Hot Car Murder Trial: Courtroom Players

Jurors are being seated now for the trial of Justin Ross Harris, a Georgia man accused of intentionally leaving his small son to die in a hot car in 2014.

Heading up the prosecution, Cobb County DA Vic Reynolds is a former police officer, and began prosecuting felony cases as an assistant district attorney in Fulton and Cobb counties. He was appointed Chief Magistrate in 1994 and was elected to a full term in 1996. He left the bench in 1999 and began practicing criminal-defense law. He was elected Cobb DA in 2012.

"Reynolds has done an excellent job of building up one of metro Atlanta's finest DA offices," said Atlanta defense attorney Jonathon Majeske, who is not involved in the case.

Max Kilgore, the head of Harris’ defense team, works for Marietta-based Kilgore & Rodriguez, Criminal Defense Attorneys. After a law clerk stint, he was an assistant attorney general for five years, where he argued habeas corpus cases across Georgia and represented the state in murder cases before the state Supreme Court. He then served as an assistant Cobb DA where he tried dozens of felony jury trials, including defendants charged with murder, armed robbery, child cruelty, and trafficking narcotics.

Kilgore then moved into criminal defense. In 2011, he won a “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict in Cobb where his client was charged with murder by stabbing his mother 120 times.

After law school, Superior Court Judge Mary Staley served as an assistant DA in Cobb from 1978-1982. She was elected Cobb Magistrate Judge in 1982, and then State Court Judge in 1984. She was elected to the Superior Court of Cobb in 1992.

“Staley is an exceptional judge,” said Majeske. “She rarely gets reversed on appeal, and has tried several high profile cases before.”