Man accused of leaving toddler son to die in hot car released from prison, transferred to county jail

ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) - A metro Atlanta man accused of leaving his 22-month-old son to die in a hot car has been released from prison.

Justin Ross Harris was released from Macon State Prison on Sunday after serving about 10 years, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He was transferred to Cobb County Jail on Sunday.

Harris was originally given a life sentence in 2016 for the death of his son Cooper.

In 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court decided to overturn Harris’ murder conviction, but he still served time for sex crimes included in the original conviction.

The remaining one-year sentences are for a pair of misdemeanors for distribution of obscene materials to minors, The Associated Press reported.

Prosecutors said Harris left his son in his car in June 2014. Harris was supposed to drop Cooper off at day care on the way to his job at Home Depot but did not do so.

Cooper was discovered seven hours later in the back seat. The temperature that day was in the 80s.

Harris claimed it was an accident and blamed sleep deprivation. Prosecutors claimed that Harris wanted to get out of his marriage because he wanted to have sex with as many women as possible.

During the trial, the state argued Harris was a sexual deviant who intentionally left Cooper to die so he could pursue women he met online – some of whom were teenagers. Harris reportedly had exchanged sexual text messages with multiple women on the day his son died. One of the text exchanges was with a 16 year old.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled the information should have been excluded because it was “needlessly cumulative and prejudicial.” The court also stated that the evidence used to show Harris maliciously caused his son’s death was far from “compelling” or “strong.”

The Cobb County District Attorney’s Office later said they would not retry Harris on murder charges in his son’s death.

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