a lot of
secrets, living a double life online and sexting multiple women as his son died a torturous death.
But did all these secrets lead to murder?
Prosecutors say dad left his 22-month-old son, Cooper, inside his sweltering hot car intending to kill him. Cooper was strapped in way too
tight to a car seat way too small for seven long hours as temperatures inside that car soared to an estimated 130 degrees, as the helpless toddler
baked to death. His dad was inside his air-conditioned office sending pictures of his own private parts to multiple women, one of whom is only
17.
Ross Harris` profile on scout.com includes lies about his name, his age, where he lives. The page also includes the request "Message me, I`m
harmless." here`s Ross` former friend, emphasis on former, on NBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN MCREA, SUSPECT`S FRIEND: When I saw that scout.com profile, "Message me, I`m harmless," it`s just like he`s just a different person. It seems
like a monster. Just don`t seem like my friend. It seems like a monster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we`ve discovered yet another persona, under the screen name Roscoe Ua, this dad weighted in on everything from how to outsmart
cops if you`re pulled over, to the issuable abortion.
CNN`s own Victor Blackwell has just uncovered some of Ross Harris` post. Listen to Victor read them and then we`ll talk to Victor on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Killing a person in sense of abortion is selfish and malicious with the intent of only
satisfying your own internal agenda."
Roscoe Ua offered a ready user advice on how to avoid arrest in the context of DUI? The post marked three months ago reads, "Refuse to answer any
questions and ask if you`re being detained. If not, leave." He goes on, "Everything a police officer does during a possible DUI traffic stop means
he is trying to build evidence against you. You should do everything in your power to prevent this."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We have a fantastic expert panel ready to weigh in and debate. But first, to CNN`s Victor Blackwell.
Great reporting on this, Victor.
Give us a sense of how extensive Ross Harris` alternate personas and postings are given that just three months before, he`s arrested in the
death of his son, he`s advising people how to outwit cops?
BLACKWELL: Yes, these posts on reddit are taking on new relevance of course now he is charged for the murder of his son. And - I got to read
one for you that happened, it was posted just days before he pulled into that parking lot and screamed "What have I done? What have I done?" This
is about a story, it happened here in the Atlanta area, a biker was robbed. And it was on the news, on June 5th, remember that date, June 5th.
Remember, this all happened on June 18th.
Between those two dates he writes about that story, the only reason I hold true to the biker`s actions is the number of witnesses that stayed around
to corroborate the story to police. You`ll remember some of the witnesses there in the parking lot involved with this story say that it seemed
dramatic, that he was putting on a show. Could this posting actually tell his own story that he pulled into that parking lot because there would be a
number of witnesses?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And not only that, Veronica Waters, reporter in WSB Atlanta, the area where all this went down, he used to be a police
dispatcher when he lived in Alabama. Here he is giving advice to people, oh, here`s how you can get one over on the cops if you`re ever pulled over.
And three months later, he`s getting belligerent with cops when they fail to buy his inconsistent stories where his son is lying there dead on the
ground.
VERONICA WATERS, REPORTER, WSB RADIO: I`ll tell you what`s interesting to me, Jane, is what we heard in that probable cause hearing from Cobb County
Police Detective Phil Stoddard, how about that Ross Harris seemed to be sort of trying kind of build a camaraderie with police even as he was being
interviewed about his son`s death. Remember Detective Stoddard talked about how he was using sort of cop lingo and alphabetizing things, alpha,
bravo, charlie and that kind of thing.
And he said that he found out that he was charged with murder, Detective Stoddard said, he looked at him and said, but there was no malicious
intent. This is a guy who may have thought very carefully about what he was going to say to the cops and any potential show he was going to put on
in front of witnesses.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Lisa Lockwood, investigator, author of "Undercover Angel."
It occurs to me because he was a police dispatcher and he`s hearing a lot of 911 calls, maybe he thought, hey, I`ve figured out this whole police
thing, I can get one over on them, no problem, and do whatever I want and they`ll believe my story.
