Justin Ross Harris, center, the father of a toddler who died after police say he was left in a hot auto for about seven hours, arrives for his bond hearing at Cobb County Magistrate Court Thursday, July 3, 2014, in Marietta, Ga.
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After three weeks of jury selection in Cobb County, Harris’ attorneys asked that his trial be relocated.
The new venue for the Ross Harris murder trial will be more than 300 miles away following an announcement in court on Thursday.
The trial of a Georgia man accused of intentionally leaving his toddler son in a hot SUV to die will be held in the coastal city of Brunswick following a judge’s acknowledgement of potential jurors’ knowledge of the case in a metro Atlanta county.
While murder and child cruelty charges are related to the death of his son, the remaining charges Harris faces allege that he had lewd communications with a girl under 18 by asking her to provide a sexually explicit photo, sending explicit messages to her as well as a nude photo of a man’s genitals. That trial was moved from Cobb County to Glynn County. Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley agreed, making the decision to move the trial elsewhere in early May.
Defense attorneys argued that extensive pretrial publicity had resulted in an “atmosphere of hostility” against their client.
Prior to her decision to move the trial, Staley asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to collaborate on finding acceptable jurors to both sides.
Roughly 250 potential jurors filled out a 17-page questionnaire that included questions about what they knew about the case.
Harris is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and moved to Georgia in 2012 to work for Home Depot.
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Former federal prosecutor Zahra Karinishack said Brunswick also makes sense due to its distance from the Atlanta media market and it’s size – small but not too small.
