Hot Seat: The Case of Justin Ross Harris 

He was in court watching his video thinking “I might’ve overdone it“

I feel like I’m cheating on JCS, but I’m okay with that.

I'm just confused how this guy had multiple affairs. He looks like a grown chubby preschooler.

he literally watched the video of the vet saying how horrible of a death it would be and thought perfect for my son

“He probably loved his son but that took a backseat.” Aw cmon too soon prosecution attorney guy

Three additional consecutive life sentences for: - the fake crying - the haircut - having chicken for breakfast

This fake crying with pauses for water is painful to watch.

I've never read How To Survive In Prison but I'm pretty sure the first tip is, "if you're going to prison for hurting a child, nothing in this book can help you".

The quality of the interview didn't annoy me, the quality of his acting however.....

Ya know who would have liked a nice drink of water when he was crying?......little Cooper

Jesus, I've seen people get more emotional over losing their goldfish than this guy did over his child literally being cooked alive in his car.

I think the most disturbing thing about this is he returned to his car multiple times and was unphased by looking straight at his dead/dying baby. That makes him so much more evil than anyone could imagine.

why is it always total potatoes that are cheating on their wives?

weird chick-fil-a ad my dude

"All I can think about is the uncomfortable cot and metal toilet".... less that 6 hours after your child died due to your "forgetfulness"? And thats ALL you can think of huh? Just wow....

I lost my son two years ago. He was 36. I couldn’t function. I shook uncontrollably, was freezing cold for days. I had to get my daughter home from Florida. My time was so confused and didn’t realize I hadn’t had anything to drink or eat. At some point I stood up and passed out. My poor daughter thought I had died because she said I was on the floor eyes open staring I had to make funeral arrangement etc. I constantly cried and shook... This is an act!! I still can’t speak about my Ryan without crying... the loss is devastating!! This POS makes my skin crawl! He’s sucking down water! What about poor Cooper!! Boiling away in that car strapped “tightly” in his car seat, no water!! Poor Cooper 💔

"I was dreading he was going to look terrible" - that was the smoking gun for me. There is no explanation in my mind for why an innocent person would say this.

Everyone said how great Chris Watts was with his kids, too..

I followed this case at the time and I really felt hatred toward this guy. When he was in the back of the cop car at the scene he had the audacity to complain that he was too hot. I truly hope he suffers every single day of his life.

Broke my heart when I read the note that said first responders disputed the fact that Cooper looked peaceful

Pray that Jim never learns to swim and catches us all cheating on him across the pond.

“I’m a great father.” Dude, if I accidentally killed my child because I forgot them in a hot car, those would not be the words leaving my mouth. Not saying the people who accidentally leave their kid in a hot car are not good parents, but I highly doubt any of them **felt** they were immediately after the death of their child. Personally, I’d wanna be dead without my baby.

He didn't want his wife to freak out and think their son was missing. "Don't worry honey, he's just dead".

This man said a lot of infuriatingly dumb shit during that interrogation but “I didn’t want her freaking out thinking he was missing” nearly gave me an aneurysm

I lost my daughter in a shop for 45 seconds and displayed more panic,grief and outright hysteria than this thing 🤷‍♀️

"why ME? MY life is over." This guy disgusts me. That poor, poor baby. :'(

This the type of dude to walk around with Cheetos residue on his fingers

'why me?' 'all I can think about is that jail cell' It's truly chilling to see a real person with such complete disregard for his own son

No good parent would say "I'm a good father" after causing the death of their kid. You would feel like the worst parent, even if it was pure accident and out of your hands. One would still feel like failed parent. And he has the nerve to say that...

I've had a horrible thought...what if he was planning to "discover" his son during his lunchbreak, but then he noticed the child was still sorta alive so he had to wait even longer.

He forgot to mention his dad has a Mercedes & he loves that baby❣️

He claimed he and his wife supposedly had a strong, healthy relationship. Meanwhile he was having numerous affairs, then deliberately left their toddler in the car to die an agonizingly slow, painful death, then has the nerve to put it on his wife to determine if their relationship is actually as strong as he thought.

I would be curled up in the fetal position on the floor and throwing up if accidentally did that to my kids. I can’t even fully imagine the hopelessness and grief that I would be feeling.

That was literally the worst fake crying I have seen in my 25 years of life, jeeeeez.

this man looks like he googled a wikihow article on how to show emotion and still found the instructions unclear

Witnesses said he didn’t try CPR. He didn’t try to help Cooper at all! Strangers tried to help Cooper! And he complained it was too hot in the back of the cop car!