LISA LOCKWOOD, INVESTIGATOR: That`s right. Building that camaraderie is exactly what he tried to do. As a 911 dispatcher -- I was a 911 dispatcher
before I was a police officer and detective. You do learn that prior to that. Maybe he was a cop wannabe and wanted to learn and be important and
have this grandiose view of himself by giving this information on reddit and how to get out of a DUI arrest. This proves premeditation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, in another reddit post, more than a year ago, listen to this, Ross`gushed about his idyllic life.
Here`s that post as read by CNN`s Victor Blackwell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL (voice-over): I am now in my dream job, have a beautiful six- month-old son and love going to work every day. I couldn`t be happier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Behavior expert, Simone Bienne, if cooper were six months old, this post would be from just over a year ago. What a difference a
year makes? OK? His wife admitted they had intimacy problems and money problems. Said he was overspending. He was passed over for a promotion at
work where he`s now obviously now been fired. He failed to get another job.
So, what also changed is this little infant he had became a toddler -- rambunctious toddler, as they do. Could little Cooper have paid the price
for this dad`s downward spiral?
SIMONE BIENNE, BEHAVIOR EXPERT: Absolutely, because look, first of all, with toddlers we know that they are hard work. Babies are very pretty and
very cute. Toddlers need attention. Clearly he didn`t want to be a father. But what makes this story so sick, Jane, is -- I`ve been thinking
about it a lot. If he didn`t want to be a father anymore, which is what we`ve all been talking about, then give the baby up for adoption. Divorce
the wife. There is a sick aspect to this where he didn`t even think about drugging the child when he boiled and baked him to death. So says to me,
and I thought about this, he is a psychopath.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s give him his day in court. This is what he`s accused of. He`ll go to trial. We`ll see what happens.
Now, cops say while Cooper was roasting to death, locked in the backseat of his father`s car, his dad spent the workday texting six different women and
literally sending photos, sorry it`s grotesque, a graphic, we have to say it, sending photos of his erect penis to these women. No wonder Home Depot
announced, he`s fired.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s having up to six different conversations with different women, it appeared, from the messages from kick mostly, which is
a messaging service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of what nature were they?
DET. PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA: The most common term would be sexting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were photos being sent back and forth between these women and the defendant during this day while child`s out in the car?
STODDARD: Yes, there were photos of his exposed penis, erect penis being sent. Also there were photos of women`s breasts being sent back to him.
He said, do you have a conscience?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what was his response?
STODDARD: Nope.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: CNN`s Victor Blackwell, as you know, one of the six women he was having a sending relationship with sexting, et cetera, was allegedly
underage. Cops say this relationship started when she was 16. She was 17 on the day of the boy`s death.
What have you learned about possible fallout from that and what`s happening right now?
BLACKWELL: Jane, there`s a new law enforcement agency involved. The Woodstock police department is looking into this case.
Let me tell you how this all started. You heard that Detective Stoddard said on the stand that this progressed beyond just fantasy and he actually
met one of the women at Old Ropeville Park in Woodstock, Georgia. The Woodstock police department has now reached out to the lead detectives
about 20 miles away in Ross Harris` hometown. And they say they are working to determine if any crimes were committed in their jurisdiction and
if there`s anything actionable.
You`ll also remember in the bond half of this hearing that happened just a few days ago, Detective Stoddard said that Harris committed the computer-
based crime of sexual exploitation of a minor and committed two misdemeanor violations of illegal contact with a minor. And of course, Woodstock
police want to know if that what happened in their city.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So, Tiffanie Davis-Henry, HLN contributor psychologist.
What is the mentality of a man who is texting six different women? He`s 33. He is lying about his age, his name, et cetera, on social media and
one of the females he`s sexting with was 16 and had turned 17. What does that say?
TIFFANIE DAVIS-HENRY, PSYCHOLOGIST, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: We`ve used the term a little bit today, grandiosity, so yes, he could be grandiose but I think is
grandiosity and being grandiose is a second cousin to narcissistic. And this is more of what I see with this guy. He needed someone, many people
to feed his narcissism. His wife wasn`t enough. So he went to one woman to another and to another. And a lot of times, you get the most feedback
from someone that`s younger, that`s impressionable. Someone that you can manipulate a little bit.
