Breakdown

Ross Harris’ ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, took the witness stand on Monday and repeated her long-held belief that Harris never meant to leave their 22-month-old son Cooper to die in his overheated SUV. Taylor spent an emotional two days on the stand, ending her testimony with a dramatic flourish. Some of Harris’ relatives and closest friends then followed her and testified Harris loved his little boy. But in the end, Harris chose not to testify in his own defense, and both the defense and the state rest their cases.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lead Detective Phil Stoddard ended his testimony after four days on the witness stand. Under cross-examination, Stoddard took some punches, but also delivered some blows. On Friday, the state rested its case after calling 51 witnesses to the stand over the course of 16 days of testimony. They presented no eyewitnesses, no DNA on a murder weapon, no irrefutable video. Instead, prosecutors put into evidence a mountain of circumstantial evidence and a pile of filth – being Harris’ deviant sex life. The defense then started presenting its case, trying to show the jury that Ross Harris was thinking of a life with his son Cooper long after the day he was left in his father’s SUV to die.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prosecutors open a new week of testimony by calling one woman after another to the witness stand. Harris pursued all of them – including two teenagers – over sexually explicit online chats. Finally, lead detective Phil Stoddard takes the stand and prosecutors play the detective’s interview of Harris at the police station the day of Cooper’s death. They also play the recording of Harris’ emotionally charged meeting with his wife when she comes to see him at police headquarters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The judge, lawyers and jurors return to Brunswick after Hurricane Matthew. The trial starts back up with the initial focus on little Cooper Harris. Prosecutors introduce testimony about the “smell of death,” and the jury hears from a hooker who said she had sex with Harris weeks before Cooper’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The murder trial against Justin Ross Harris is finally underway. The prosecution opened with a blistering opening statement, while Harris’ defense attorney countered with an emotional and powerful opening of his own. After that, the first prosecution witnesses took the stand, and some of them gave testimony prosecutors wanted to hear, while some of them said things the defense wanted to hear. Then, three days into the trial, Hurricane Matthew started its destructive path through Florida and toward Georgia. That meant the trial of stops and starts stopped once again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re just a few steps from the starting gate. In a matter of days, the 12 jurors will be seated, the lawyers will make their opening statements, and the murder trial of Justin Ross Harris will begin. Will he testify?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jury selection isn’t fast, but it is fascinating. Prospective jurors in the Harris case speak of magical powers, preconceived notions and their favorite TV shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ross Harris trial heads to Brunswick after a four-month hiatus. What sort of jury will Judge Mary Staley Clark find on Georgia’s coast? Here’s why the trial’s new venue could be called a prosecutor’s dream. To learn more about this case, visit AJCBreakdown.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Chapman awaits the all-important decision from the state's prosecutors: will they put him back on trial for murder and arson or end the long-running legal drama that put him in state prison for eight years? This concluding episode has all the answers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Harris trial was just days away from opening statements and testimony, when the proceedings ground to a sudden and unexpected halt.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The defense in the hot-car murder trial of Justin Ross Harris surprises everyone by filing for a change of venue almost at the of jury selection. But the judge has her own surprise: she grants it.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jury selection, which may be close to conclusion, has taken an interesting turn. Nearly a third of the jurors qualified for the final panel – the one from which the 12 jurors and a number of alternates will be chosen – say they believe Justin Ross Harris is guilty.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The most important moments of the Justin Ross Harris trial may be unfolding right now - even before testimony begins or the lawyers ever state their cases. Welcome to jury selection, where cases are often won or lost.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cobb police insinuated a number of times that Leanna (now Leanna Taylor, since her divorce came through in March) might have helped her husband plan the murder of their son. But those claims faded and then all but disappeared. Taylor was never charged with any crime and is expected to be a witness for the defense in Ross Harris’s murder trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The state’s murder case against Harris is formidable. The lead police investigator has already testified at length in pretrial hearings: some key testimony seems utterly damning, but some seems totally wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The evidence against Justin Ross Harris, accused of murder in the hot-car death of his son, and how it just seems to keep piling up.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A state prosecutor is now deciding whether to put Justin Chapman back on trial for murder. His first trial ended in a guilty verdict after the jury deliberated about 40 minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The case goes back to the Georgia Supreme Court – and this time there would be a much different outcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Chapman tells his side of the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Chapman’s new defense team sifts through the evidence and uncovers critical breakdowns in the prosecution of Chapman, including several pieces of evidence that Chapman's public defender Jan Hankins says she never received, and the testimony of witnesses that Hankins never had time to visit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices