Dad in US charged with murder for leaving baby to die locked in a hot car

A man who allegedly sat in his office exchanging nude photos with women while his son was dying, locked for hours in a hot car, has been charged with murder, more than two months after the child's death.

A grand jury in the US state of Georgia on Thursday indicted Justin Ross Harris on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children. The malice murder charge indicates that prosecutors intend to prove Harris intentionally left his son Cooper in the hot car to die.

The eight-count indictment also includes charges related to sexually explicit exchanges prosecutors say Harris had with an underage girl.

"Today was another step in a long process," Vic Reynolds, district attorney in Cobb County, in suburban Atlanta, said. "We look forward to the case running its course and, ultimately, justice being served in this matter."

Harris will be arraigned within weeks, and Reynolds said he would decide before then whether to seek the death penalty.

Harris has been in jail since his arrest the day his 22-month-old son died. Harris' attorney, Maddox Kilgore, said his client was devastated after losing his son, his livelihood and freedom. Kilgore said the state had introduced several inconsistent theories about a potential motive in the boy's death, which his client maintains was unintentional.

"The truth is Cooper's death was a horrible, gut-wrenching accident," Kilgore told a news conference on Thursday. "It was always an accident and when the time comes and we work through the state's maze of theories at trial, it's still going to be a terrible, gut-wrenching accident."