So it actually makes more sense that he would have someone that`s younger and impressionable on his roster of six women because an older woman, this
wouldn`t necessarily fly.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well there was one younger woman. But there were other women who were older.
Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, the idea of, think about it, six women, you are trading women like playing cards. You`re basically lying to all of
them because you`re acting like you`re interested in one where you`re actually hitting six. What does that say about his capacity for deception?
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, I think the guy`s very good at lying, although his lies are going to catch up with him and the evidence
against him in this case is going to include some of the lies he`s told that we already know about. I think there are more to come.
Here`s an interesting issue. Of course the guy liked going to work every day. Obviously he was going to work. Logging on, sending naked pictures
back and forth. It is like a trading card business. I want to know if he was making money sending his body parts to the women or making some mini
business of his own. And if that is somehow connected to what happened to his child.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We have only started to just scratching the surface as we dive deep into the secret life of this man, Justin Ross Harris.
And we`ll get to that woman, his wife, who admitted to police she had intimacy problems with her husband who was, according to cops, asleep when
he was sexting some of these women from home.
How long was it going on? What happened the night before little Cooper died? Did they have a blow-up argument? Is she still fiercely loyal to
him? That on the other side.
Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STODDARD: He was having up to six different conversations with different women it appeared from the messages, the most common term would be sexting.
There were photos of his exposed penis being sent - erect penis being sent. There are also women`s breast being sent to him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tragic accident or premeditated murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The father says he forgot to take the boy to day care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re going to tell me after seven hours he did not smell that baby in the car?
STODDARD (voice-over): Up to six different conversations with different women.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with murder and second-degree child cruelty.
STODDARD (VOICE-OVER): His exposed [bleep] erect [bleep] being sent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wanted to live a child-free life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about the secrets of the dead boy`s mother, the only time we have heard from Leanna Harris was at her little son`s funeral where
she insisted she was not angry with her husband.
Here`s an excerpt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEANNA HARRIS, VICTIM`S MOTHER: I miss him with all of my heart. Would I bring him back? No. To bring him back into this broken world would be
selfish. Cooper`s last two nights at home he had trouble sleeping. He slept in between me and Ross snuggling in between both of us. I remember
turning over in the middle of the night. His mouth was open and his full toddler lips breathing right into my face. I will cherish that moment
forever.
Am I angry with Ross?
Absolutely not. It has never crossed my mind. Ross is and was and will be if we have more children a wonderful father. Ross is a wonderful daddy and
a leader for our children. Cooper meant the world to him. There was not a day that went by that we did not say how blessed we were to be able to have
him in our lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: A lot of people were baffled by that speech at the boy`s funeral. Leanna also went to the jail where her husband is locked up. But
has her intense loyalty towards her husband started to wane?
We`ve learned she`s now hired her own attorney and left the state of Georgia and gone to Alabama.
Straight out to Yasmine Vossoughian, HLN correspondent in Northport, Alabama, with the very latest, what have you learned, Yasmine?
YASMINE VOSSOUGHIAN, HLN CORRESPONDENT: If you can see behind my shoulder actually, that`s Leanna`s car back there. It`s been confirmed she actually
is in this location. This is where her mom lives in a garage apartment in a home owned by a doctor and his wife. The doctor came out and talk to us,
said that he knew Debra, Leanna`s mom really well, knows Leanna , knows Ross, knew little Cooper. Saw them as a fantastic family. Thought Ross
was a great father from what he knew.
We also combed where Ross grew up over in Tuscaloosa. We went to the home in which Ross and Leanna lived together. We spoke to a neighbor there. He
said Ross seemed to be really great with his kid, with the neighbor`s kids, this is before they had Cooper. But he was great with the neighbor`s kids.
But of course everybody is also telling me that with that evidence that came out in that probable cause hearing last week, now their opinions are
beginning to shift as to who Justin Ross Harris actually is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Yasmine -
VOSSOUGHIAN: The person they thought he was is very different than the person they think he might be now, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.