Intense crying* *pauses for a drink* back to intense crying*

May 23, 2021 - He was denied a new trial and continues to serve life in a Georgia prison.

"Do you think we'll have more kids?" "Of course we'll have more kids, just because we lost one child doesn't mean we won't have more kids." WHAT. THE. FUCK?????

I cried at the end of this video. Picturing him stuck in that seat, not understanding what was going on and wondering why he was left there, it's just horrible beyond words

He looks like a seven year old that has grown suddenly.

He didn't clear his phone history or web searches because he thought he would walk out of that police station. He went to his car after lunch to see if he could hear Cooper making any noises, he avoids looking at Cooper cos he's not ready yet for his final performance just yet. I've never had any doubt about his guilt. Some parents see their children as possessions. He did, he made him, he could end him.

"He wasn't, like, crazy lookin'" -Fake sobbing man talking about his son's corpse

If I left my dog in a hot car, and he died as a result, the LAST thing I would ever say is that I'm a great dog owner. I'd be far harder on myself than anyone else in the world could be to me. That he called himself a "good parent" after his son died, is unfathomable.

My theory as to why Harris drove away from The Treehouse and to another location to “discover” Cooper: it’s harder to put on a big phony act in front of people you know. Everyone there saw him every day, and he’d have had a harder time being convincingly hysterical around his colleagues than strangers. That short drive to the mall increases my skepticism because there had to be an odor in the car. Not necessarily decomposition, but definitely a soiled diaper, sweat, and the sour panicky adrenaline scent of a child that struggled and died over a period of eight hours. There is no way he failed to notice both the smell AND the sight of Cooper’s corpse for even thirty seconds inside that vehicle.

If you leave your loved child in a hot car, in the summer, all day, to die a long, suffocating, painful death........how could you not be constantly imagining how horrible that was for your kid? But he's acting like he forgot to take out the trash. "All I can think about is that jail cell." He spent more time trying to talk the cop out of the charges, than he did thinking about his dead son.

Not once did he even mention the suffering of his child.

That text he sent, "When are you going to get my buddy?" reminds me of Scott Peterson calling his wife saying, "Hey beautiful.." Like, hey everybody, see, I'm a good husband/father.

The fact he didn't break down at the start, while describing the "daddy son breakfast" is a huge indicator to me.

Man, the little detail about 'I always kiss my son after putting him in the car seat, cause god forbid there's a crash and something happens to me, I just want him to remember me loving him' line absolutely chills me for some reason. I think it's because he just needed to add that loving father detail not realizing how utterly morbidly ironic it makes everything look... I mean, I feel the whole 'I did this in case I died accidentally but omg I killed him accidentally instead' would just wind most of us on reflection during a bloody interrogation, but he sails through it without a stutter.

When he sees his wife for the first time in the investigation room he didn't even say "I'm sorry." If it had been a true accident and your negligence resulted in the death of someone's child, you would tell them you're sorry. His "remorse" was so fake that he forgot to express it as soon as he found out he was being charged and was too worried about himself.

Him bringing his son to the restaurant and kissing him on the cheek before leaving was an act. “Look how good a dad he is, he fed his baby and kissed him”

So much crying but he didn't use a single tissue, didn't blow his nose. Fake.

Bruh I’ve cried so hard over a pets death I’ve collapsed, the fact he has so much control over his sobbing, what he’s saying, and his movements makes it so obvious it’s a terrible performance. He didn’t care about that boy, he wasn’t his son or even a person. Just a thing he made that he could get rid of.

God, nothing is more awkward than watching someone act who _thinks_ they're a great actor, meanwhile they're absolutely horrible at it.

I’ve found you late but at least I’ve found you Matt Orchard. Such impeccable content. Thank you for raising the bar.

Daddy: He looked so peaceful when I found him. Police: There's no way you could overlook the smell in the car.

I just can't imagine knowing the suffering that goes with dying of heat exhaustion and then doing this to his son. I just can't fathom, I can't understand this.

This guy acts and sounds like Nikocado Avocado 😂

His wife’s behavior is unusual, but it reads to me that she’s used to parenting her husband in addition to her kid.

I kept forgetting it was a recording of a recording. Hearing random coughing while I am watching this alone in the dark was quite the jump scare.

Fun fact: the audio of him 'crying' is what's played at seal exhibits in zoos when the zoologists need the animals to mate.

