Just hours after Justin Ross Harris, 35, was convicted of murdering his 22-month-old son Cooper in 2014 after leaving him in a hot car for a whopping seven hours, Justin’s ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, opened up about the past two year’s events in a devastating Facebook post. Her words, which were posted on Nov. 14 and obtained by a local TV station, 11 Alive, revealed that she is “not ok” and that the verdict has not brought her peace.
#ICYMI: Justin Ross Harris guilty of all charges in the #HotCarDeath trial. What happened in that jury room? https://t.co/KovuhPeToM
— Primetime Justice (@PTJusticeHLN) November 15, 2016
“For those of you who want to know if I am ok. The answer is no,” Leanna wrote. “I have not been ‘ok’ since the moment I was told my son was dead. I have not been ‘ok’ since the moment my life was put on this path that has led to Ross being found guilty of maliciously murdering our child. So now you may be saying ‘justice has been served.’ And you are allowed your right to that opinion.”
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In her post, she also addressed other parents by saying that they, too, could lose their children by leaving them in a hot vehicle. “But guess what, you can convict every parent that this has ever happened to, and I can promise you 2 things…#1 it will never bring our children back and #2 it will not prevent this from happening in the future,” the mother continued.
“Next summer, as this begins to happen over and over again, ask yourself, “what can be done?!” The problem is not the parent! The problem is a society that refuses to believe this can happen to them! Wake up! Accept it! And by accepting it you will be protecting your child!”
Her passionate defense even attacked the public for judging her. “I don’t care what your opinion is of me! It does not matter! Your opinion will never bring back my son,” Leanna wrote on her Facebook page. “So called ‘justice’ will never bring back my son. Nothing will ever take that pain away. And nothing will ever feel worse than living with the knowledge that his pain and his death could have been prevented.”
Finally, Leanna offered some words of advice to parents with young children. “Be the wise parent, and accept that this can happen,” she urged. “And you will never have to walk the path that my family has had to walk. And I pray YOU never have to walk this path.”
Leanna and Justin’s baby son Cooper tragically baked to death on June 18, 2014 after Justin left the 22-month-old in a hot car for seven whole hours while he worked at his Home Depot job in Marietta, Georgia. He was supposed to have dropped the boy off at daycare, but claimed during the trail he “forgot” his son was still in the car.
Temperatures inside the vehicle approached 120 degrees, according to expert witnesses for the prosecution. And after 21 hours of deliberation over four days, the jury ended up finding Justin guilty on all eight counts that had been set against him, in their first vote.
He was charged with malice murder, two counts of felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children, and second-degree cruelty to children. Justin’s sentencing is on Dec. 5, but he will most likely spend the next 30 years in a Georgia state prison.
Tell us, HollywoodLifers — are you shocked by Leanna’s reaction to her ex’s murder conviction? Do YOU think Justin is truly guilty?