Simone Bienne, you`re a behavior expert.
The wife was fiercely loyal. You heard that eulogy that she gave. Am I angry at my husband? No, it`s never even crossed my mind. But in the days
since after the probable cause hearing where the whole world heard about her husband`s sexting and sending erect penis photos, she`s lawyered up and
she`s left town, crossed the border into Alabama and she`s holed up with her mom.
Do you think a rift is developing between husband and wife?
BIENNE: I think she is going to protect herself. I think she will stand by her man. I think she has magical thinking. She`s absolutely
delusional. And look at that picture. That`s her in court chewing gum like she`s waiting in line at Starbucks for a coffee. This is not a woman
with maternal instinct.
And what does intimacy issues mean really, Jane? I mean from reports, we`re hearing that she actually knew that he was sexting. I think she will
stand by her man but she is going to protect herself and her mother who sounds like she has some sense, has taken her in.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, look, Brian Claypool, criminal defense attorney.
When somebody lawyers up and the whole world has been talking about her suspicious behavior, purportedly, allegedly suspicious behavior, maybe
we`ll get to that in a second, but when you lawyer up and you leave town, I think -- I`m putting two and two together and saying, maybe I shouldn`t be
taking everything my cheating husband says as the, you know, word of God.
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Jane, that`s not necessarily true. Before I answer your question, since when does chewing
gum in a courtroom amount to premeditated murder? Since when does Ross Harris sending a text message amount to calculated, premeditated murder?
I think what we`re doing here is engaging in what I call hunch justice. I have a hunch that Ross did this, Leanna did this. She`s guilty of murder.
The fact of the matter is, we`ve got to wait, get the information. And I can`t blame Leanna Harris after watching all the media -- I can`t blame her
for getting a lawyer, going to where her mom lives and hunkering down, not getting on the internet, not texting messages and not talking to anybody.
People are ready to fry her in the electric chairs.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me explain to our viewers of what some secrets that emerged at the probable cause hearings might give our viewers more of an
insight into why she hired an attorney.
Leanna Harris hasn`t been charged with anything. But people wonder, what did she know about her son`s death and when? At the police department, she
asked her husband when they were reunited after the son`s death, quote, "Did you say too much?"
All right, before anyone had told her little Cooper, her son was dead, she went to the day care and insisted to day care workers that her husband,
Ross, must have left him in the car. That`s the only explanation. That comment did not sit well with Harris` former friend. Here`s a clip from
"The today`s show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCREA: She gets to that day care and he was not there? Oh, Ross must have
left him in the car. Who says that? Who says that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So, now, she`s hired a criminal defense attorney. Wendy Murphy, you`re a former prosecutor. Could the prosecution have sent her any signals that
would have inspired her to hire her own attorney?
MURPHY: Well I will tell you, I think she`s been represented, if you will, by her husband`s lawyer from day one. Remember, she clammed up. Had the
Fifth Amendment right to pretend you`re grieving problem right out of the box. I`m not saying a word. And then the "oh, I love my husband despite
the fact that he killed my kid." She was in a sense lawyered up from day one. Now she`s formally lawyered up which means she`s very nervous.
But interestingly enough, her lawyer, Lawrence Zimmerman, is buddy-buddy with her husband`s lawyer, Kilgore. Isn`t that interesting? Are they
going to have oppositional defenses or are they going to work together? Wink-wink.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Take a look at Leanna Harris` expression. And yes, she is chewing gum, people have made a point of it. It doesn`t necessarily mean
anything.
But on the other side of the break, we`re going to go into our secrets lab and analyze her facial expressions and what many people have said was a
lack of emotion and what detectives said could be overheard in a phone call with her mother after they both found out the child was dead where the mom
allegedly says to her, why aren`t you crying? And Leanna says, I must be in shock.
We`re going to analyze in our secrets lab next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started when she was 16.
STODDARD: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were these sexually involved as well?