I think the most stand-out thing is his text to his wife. Because, as someone who regularly forgets things due to poor memory, this almost certainly would've caused me to remember, or at least question myself. A lot of times, these forgotten memories arent gone, they're just under the surface and will come up with the right prompt.

Another detail that wasn't addressed is that he DIDN'T TAKE OUT THE BOY FROM THE SEAT. If you're a parent, even if there are obvious signs that your baby's not alive, a parent normally won't believe it, and fight for their child with absolutely everything they can. Above all else, setting your child free by removing them from the seat is such an elementary, automatic reaction (unless one causes their child's death), that it goes without saying you do it, subconsciously. During the Chris Watts interrogation, he claimed he didn't call 911 because his girls "were blue", beyond help. The detectives replied, even if your child is decapitated, you call 911 and try everything and anything to revive them. He didn't bother to remove his son from the seat. The detectives (and prosecutors) let that one slide.

My child dies in car. Lock me forever. Don't care.

My stepmother was a juror in this case, she told me when they first saw the interrogation vid when he was crying she heard one of the ladies next to her mumble “he’s a croc of shit”.

41:50 "He looked so peaceful" I'll tell you right now.. that wasn't a peaceful death.. it was literal torture. I guarantee you, there was nothing peaceful about it.

“Why did this happen to ME? Why ME?” Dude just killed his baby and isn’t actually upset until he gets in trouble.

"When I saw my dead child I knew MY life was over"

Thank you for being a really wonderful alternative to JCS. I really appreciate the work you've put into this detailed analysis of this case. A couple of things, going through the video a second time: The way he cries and then relaxes, legs crossed, while still crying, indicates to me that he thinks he's actually giving a good performance. Also, with regards to his wife, she's trying to comfort him for what she thinks is a mistake. Viewed through the lens of absolute trust, she's perfectly within her right to say what she said. Is it possible that, at this point, she hasn't seen her child and the reality hasn't seeped in yet? If you have any knowledge to the time-frame it would be good to clarify.

It is a well known fact that this guy and Dalia Dippolito were acting partners.

Please use subtitles more in the future. Interrogations are so hard for the hearing impaired to make sense of

“All I can think about is that jail cell” Don’t worry you’re gonna have the rest of your life to get acquainted with it buddy

18:24 “and i probably didnt even hear him.” You wouldnt say “probably” if it were a real situation. You would say “i didnt even hear him at all.” This is the first dead give away to me. In attempt to seem genuine and truth telling using mitigating statements like “probably” he fails to make any sense at all.

When my Son was a toddler I called my sitter. When she didn't answer I had a heart attack, jumped in my company car and drove there not caring if I would be reprimanded or fired. I would be inconsolable if my child died, let alone because of me. He talks so casually. Why can't people just file for divorce if they want out??!!

Chick fil-a every morning is excessive

Never trust a guy named Justin whose haircut hasn't graduated 4th grade.

If she is a nurse I imagine she went into emergency mode, a mode which is almost sociopathic in nature. Shock and being able to get through somethings most people would crumble over isn't surprising.

He literally complained about being hot in the police car.

The most off-putting thing is when he starts listing off all of his qualifications for being innocent like not having bad history. Like he is filling out an application for innocence because he is not actually innocent.

"Harris went to a restaurant called Publix, and afterwards he went to another restaurant called Home Depot"

We need more channels like this and Jim Can't Swim

The video in the father’s search history sent a shiver down my spine. The guy talking about how a dog being left in a hot car would have a “slow and agonizing death”. The fact that the father saw that video before subjecting his own son to the exact thing seems damning in my eyes

