Sunny Hostin once revealed that she and her husband accidentally left their 14-month-old daughter inside a car for “about five minutes” on a hot July day in 2007, newly resurfaced CNN footage shows.
Hostin recounted the frightening incident during a September 2014 appearance on Anderson Cooper 360. She had also addressed the episode in a CNN opinion piece published shortly beforehand.
At the time, Hostin and Anderson Cooper were discussing the high-profile case of Justin Ross Harris, a Georgia father accused of leaving his 22-month-old son strapped into a sweltering vehicle for seven hours that June.
Speaking as a CNN legal analyst, Hostin urged viewers not to rush to judgment while the case was still unfolding.
“I think there are just a lot of unanswered questions,” she said. Harris was ultimately convicted, though the verdict was overturned in 2022. He is now free.
Cooper referenced Hostin’s own experience to illustrate that such mistakes might be more common among parents than many people realize.
“Yeah, and this story became personal for me, because I did write an opinion piece on CNN. I left my daughter, when she was 14 months old, in the back of our car,” Hostin replied.
Conservative social media commentator Gina Milan reposted the account on X on Thursday while questioning Hostin’s recent claim that she had been a “holdout juror” in a prominent 1989 New York City homicide case.
Hostin Recounts Leaving Daughter in Hot Car
“I was with my husband, and it was a hot July day,” Hostin began.
“And literally, Anderson—my husband left her in the car, I left her in the car. We went to get a shopping cart, pushed it past the car and went into Home Depot. I went into the garden center.
“It was only after about five minutes that my husband came to me and said, ‘Oh my God—we left Paloma in the car.’”
Cooper clarified: “And she was fine, obviously.”
“She was fine, but I will tell you, I’m still ashamed about it. I’m embarrassed, I’m horrified. I can see how someone can do this,” Hostin responded.
“Had you asked me these questions before I did this horrible thing, I would have said no parent would ever leave their child in a car. Even if you do leave your child in the car, you should be charged. It’s negligent.”
The segment remains available on CNN’s website and YouTube channel.
In the accompanying opinion piece, Hostin provided additional details about what happened.
“I screamed, dropped my purse, ran to the car and opened the door,” she wrote. Hostin recalled that the vehicle “was already warm” when they returned.
“Her face was already flushed. But she was fine and still sleeping,” she wrote of Paloma, who is now 20 and attending college.
“I was ashamed, embarrassed and horrified at what I had done.
“It dawned on me immediately—I could have killed my girl.”
The Justin Ross Harris Case
Hostin contrasted her experience with the case of Harris, noting that his 22-month-old son, Cooper, died.
“Harris left Cooper in a hot car, strapped into a rear-facing seat in Atlanta last week, when he went into work at a Home Depot corporate office, according to a Cobb County criminal warrant,” the former federal prosecutor wrote.
The rest of the article outlined the early details of the investigation.
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“Police are still investigating,” Hostin wrote. At the time, Harris had pleaded not guilty to charges of child cruelty and felony murder. He was convicted in 2016 and released on Father’s Day in 2024.
Following his release, Cooper’s mother, Leanna Taylor, issued a statement reaffirming her belief that her son’s death had been an accident.
She said she hoped the Georgia Supreme Court ruling that freed her former husband would help reshape how their son’s life was remembered.
“That he was wanted, that he was loved and that he is missed every single day,” Taylor said in a statement released through her attorney in June 2024.
Hostin later brought The View to a halt on Tuesday while discussing the mistrial in the case of Lindsay Clancy, claiming she had once been a “holdout juror” in a homicide trial more than 30 years ago.
In Clancy’s case, a lone juror—later identified as Michael Desronvil—reportedly sought to convict the Massachusetts mother of murdering her three children in 2023 despite pressure from the other 11 jurors.
Hostin, 57, agreed with the other jurors that Clancy lacked “criminal responsibility” for the killings.
“By reason of insanity,” Hostin specified.
Questions Surround Hostin’s Holdout Juror Claim
“And the reason I felt—I feel so strongly about this holdout juror is because I was a holdout juror in a case.”
Hostin said she had persuaded the other 11 jurors, “one by one,” that Daniel Rakowitz was not criminally responsible for killing and dismembering 26-year-old Monika Beerle in their East Village apartment in 1989.
Her revelation stunned the other panelists. “You got this guy off?” Alyssa Farah Griffin asked at one point.
Hostin then pointed to a newspaper clipping she said documented her participation in Rakowitz’s 1991 murder trial.
“I’m in The New York Times,” Hostin said.
The Times credited Hostin with “preventing a guilty verdict.” She was identified in the report by her birth name, Asuncion Cummings. The article remains available on the newspaper’s website.
However, a New York Daily News report that resurfaced Wednesday suggested the holdout juror was an unemployed man.
The newspaper quoted fellow juror Valerie Holmes, who said the unidentified “holdout” refused to convict Rakowitz in order to continue receiving the $15-per-day jury payment. The juror was described as male but was not named.
Another newspaper clipping resurfaced Wednesday through Newsbusters, indicating that there may have been two holdout jurors.
Conservative commentators, including Milan, quickly seized on the conflicting accounts.
“I’m actually not shocked this woman lied about being a holdout juror,” Milan wrote, linking to the 12-year-old CNN footage.
“[She] felt bad for a psychopath who dismembered a woman and ate her brain as soup.”
Rakowitz did serve the victim’s remains in a soup to homeless men in Tompkins Square Park shortly after the killing.
He is currently held at New York’s Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center.