STODDARD: They were.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she send him a picture that day?
STODDARD: She did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of what?
STODDARD: She sent a picture of her exposed breasts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he send any pictures to her?
STODDARD: He did. He sent a picture of his exposed erect penis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STODDARD: All of a sudden she states, Ross must have left him in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On a sweltering hot day for seven hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sexting women on the day his son died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Told police they are happily married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s got this whole second life he`s living with alternate personalities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to go to talk, message me, I`m harmless.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But they weren`t happily married.
Let`s go in to our secrets lab. Gets analyze what we`ve learned so far in this in-depth study of Justin Ross Harris and his wife. Now, wife, Leanna
Harris, spoke publicly at little Cooper`s funeral and she delivered this very controversial eulogy.
Here`s some of what she said as read by an HLN producer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED HLN PRODUCER: First of all, Ross, I love you and I`m doing this for you, OK? Two years ago when we welcomed six-pound, eight-ounce
perfect baby into the world, this never crossed my mind. He was perfect and he is perfect. He changed mine and Ross` life. I have talked to you
about the magnitude in which he changed it. As children do, he turned our lives upside down. I wouldn`t trade it for the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Simone Bienne, behaviour expert, people were flabbergasted by that. I mean who are we to judge what a woman in shock over the loss of
her child will say? But the idea that she said, I`m doing this for you? Doing what for you? And then the idea that she goes in depth into how this
child who`s now dead, who should be praised at that moment, she starts going off about how this child turned their life upside down?
BIENNE: Really peculiar expression to say, turning their lives upside down. And I just wonder, did she think, I`m going to sacrifice my child
for the sake of my own life? Was she aware that her husband was so sick and depraved and delusional that she was willing to give her child up to be
slaughtered? There could be something going on there.
But her reaction, for goodness sake, we all know, we grieve in different ways, but she is showing no consciousness, no emotion. There`s nothing in
her eyes, there is nothing, Jane, look at how she is. She`s emotionless.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well I have to say, in her defense, I remember many years ago when my father died, I was in shock and I didn`t cry at the funeral.
It took me months before I could open up. And I was kind of blank because I was in complete shock about it. So I can kind of understand when people
say, people don`t react like they do in the movies.
But I want to talk about the problems in their marriage. Lisa Lockwood, you`re an investigator. They were having marital problems. She said to
the cops, we had intimacy problems. That`s sex problems. They were having money problems. There were student loans and they had taken life insurance
out on this child to the tune of $27,000. He even said behind bars, he called his family from behind bars and told them, here`s how you can get
that insurance money, good luck with that with a murder investigation, by the way.
But what did you make of that?
LOCKWOOD: Having dealt with so many domestic cases and I`m not talking about physical domestic -- emotional domestic cases where a woman feels
oppressed. She can`t live because she is mentally unstable. She can`t picture a life without her significant other even though she`s battered
emotionally.
In this case, I even think her taking the blame for doing that internet search on how long it takes a child or an animal to die in a vehicle. I
don`t believe that she did it. I believe she took the blame for her husband in order to stay loyal and to stay with him and to look good in his
eyes. Still a woman who was under the domestic rule -- under the domestic oppression of her husband.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Tiffanie Davis-Henry, psychologist, I was struck by the fact she said, Ross, if we have more children, will be a great daddy,
he is the leader either of our household or of the children, whatever she says, it was, he`s the leader.
DAVIS-HENRY: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: If we have more children? I just -- I can`t even comprehend saying that at the funeral for her dead baby.
DAVIS-HENRY: Yes, the focus was all off. You would think that at a funeral, the focus would have been on Baby Cooper. "He would have been the
light of our lives. I can`t imagine going on living without him. If only I had one more moment with him." Those are the things that we kind of
expected to hear or at least feel or grasp from her words.
Instead what we got was, "If I could bring him back, no, I wouldn`t. This world is too crazy. I don`t want him to have to go through the angst of
middle school. It`s just too tough. No, we won`t bring him back."
