(CNN)A judge has sentenced suburban Atlanta father Justin Ross Harris to life in prison without parole for the murder of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who died in 2014 after Harris left him in a hot car for seven hours while he went to work.
Harris also received another 32 years, to be served consecutively, for convictions on four other counts.
Harris, 36, who appeared in an orange jumpsuit with his wrists shackled at his waist, cast his head slightly downward as the sentence was handed down. He briefly closed his eyes but offered little other reaction.
In addition to the life term, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark gave Harris a 20-year sentence on a conviction for first-degree cruelty to children and another 10 years for sexual exploitation of children. Those charges stemmed from a finding that Harris tried to convince a minor to text him photos of her genitalia.
Harris also received a year each on two misdemeanor counts of dissemination of harmful material to minors, also related to his texts.
Harris' legal team offered no mitigating circumstances or evidence ahead of the sentencing. Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring told the court that this was a matter of the defense team's "trial strategy."
"There's not much to argue or say," Boring said. "The jury verdict basically says it all."
The only sentence that matches the "evil nature" of Harris' crimes, Boring said, is life in prison. Staley concurred.
The sentencing doesn't mean the headline-grabbing case is over. Harris' lawyers, who claimed the boy's death was a tragic accident brought about by a lapse in memory, say they intend to file a motion for a new trial.
But prosecutors had argued that Harris intentionally locked his son inside his Hyundai Tucson that day because he wanted to be free of his family responsibilities.
The incident
It was June 18, 2014, when Harris strapped his son into a rear-facing car seat and drove from their Marietta, Georgia, home to Chick-fil-A for breakfast, then to The Home Depot corporate headquarters, where he worked. Instead of dropping Cooper off at day care, Harris left him in the car all day, testimony revealed.
Sometime after 4 p.m. that day, as Harris drove to a nearby theater to see a movie, he noticed his son was still in the car. He pulled into a shopping center parking lot and pulled Cooper's body from the SUV. Witnesses said he appeared distraught and was screaming.
"'I love my son and all, but we both need escapes.' Those words were uttered 10 minutes before this defendant, with a selfish abandon and malignant heart, did exactly that," Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said in his closing argument.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/05/us...nce/index.html