The reason this case always chills me; I read the same Longform article as Harris did, the one that breaks down how these things happen. We dont know for sure he read anything, BUT....the way he speaks, what he speaks about. I know that article, I've read it a few times because it's so interesting and explains how these things happen so well. One of the cases was a woman who had been a ranked military office. She did the Daycare Blip, she took her kid to the door, parked up, took a work call that an on for a while and that sort of...Highway Blindness kicked in, her brain switched into work mode and her brain checked the box that says 'we dropped the baby off' so she left. Her baby did not survive. I even know what cases I think he was trying to copy more specifically. I'm sure of it because of the lunchtime check. In one case of baby left in car, a father had done a similar sort of thing with the Blip in his routine that causes this deadly mistake. This dad actually realised and raced back to his car. I believe his child survived but suffered profound brain injuries and amongst other things, was left blind and permanently mentally and physically disabled. He'd been in the car a few hours, I think) I think thats what the lunchtime visit was. He may have intended to 'find' Cooper in that moment, but either Cooper was still alive, perhaps crying, so Harris left it til the end of the day. Or he was on his way to make the check, recalled this case and realised he couldn't risk 'Finding' Cooper in that moment, in case he was still alive. Because then not only did the plan fail and he still has a son, his son could now be a severely sick child who would need more full time care than ever before, perhaps for the rest of his life. Harris didn't want the kid when he was healthy, he wasn't going to accept a sick child. And the easiest, biggest argument against his innocence? The smell. First responders at the scene all reported a strong, STRONG smell of death. Enough that no one believes Harris rode in that car any distance and didn't notice the stink. His claim he 'saw' Cooper, rather than smell the corpse is totally implausible. Even if Cooper was alive at lunchtime there would have been a fairly intense smell. A toddler, in diapers, stuck in a HOT car for by that stage, a few hours? He'd have voided his bladder and bowels and probably been sick multiple times. Even by then there would have been a ripe whiff (which could be why the visit to the car is so brief, Harris opened the door, got a nose full of that and perhaps knew he'd not be able to compose his emotions for his performance). As to why he did drive some distance in that stink; I dont think he trusted his own performance enough to do in front of co workers. Its one thing to fool your life long partner who you've been lying to for YEARS. I think he wanted strangers around when he reacted. I think he thought he'd have more control over how he came across.

I don't even have kids but I had to get up and check up on my sleeping dog in the other room to make sure he was alright lol.

This was done quite well. However, you didn’t say what his sentence was at the end. That would have been helpful. He got life without parole. He’s now asking for a new trial.

He never anticipated detectives going through his computer/phone. He thought....leaving son in hot car, easy...accident. Cops won't question a thing.

Even if I’d have done it accidentally I would request to be locked up for such gross neglect.

i like how he sat there stone faced as the prosecution talked about his child getting baked by his own fault but when the defense started talking about his sentencing he starts crying like a toddler

Nobody owns a format, no even the one who invents it. You write, read and edit your own shit and I really like it. Good job mate.

I’d be beside myself at my sons death. Like unable to speak. The fact he’s so cavalier and calm is creepy and unnerving.

Lmao his reaction the moment they go “yeah you’re headed to a cell until we talk to your wife because you did kinda leave a baby in a car all damn day” is priceless. What an absolute numb nuts to think that because people don’t always end up charged that he’d just be able to go “oopsie I killed my child in one of the slowest and most miserable ways possible, I gotta go catch a dinner date with a young hot lady now”

This Video fails to mention the sentence: Life + 32 years. Also recently (2020) he was denied a new trial.

I’ve cried harder imagining how painful it’s going to be when my dog dies in the future than this guy did over losing his son 🤨

I'm autistic and even I could tell that was fake crying.

Couple of years ago, I'd be late 30s, my younger brother left me in a hot car! It was a rental, it had automatic locks, I was completely unfamiliar with the car, we were in Spain, late summer, under the sun - middle of the city, he "brb"'d had to go get some stuff, and left me there. First few moments, I was just bored - and a bit annoyed that the doors had auto-locked as soon as he closed them, and I didn't wanna make a fuss, neither did I feel like frantically looking for some unlock feature around the controls. From there on, the heat rose quickly! I got a very rational worry - that the air and temperature was becoming untenable, but I kept from panicking knowing - again, rationally - that my brother would be right back. After maybe 3-4 minutes at the most, he came back, and I wasn't even at a point where I'd sweat, it was more of just a deep, dry heat - I realized just how fast heat builds in a locked car, and just how quickly it becomes too hot to be comfortable, to hot to breathe properly - it was SO fast!

The difference between him and someone who truly accidentally killed their child is... Had i done this, I'd be wanting to die. I truly wouldn't care what they did to me. I'd probably beg for the death penalty. All he cares about is himself and what's gonna happen to him. Honestly i believe i could invent more grief than he shows. Sick!!

His "crying" was literally one of the most annoying noises I have ever heard thus far in life. My goodness!

"a common complaint from interrogation viewers is the poor audio and video quality" okay to be fair thats *all* interrogations

I have pet rats. No matter how well you keep them, their life span is only 2-3 years on average, so sadly they pass away pretty quickly. I still cry and mourn them extremely when they pass away. I show more grief for a RAT then this person did for their own human son.