That`s what people are having a really hard time with, not the fact that she`s jumped to acceptance in her grief but the fact that she skipped over
so many steps in grief and loss. The anger isn`t there. The depression isn`t there. Any of those emotions just aren`t there. And she`s just
like, "Oh, well, my son`s gone but I`m standing by my man." That`s a really hard pill to swallow for most of us, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side of the break, we`re going to talk to a close former -- emphasis on former -- friend of Justin Ross Harris.
Now, we`ve spoken to her repeatedly since this story broke. At first, she was defending him. But then after she saw his Scout profile where he calls
himself R.J., lies about his age, lies about a lot of things, she now has a new theory. She`s going to tell you that theory on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WILKINSON, FORMER FRIEND OF JUSTIN ROSS HARRIS: The picture that`s been painted by all this evidence just does not match what we know. He was
very prideful, you know. This was his joy, this was his pride, his progeny. he was very proud to be Cooper`s daddy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leanna Harris, the baby`s mother, also part of the investigation.
PHIL STODDARD, POLICE DETECTIVE: She`s like, why aren`t you crying, why aren`t you reacting to this? She said, "I must be in shock."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stunning claims of raunchy text messages.
STODDARD: He`s got this whole second life that he`s living with alternate personalities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious Internet searches, Harris watched videos online about the dangers of being trapped in a hot car.
STODDARD: She looks at him and she`s like, "Well, did you say too much?"
WILKINSON: This was his joy. This was his pride. He was very proud to be Cooper`s daddy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But now that woman has a new theory. Cops say Ross Harris didn`t just live a double life, that he had multiple online personas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say his father, Justin Ross Harris, used a messaging site to sext women on the day his son died in a hot SUV outside
his office building. And on the flirting Web site and smartphone app, Scout, under the name R.J., are three profile photos, all appear to be
Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Justin Ross Harris, known to friends as Ross, says his name is R.J. That`s not his name. He says he`s 27 years old. He`s actually 33. He says he
lives in Smyrna, Georgia. Well, at least he had the state right. But he lies about the city he lives in.
The only thing he doesn`t lie about, being married, which is odd. That`s usually the one thing cheaters do lie about. But he says it, yes, I`m
married. I find that odd.
I want to go out to Chris Wilkinson, a friend of Justin Ross Harris, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- his hometown.
Chris, thank you for joining us -- you had defended him initially. And at a certain point after the Scout profile photos of him with the cell phone
camera in the urinal trying to look like James Bond -- let`s put it that way -- came out, you switched your theory. What is your new theory of this
guy`s M.O. and motive?
WILKINSON (via telephone): I think he wanted out. I think he wanted out of his marriage, he wanted out of fatherhood. You know, this looked like a
way out to him, you know. The profiles with the different ages and all, I got to thinking about that.
And, you know, if anybody happened to run across those profiles, oh, there`s some guy named Ross but that couldn`t be him. He`s the wrong age.
He lives in the wrong town, you know. That couldn`t be the Ross that we know, so never mind. But here he can have those personas because someone
would have seen him and it would have gotten back. When they moved, it allowed those personas, I guess, to come out or emerge. And I just -- I
think he wanted out.
He knew a divorce would never fly in his family, especially not with a little small child. But, you know, if he could get away with portraying
this as an accident, nobody`s going to fault a man and woman who can`t stay together after they`ve lost a child. They`re going to feel sorry for those
folks and have empathy for them.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, what do you make of former friend Chris Wilkinson`s theory?
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, it`s possible. I mean anything`s possible. Why a child is killed intentionally, there`s no question in my
mind that you can almost always expect there to be some secrets, some very ugly family secrets, perhaps the kind of discord that`s consistent with
what she said. But I do think that because the mom knew and is involved that theory doesn`t quite fly.
Let me share with you one thing. I`ve been reading the record really carefully. Let me share one thing. The mother, remember, was apparently
on the telephone at the scene when the child was taken out of the car and is lying there on the ground. He called three people. And at the probable
cause hearing, we heard that the first call was Justin to his wife, Leanna. He talked to her and said, "Our child is dead" or something to that effect.
