Witness in hot car death trial describes scent of car as 'sickly'

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — After a 4 day break caused by Hurricane Matthew, the Ross Harris hot car death trial resumed Wednesday morning.

Channel 2's Ross Cavitt and Carl Willis are in Brunswick, where the trial is being held. They will have updates from inside the courtroom throughout the day on Channel 2 Action News.

Harris is accused of intentionally leaving his 22-month-old son Cooper in a hot car to die for more than seven hours in 2014. He is facing eight charges, including felony murder.

As soon as court resumed, the state called its witness to the stand,.

Witness: 'Harris seemed to love his son'

Jurors heard from two men who were both working at Chick-fil-A the morning of Cooper's death. They also saw surveillance video of Harris and Cooper in the restaurant that morning. %

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Harris took Cooper to the restaurant that morning for a father-son breakfast before going to work.

The men testified that they both interacted with Harris.

Chris Redmon, who is the general manager, says he was familiar with Harris, who had visited the store more than a dozen times in the past year. %

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Redmon says when they arrived he shook Harris' hand and asked him about Cooper, who he had never met.

"(Harris) seemed to love his child," Redmon said during the defense's cross-examination.

Redmon says he didn't notice anything that unusual, except that Harris had a 5 o'clock shadow that day when he was usually clean shaven.

Redmon said Cooper was awake in Harris' arms when they left the restaurant.

After a morning break, a paramedic and a Cobb County police captain took the stand.

Peyton Barwick says he was in the ambulance that arrived on scene the day of Cooper's death.

Barwick says he felt for a pulse and then quickly pronounced Cooper dead and covered him with a sheet.

"It's a 2-year-old boy lying on the ground in the middle of the parking lot. No one needs to see that," Barwick says.

He says when he saw Harris in the back of the police car, Harris asked him if his son was dead. When he responded yes, he testified that Harris showed no emotion, appearing 'dry' and not crying.

Capt. James Ferrell was the next witness on the stand.

He was in charge of assigning the lead detective to the case. He says he chose Det. Phil Stoddard, whose investigation has been questioned by the defense, because of his experience in crimes against children and homicide.

"I thought his knowledge and his combination of experience would be very good to put on this case," Ferrell said

Ferrell says since the first moment, this was always a criminal case.

"If you leave a child inside the car and the child dies it's a criminal case, so there was no doubt in my mind that it was a criminal case," he said.

Ferrell also testified that he smelled an odor that can "only be associated with death" inside the car and on Cooper's body.

After a lunch break, a detective with the Cobb County Police Department took the stand. %

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Carey Grimstead says his role was executing a search warrant on Harris' car.

Grimstead testified that when he looked into the car where Cooper Harris' body was found there was a sickly sweat smell.

"It's an odor that I normally associate with death," Grimstead said. "It's a sickly sweat smell."

Grimstead also testified that from the exterior of the drivers side of Harris' car, you can clearly see the child safety seat through the windshield.

"I could see a computer bag, a Home Depot bag in the passenger seat and a child safety seat with my naked eye as I was I opened the driver's door," Grimstead stated.

Inside the Home Depot plastic bag, a receipt shows Harris bought light bulbs at 12:35 p.m. the day of Cooper's death. The bulbs were found in the car.

Grimstead later read off measurements from the drivers seat in relation to the child safety seat -- testifying that the top part of Cooper Harris' child safety seat was only three and a half inches from the driver's seat.

You can watch the entire trial LIVE on WSBTV.com/Ross-Harris-Trial. We will have minute-by-minute coverage as well as a daily summary from the courtroom each day. Like Ross Harris Updates on Facebook and follow @RossHarrisTrial on Twitter for updates throughout the trial.

Cox Media Group