ABC News(MARIETTA, Ga.) — The Georgia dad charged with killing his toddler son by leaving the boy in a hot car all day was exchanging graphic texts with a woman and a teenage girl in the hours before he found the boy dead, a detective testified Thursday at a probable cause court hearing.
The prosecutor said that he brought up the sexting messages during the court hearing because it “goes to the state of mind” of the defendant, Justin Ross Harris.
“He wanted to live a child-free life,” the prosecutor said.
Detective Phil Stoddard also told the court that the boy, Cooper Harris, endured a “painful death.”
Harris told his wife that when he found the boy “he looked peaceful…His eyes and his mouth were closed,” Stoddard recalled Harris telling his wife. The detective added under questioning, however, that photos taken by police show that the boy’s eyes were not closed.
In addition, Harris had searched websites that included a child-free website and how to survive in prison.
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