So it was clearly her. And they traced the number. It was her number.
Well, guess what? After that call, she went to the day care center to pretend she was actually looking for the child. She knew he was dead.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t I have to challenge you on that. I don`t know that you can extrapolate everything from that. You cannot say
unequivocally that she is involved. She`s not considered a suspect or called a suspect. She hasn`t been charged. And also my understanding is
the detectives say Ross tried to reach his wife. And there`s a question as to whether or not he got through at that point.
But he did proceed to make two other calls and one of those calls to the day care center lasted up to six minutes. We don`t know who he talked to.
And I can`t rule out the possibility that it was his wife. But I don`t know that it was. It could have been somebody else. So I don`t think we
can say that -- I don`t think we can unequivocally that she knew when she went to the day care center that her son was already dead.
You may be right. But we can`t say that unequivocally. But you may be right. We just don`t know.
All right. We`re just getting started. There are so many other secrets. We are piling them up here. We`re going to dive into them. We`re going to
analyze them with our team of experts.
Stay right there. We`ll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILKINSON: He`s a very responsible, decent, appeared by all indications to love his child, you know. We hold three things sacred here in the south --
football, religion and family. And this guy was the paragon of that. So for all this to come out, it`s rather shocking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with murder and second-degree child cruelty for leaving Cooper in a hot car for several hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was searching child car deaths on the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone starts becoming a private eye and everything looks suspicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Prosecutors say Ross Harris wanted to live a child-free life based on Internet searches he conducted.
Welcome back to our Secrets Lab.
Cops say he searched on how long it takes a child to die in a hot car and how to survive prison. Cops claim he was obsessed with Web sites that
showed different ways to die -- videos.
And just five days before he left his son to die in a hot car, Ross Harris watched a video of a veterinarian demonstrating just how hot it gets inside
a parked car in the summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought I would put myself in a parked car and let`s see just how hot it gets.
113 degrees. It`s awful. The only thought that`s going through my head right now is I want out of the car. It`s just -- everything in my body is
saying, get out, get out, get out. To be left in a car not knowing when you`re going to come and slowly but surely having the energy and the life
just burnt out of them by this heat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This vet was inside the car for only 30 minutes. Cooper was left inside his dad`s car for seven torturous hours. But they believe
he died after just a few of those hours. Now we know, toxicology reports show Cooper had no drugs in his system. So it`s clear that this boy
suffered torturous death. He had scratches on his face. He had abrasions on the back of his head. He was not sedated during this.
Simone Bienne, behavior expert, if indeed it was intentional, this is pure sadism.
SIMONE BIENNE, BEHAVIOR EXPERT: It is pure sadism. And it absolutely turns my stomach. If he had any kind of compassion, if you`re going to
kill your child, inject them, shoot them, do something but don`t leave it burning there to die in such a sick and sordid, depraved, delusional (ph)
way. It is psychopathic beyond belief.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ross` friends are absolutely shocked. They`re shocked by his secret life and hidden personality. Remember this was a guy who was
church-going, devout, family man. Listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
WILKINSON: No. The guy I see looking back at me now I think is totally capable of this kind of thing. The Ross I knew, again, was not. But, you
know, clearly we`ve got a punch of different personas going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want Tiffanie Davis-Henry, psychologist, to look at the difference in these photos. When he`s on Scout or one of these other Web
sites, he`s dressed in black, he looks thinner -- or in suit. He`s groomed although he`s in a toilet. He`s totally -- he`s like a different person.
He`s like the better-looking, younger brother of the guy that appears as the family man.
DAVIS-HENRY: It is Jane. It looks a lot like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, doesn`t it? It looks like in one set of photos, he wants you to see him as
a family man. And in the other set of photos, he`s even cut other people out of the photos so he wants you to see him as a single man.
