Cops Investigating Health Records in Hot Car Death
BOLDUAN: Welcome back. We're digging into a new series of warrants released in the case of the father accused of leaving his toddler to die in a hot car. They show the warrants that investigators are looking at the medical records for both the father and the son, and they also reveal the detectives are looking at the electronic devices found in Justin Ross Harris' car. Nick Valencia is live at the CNN Center with the very latest. Good morning, Nick.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL REPORTER: Good morning, Kate. Yes. Investigators are casting an ever widening net as they pore over physical evidence and electronic data that they have obtained from search and seizure warrants, things like an SD card belonging to Justin Ross Harris, external hard drive and medical records belonging to the 22-month-old Cooper Harris and his father, as well as Justin Ross Harris. Also, part of their investigation is Leanna Harris. Since her husband owes arrest and the baby's death, her actions have been drawn into question, though she's not formally charged or named a suspect, I called the Cobb County magistrate this morning to see if there was any search or arrest warrants on file for Leanna Harris. There are not. Her husband has pleaded not guilty, Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: All right. Nick, thanks so much. John?</s>BERMAN: All right. Let's dig in a little bit more right now. Joining us is Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst. Mel, thanks so much for being with us. I really appreciate it.</s>MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Of course, John. Good morning.</s>BERMAN: What I want to do now is look at the where, how and why of what police are doing as they investigate this case, what the subpoenas tell us. It seems to me they are trying to build a case of sort of inconsistencies by the father, potentially catch us in a lie. Let's start with the medical records here. They're going after his medical records and Cooper, the baby. Why?</s>ROBBINS: Well, first of all what, they are looking for, John, is they're digging for anything that might give them a clue as to motive in this case. So, for example, if you're looking at the father's medical records, what I would be looking at if I were the prosecutor in the case and the police investigating is does he have a history of mental illness? Is there something going on with this guy? Did he say anything to a doctor which might give a hint as to how he could possibly do something like this, if in fact it was intentional? Also, there are reports that he was deaf. So, they need to confirm this kind of stuff so they can start to build a profile. In terms of the little boy Cooper's medical records, John, they might be looking for whether or not the child was actually ill. Did he have some sort of catastrophic illness that might have caused some undue stress on their marriage? So, they are just looking for any clue whatsoever to help paint a picture of what was actually going on.</s>BERMAN: We've heard a lot about the car seat, too, Mel, haven't we? It was a rear-facing car seat. People who know kids or have kids know that's what you use when you have really small kids, but they you grow out of it and then they have to change to a front facing car seat. This kid was really kind of too big for the rear facing car seat, wasn't he?</s>ROBBINS: Well, I think it depends on the seat that you buy. I remember having my son in a car seat that was rear facing until he was almost 20 months. So I think it depends on the size and weight. But some of the other troubling stuff, John, is they had him on the smallest size of the car seat so the straps were really tight against him and wrenched down. And so, they are going to look at that as well to see if he put him in there too tightly trying to trap him in there.</s>BERMAN: And, of course, there's the speculation about, well, he would have seen his head popping out over the rear-facing car seat because it was so small, or had he'd been walking to the car, because the backed in, right? Had he walked away from the car, he would have looked his son right in the face as he was leaving.</s>ROBBINS: Yes. I mean , right now, they have charged him with a reckless, a negligent type of child abuse and so, if they can prove that anybody who's backing up and kind of looking in the rear view mirror saw the kid's head over the seat, it's less likely they can forget him. So they are trying to right now take a look at all the tiny little pieces to add up a picture of what's reasonable and what's not reasonable. And I'm going to tell you what's really important, John, and it's the subject of one of those subpoenas is the cell phone, because they are going to take a look at everything that was going on on his cell phone that day. Did he get a call from day care? Did he get a text from day care? Did his wife call him about how drop-off went? He -- did he text friends about any plans? There were allegations, John, that he made calls at the scene, up to three phone calls. Who was he calling instead of calling 911, so these are all critical puzzle pieces, Lego blocks, if you will, that allow police to build a case to basically saying, hey, he may be telling us this but all the evidence we've amassed from the phone, from the DVDs, the hard drive, they tell us a totally different story.</s>BERMAN: Mel, putting these pieces together as they look at the father. Are they doing the same thing for the mother right now? It doesn't seem to be quite a similar focus.</s>ROBBINS: You know, they need to look at her for sure, but I think we've done a really good job here at CNN of cautioning people not to rush to judgment on the mom. Sure there are things that she's done and said that cause all of us to say, hey, wait a minute. One of them when she said I love you, Ross, I'm doing this for you -- and we were all kind of puzzled as to what this doing thing that she's doing actually is. But she's also lost a 22-month-old. She's got a husband who's cheating on her. She's now got the world focused on her and there are a lot of people that grieve very differently. She could be in shock and could be super angry at him. She could be terrified. So there are lots of ways to explain away her behavior, but you better believe they are taking a look at her, especially since there are allegations, John, that the -- that Ross was explaining to family members how to collect on two life insurance policies that they had taken out on baby Cooper.</s>BERMAN: But you make a great point there, what we have right now from the mother is perhaps strange statements, not this collection now of little threads of evidence that seem to be developing with the father. Mel Robbins, great to have you with us this morning. Really appreciate it.</s>ROBBINS: Great to see you, John.</s>BERMAN: Kate?</s>BOLDUAN: Thanks, John. Coming up next on NEW DAY, tensions growing over the immigration crisis as President Obama is preparing to visit Texas. The White House has just announced that the president has said he's open to a meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry on the issue, but will the president visit the border? Plus, also ahead, could LeBron James be returning home? Many suitors are lining up trying to woo him to their team. Is Cleveland the front-runner?