ross harris, the man whose ex-wife says never met a stranger, was about to have his future decided by 12 of them. how were you all feeling as the jury went out to deliberate? i didn t think there was any chance of them coming back with guilty on anything that had to do with cooper. reporter: ross cousin katie said nothing she had seen at trial had swayed her belief in ross innocence. you could hold a gun to my head and tell me that i had to say that ross hurt cooper on purpose, and it will never come out of my mouth. will never come out of my mouth. reporter: ross best friend billy was equally confident. the prosecution did not do well at all. they did not prove motive. i mean, they didn t get close to it. in fact, i feel like their witnesses could have been defense witnesses. reporter: the jury took its time to deliberate the charges. not only multiple counts of child cruelty and murder. ross also faced charges related to exchanging sexually explicit images with a minor
forum for people interested in living a child-free life. a monstrous pore tras was emerging. but even after weighing all the allegations, ross friends were still convinced he never meant to hurt cooper. did you ever hear ross get frustrated with cooper? no. reporter: treat him like he was a burden at times? no. reporter: because you know there are times when kids can get on our nerves. no. no. there are times when you definitely need a break. okay? but he loved that boy. reporter: ross harris family enlisted the help of defense attorney maddox kilgore and his team. the entire case was a house of cards. we felt that, despite public sentiment, and despite the bravado of the state and the charges, we felt extremely confident that that house of cards was going to collapse in trial. reporter: in october, 2016, more than two years after the death of his son, ross harris went on trial for murder. death. deception.