Breakdown

The judge, lawyers and jurors return to Brunswick after Hurricane Matthew. The trial starts back up with the initial focus on little Cooper Harris. Prosecutors introduce testimony about the “smell of death,” and the jury hears from a hooker who said she had sex with Harris weeks before Cooper’s death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lead Detective Phil Stoddard ended his testimony after four days on the witness stand. Under cross-examination, Stoddard took some punches, but also delivered some blows. On Friday, the state rested its case after calling 51 witnesses to the stand over the course of 16 days of testimony. They presented no eyewitnesses, no DNA on a murder weapon, no irrefutable video. Instead, prosecutors put into evidence a mountain of circumstantial evidence and a pile of filth – being Harris’ deviant sex life. The defense then started presenting its case, trying to show the jury that Ross Harris was thinking of a life with his son Cooper long after the day he was left in his father’s SUV to die. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The most important moments of the Justin Ross Harris trial may be unfolding right now - even before testimony begins or the lawyers ever state their cases. Welcome to jury selection, where cases are often won or lost. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Harris trial was just days away from opening statements and testimony, when the proceedings ground to a sudden and unexpected halt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ross Harris trial heads to Brunswick after a four-month hiatus. What sort of jury will Judge Mary Staley Clark find on Georgia’s coast? Here’s why the trial’s new venue could be called a prosecutor’s dream. To learn more about this case, visit AJCBreakdown.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jury selection, which may be close to conclusion, has taken an interesting turn. Nearly a third of the jurors qualified for the final panel – the one from which the 12 jurors and a number of alternates will be chosen – say they believe Justin Ross Harris is guilty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The defense in the hot-car murder trial of Justin Ross Harris surprises everyone by filing for a change of venue almost at the of jury selection. But the judge has her own surprise: she grants it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The state’s murder case against Harris is formidable. The lead police investigator has already testified at length in pretrial hearings: some key testimony seems utterly damning, but some seems totally wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The evidence against Justin Ross Harris, accused of murder in the hot-car death of his son, and how it just seems to keep piling up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cobb police insinuated a number of times that Leanna (now Leanna Taylor, since her divorce came through in March) might have helped her husband plan the murder of their son. But those claims faded and then all but disappeared. Taylor was never charged with any crime and is expected to be a witness for the defense in Ross Harris’s murder trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A judge in Georgia signs off on a plea deal for Dr. Narendra K. Gupta, who admits to three counts of sexual battery against patients. No jail time, but he agrees to leave the country, surrender his license and never practice medicine again. Well, two out of three . . . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Narendra K. Gupta had a history of allegations of attacking and harassing nurses. Instead of reporting him to police, the medical community shielded him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In late 2011, Dr. Narendra K. Gupta stood before a Fulton County judge and pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. The conditions of his sentence were unusual: He didn’t have to go to jail. He did have to leave the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why would a doctor jeopardize his career by subjecting patients, nurses, even office staff, to repeated sexual abuse? In many cases, the physician doesn’t recognize boundaries because he doesn’t believe they apply to him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Ohio doctor has left his practice in the small city of Lima and moved to Atlanta. Also left behind in Ohio: the lawsuits and complaints that piled up against him, many of which were related to sexual abuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 23 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction, Devonia Inman is finally free. Here are the improbable events that led to his release, and what Inman has to say about his experience. Plus, the new Cook County district attorney doesn't mince words about how the case went to trial two decades ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before she was killed that night at the Taco Bell in Adel, Donna Brown was a hardworking restaurant manager. a beloved sister and a completely devoted mother. And if we are to seek justice for Devonia Inman, we must also seek it for Donna Brown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breakdown: Predator, M.D., follows the fortunes of Dr. Gupta and many of the 18 women who claim the doctor abused them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the hearing on Devonia Inman's "extraordinary motion" for a new trial, another giant piece of the case against Inman seems to crumble and fall away. Did Inman commit the murder of which he was convicted? Was he even there when it happened? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jury that hears the case against Devonia Inman must go through the peculiar process of becoming "death qualified." Meanwhile, some key witnesses take the stand and say they really didn't see what they told police they saw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If Hercules Brown committed the murder of Taco Bell's night manager in 1998, then the authorities have put the wrong man, Devonia Inman, behind bars. But it gets worse than that. Much worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did somebody else commit the murder of which Devonia Inman was convicted? He has always said so, Bill Rankin talks to witnesses who saw completely different things and zeroes in on a mask that police said was used in the crime. It wasn't a ski mask, says Rankin, it was an up-to-no-good mask. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jury in the Tex McIver murder case gets the case and deliberates, and deliberates, and deliberates. One of the last things the jury asked for was permission to see, for a second time, the SUV in which Diane McIver was shot, AND they ask to take the .38 revolver with them to the car. So some of them sat where Tex sat and pulled the trigger that Tex pulled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jury in the McIver murder case finally comes back -- after four days -- and delivers a confusing verdict that appears to say McIver intended to shoot his wife, Diane, but didn't intend to kill her. The closing arguments, four separate addresses by some of the best lawyers in Georgia, were every bit the spectacle that you'd imagine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A vicious murder on a hot South Georgia night outside the local Taco Bell. The police build an impressive case against young Devonia Inman. Now it's 20 years later, and a law professor in Atlanta is determined to take that case apart and win Inman's freedom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The prosecution puts up the chief homicide investigator in the Tex McIver murder case and then tries its best to show how deficient the police investigation was. Normally, the district attorney and the police are on the same side. But not this time. The police charged McIver with involuntary manslaughter, but the DA went with malice murder -- convinced that the Atlanta Police Department was letting McIver off too easy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The state calls Dani Jo Carter -- the only witness to the shooting of Diane McIver. She is on the stand for more than two full days. She tells the prosecution that Tex McIver asked her to lie about being in the SUV that night. But she tells the defense that she stands by her earlier statements to police that Tex was asleep before the gun went off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The state rests after putting up more 70 witnesses. The defense case-in-chief takes only 2 1/2 days. The mysterious masseuse, Annie Anderson, takes the stand. And the executor for Diane McIver's estate has a surprise in store for the prosecution. Then the defense rests, and we're down to couple of rebuttal witnesses from the prosecution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The prosecution in Tex McIver's murder trial completes its third week -- a sometimes grueling slog in which the state seemed to be throwing just about everything it can find at McIver. Some if it may not be provable, but none of it looks good. And that seems to be the point. If prosecutors can't prove McIver is a cold-blooded killer, can they sway the jury by suggesting that McIver is a man you can neither trust nor like? And, of course, Tex is helping the state build its case by doing the things he did after Diane McIver died. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both the prosecution and the defense have enormous challenges facing them as the trial begins. For the prosecutors, it's a question of motive. For the defense, it's the defendant himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One prospective juror after another is dismissed for cause because he or she believes Tex McIver intended to kill his wife. At the end of a long week of jury selection, the parties are finally able to qualify a pool of sufficient size that they can select 12 jurors and four alternates from it. But the defense must be troubled by the sheer number of people who had already made up their minds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A hard-charging prosecutor goes up against a famed duo of defense attorneys as Claud "Tex" McIver's murder trial begins in one week. Chief Assistant DA Clint Rucker can dominate the courtroom by sheer force of his personality. Bruce Harvey and Don Samuel have a long history of (successfully) defending high-profile clients, from NFL stars to rappers to strippers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tex McIver couldn't get the new resident of the luxury condo complex out of his mind. She ignored all his entreaties to meet him, and he finally contrived to "bump into" her at the complex's gym early one morning. Diane was a powerful and successful businesswoman who eventually would marry Tex. But on a sultry September night a year ago, he killed her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Insisting it was an accident, Claud "Tex" McIVer will soon stand trial for the murder of his wife, Diane. Although Diane told ER surgeons it was an accident just before she died, the state has indicted Tex with malice murder. The year since Diane died has seen some extraordinary and often bizarre turns. This first episode of the new season of Breakdown will set the stage for the upcoming trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First contact: An Atlanta homicide investigator goes to the home of the man who has emerged as his suspect. The man lives with his mother, and the detective winds up interviewing both. A year later, AJC Editor-in-Chief Kevin Riley gets his first indication that he will become deeply engaged in the outcome of this double homicide investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jury elects a foreman and begins its deliberations. The cellphone evidence is strong, but jurors are concerned about the lack of physical evidence: no murder weapon, no getaway car, no fingerprints, no DNA. And the state's star witness may or may not be believable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicholas Benton's murder trial gets underway. The state puts on a formidable case -- albeit with some big holes in it -- and then rests. Here comes the defense, and the jury can't wait to hear what Nick Benton will say when he gets to the stand. Meanwhile, if you'd like to talk with us about this case, join the AJC Breakdown Facebook group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The jury in the double-murder case of Nicholas Benton could not hang the verdict on any single piece of evidence or testimony. That is, nothing that came up in court was so compelling that it enabled the jury to declare "guilty" or "not guilty." But what about something that came up outside of court? AJC Editor Kevin Riley wraps up his insider's account of being foreman on the jury in a murder trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a rocky start, prosecutors come out swinging in the murder trial of Chip Olsen. One of their star witnesses: Olsen's own police academy instructor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Riley, editor-in-chief of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, goes deep inside a double-murder in Atlanta. With extraordinary access to key players in the case, Riley and longtime Breakdown host Bill Rankin explore the sudden and vicious killings of Reggie Coicou and Quincy "Fat" Wytche. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chip Olsen's fate is now in the hands of the jury. Will the ex-cop end up behind bars? We take you through the murder trial's dramatic conclusion and its aftermath. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Testimony begins in the murder trial of Robert "Chip" Olsen and a trio of witnesses who saw Anthony Hill's final moments take the stand for the state. But do they help or hurt the prosecution's case? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chip Olsen's legal team turns to a mock jury to road test their defense strategy. Jurors had a lot of questions and some strong opinions. And what will the lawyers be looking for when they select a real jury? This murder case could turn conventional wisdom on its head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A jury is seated and Chip Olsen's murder trial is finally underway. The ex-cop's defense lawyer said he fired at Anthony Hill because he was terrified as the naked man ran at him. But the prosecution offers a surprising new theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who is Chip Olsen? The cop who shot and killed Anthony Hill followed an unusual path to the force. We’ll tell you why it’s so rare to indict police officers who kill in the line of duty. And we’ll take you inside the surprising revelation that convinced the DeKalb DA to not only charge Olsen, but to charge him with murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Anthony Hill was killed by DeKalb County Police Officer Robert “Chip” Olsen in 2015 he became the latest casualty in a growing crisis: One in every four people shot and killed by police is suffering from mental illness. Why do police encounters with the mentally ill turn deadly so often? And would Hill be alive today if DeKalb had done more to train its officers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Police Officer Chip Olsen takes the stand in a risky gamble to try to get the murder charges against him dismissed. Does it pay off? And his lawyers push a controversial defense used by cops to justify the use of force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 9, 2015, the manager of the Heights at Chamblee apartment complex called 911 to report that a man was wandering the grounds naked in the middle of the afternoon. Soon afterward, he was dead, shot and killed by the DeKalb County police officer who arrived at the scene. Who was Anthony Hill, the 26-year-old Afghanistan war veteran whose life ended that day? And how did he end up dead at the hands of police? We introduce you to Hill's life — his music and his family — as well his struggles with mental illness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an emotional hearing, Judge Timothy Walmsley has the last word as he sentences Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and Roddie Bryan for killing Ahmaud Arbery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown podcast, hosts Tamar Hallerman and Shaddi Abusaid look at the trial of former DA Jackie Johnson, who was accused of meddling in the local police department’s investigation of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder five years ago to protect her former employee. In a rare move, the longtime prosecutor was charged by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office with obstructing police and violating her oath of office in the aftermath of the 25-year-old Black man’s killing. You can download the Breakdown podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcasting platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices