Jurors in hot car death case look inside SUV firsthand

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Jurors in the trial of a Georgia man charged with murder after his toddler son died in the back of a hot SUV have taken a firsthand look at the vehicle.

News outlets report that jurors walked around the Hyundai Tucson and looked inside Wednesday. But they were prohibited from touching the car, where 22-month-old Cooper Harris was left to die in 2014.

Cooper’s father, Justin Ross Harris, is accused of intentionally killing the boy by leaving him in the car in suburban Atlanta, where he moved to from Alabama in 2012. His lawyers call the death accidental.

Harris’ attorneys called the viewing unnecessary. But Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark said viewing the vehicle would give jurors a better sense of the SUV’s dimensions.