I always say a picture is just a snapshot, just a snippet of what one person`s life is like. You don`t necessarily know the whole story. But
certainly what he`s trying to tell us in those single shots is that, "I`m a single guy, I`m by myself unattached and I`m ready to mingle, meet, mate
and hook up with whomever it is that will answer my requests online."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, remember, this man says, "I didn`t do this. This was a terrible accident." And indeed he may in fact use the fact that cops
say he was sexting all these women as a defense. It might be his best argument. "Well, if anything`s going to make me distracted, it`s the
prospect of sexting six women at once. And there I am sending photos of my erect penis to them". We don`t know exactly when he took those photos,
whether it was at work, God forbid; or at home -- God forbid either way.
But that could be a good defense argument, the most distracting thing on the planet is sexual arousal.
Stay right there. More toxic secrets on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STODDARD: Yes, there are photos of his exposed penis -- erect penis being sent. There are also photos of women`s breasts being sent back to him.
But she said something to the effect that do you have a conscience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what was his response?
STODDARD: "No."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justin leaves work with the windows up. He begins his drive towards the movie theater. About 4:20 p.m., Harris stops his car
less than two miles from work and discovers Cooper`s lifeless body in the rear child seat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: A former friend says Ross was shameless about his interest in other women. Listen this from NBC`s "Today".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the cashiers, they were younger females. He would tell me later on, "Oh, that one`s so fine." I`m like "Dude, stop
checking these girls out."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he have chats regarding sexual activities with other women while his wife was sleeping and while his child was in the room
somewhere? This would have been back around 2013 leading up to 2014 when this happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About two weeks before the child`s death did he talk about exposing himself while he`s chatting and messaging this girl?
STODDARD: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And was he sending pictures?
STODDARD: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did he admit to her that he was not alone while he was doing it?
STODDARD: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Going back to that former friend, if that former friend is testifying on the stand, how is the prosecution or defense going to handle
that witness? Wendy Murphy, for the prosecution.
MURPHY: Well, you know, the important -- look. I think the most important thing that that friend has to say is, this was not a church-going guy in
the sense that it means he wasn`t also a monster behind closed doors. And I don`t think anybody thinks that just because you go to church you`re not
sending pictures of your penis to people. I mean come on. You can be a seemingly upstanding character in the community and be doing grotesque
things behind closed doors. I think we all know that right about now.
But his character as it was known to some people, if he wants to put on witnesses to say he`s not the type to do nasty things, he`s going to lose
that argument real fast.
VERONICA WATTERS, REPORTER: But Wendy, don`t you think that it`s important that Ross Harris was actually pointing out online that he thinks killing a
child in the way of abortion is murder? This is a guy who said clearly online, under this Roscoe UA we`ve been reading about on Reddit. Listen,
that`s a selfish thing to do, to kill a child is not about religion to me. To say that maybe we`re turning around and calling this guy a murderer, do
we really think he would put his kid in the back of a hot car to roast to death?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian Claypool for the defense.
MURPHY: Hypocrite. It`s not a crime to be a hypocrite.
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jane, there`s a mental health component to this case that`s going to be the cornerstone of the defense.
And I will tell you what that is.
This isn`t about lying and deceiving people. This is about real true demons that are inside this man`s body. This is about an addiction. And I
will tell you, I`m embarrassed to share this with you on national TV. But I have dealt with some of the similar issues that Ross Harris is dealing
with. That`s why I destroyed a relationship with my little girl`s mom.
And I will tell you in the middle of all this, there are no boundaries. You`re with a woman, yet you`re still flirting, you`re texting, you`re
dealing with pornography. You think there are no boundaries. And unless you get counseling or in my case I recommitted myself to Jesus, to exorcize
those demons they will not go away. This is bigger than just lying and deceiving.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian, I want to say, first of all I applaud for you for your honesty. As a recovering alcoholic -- and I share that all the time -
- I know it`s hard to reveal your warts but it`s important because we all have them. And nobody`s immune from character defects.
More secrets on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to thank my fantastic panel for their amazing insights as we explore the secrets in this case. I also want to stress
that Justin Ross Harris deserves his day in court. His attorney or his wife`s attorney invited on our show anytime.
Thank you for joining me for SECRET LIVES.
END
