Since it only showed Harris circling the parking lot, and since David was barely visible, the defense argued she only hit him once. Here's how. If you're going to hire an investigator and you call for a report, and Clara called us twice for a report, legally, we have to give our client a report," said Bobbi Bacha, with Blue Moon. Her husband later opened Space Center Orthodontics outside of Houston. "I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was real," said one tearful witness, Chris Junco. She said her stepmother made the remark just after finding him with Bridges. She then cradled her husband and told him she was sorry and loved him, according to The New York Times. WebView the profiles of people named Lyndsey Harris. "And that's the position you're in right now, but I know you will do the right thing.". After a three-week trial, Clara Harris was found guilty on Feb. 14, 2003. The investigators Harris had hired happened to record the entire ordeal on video, which was entered into evidence. The jury began deliberating the penalty phase of Harris' murder trial about 10:30 a.m. EST Friday after closing arguments, which became a battle of tears between the defendant and prosecution. "What did your dad do?" "Suddenly, I thought about smashing my car against her car and then I (picked) up speed. However, after watching days of testimony, she decided she had to speak. According to the medical examiner's office, they could only be certain there was one tire mark on the body, but Lindsey and eyewitnesses assert Clara ran over David three times. Column: Does racism make you too stupid to be a cop? The 17-year-old testified that she had tried to commit suicide four times in the months after her father's death July 24. He yelled 'stop' and she didn't. David Harris' tooth, found on the pavement next to his head, was introduced as evidence, as were autopsy photos showing what a pathologist said were tire tracks across the body of the 44-year-old orthodontist. Clara Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison but only served 15. After it was over, Clara Harris led Lindsey to the Mercedes. Clara Harris leaving prison on May 11, 2018. She urged prison time, though she made no specific recommendation about the length of a sentence. [9] Her second parole request was denied in September 2016. Harris said she snapped out of her daze as her stepdaughter screamed for her to stop. "She said, 'I'm so sorry. On Thursday, jurors found Harris, 45, guilty of murder for repeatedly running over her 44-year-old orthodontist husband with her car. In 2003 Harris was again involved in court action over the custody It was an accident. Originally sentenced to twenty years for first-degree murder, the former Houston dentist has been paroled. Two dodged right, she said, but her husband moved left, toward her approaching Mercedes. But she denied trying to run him down and said she didn't recall hitting him. Inside Edition/YouTubeClara Harris leaving prison on May 11, 2018. HOUSTON The stepdaughter of Clara Harris is suing the hotel where her father was fatally run over. Lindsey testified against her stepmother, claiming she told her to stop the vehicle. After the initial collision, Clara Harris circled around and ran over him again, the teen testified. He went to church and loved Clara, she said. They were more concerned, from what we can tell, about the embarrassing situation that was going on in the lobby of their hotel," Davis said. Prosecutors say Harris, bent on avenging her husbands adultery, used her car as a murder weapon. One time she wrote about sports. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? host = host.toLowerCase(); Gail Bridges describes the night she and her lover, David Harris, were confronted by his wife, Clara Harris, in a hotel lobby -- the last night she would ever see him alive. .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { HOUSTON Gail Bridges had been having an affair with Clara Harris' husband, David, for months -- an affair Clara says drove her to kill her husband. Its daily. //-->. / CBS. Over the years, there were occasional stories in the media about Clara. She was denied parole in her first attempt on April 11, 2013, by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "He once told me that he would like to spend the rest of his life with me, and he did," Bridges said. Her lawyer contends that the 44-year-old dentist acted in the heat of passion, a wife unhinged by her cheating husband. Taylor Prewitt is the newsletter editor for Texas Monthly. display: block; Clara was found guilty of murdering her husband. Published in 2004 by St. Martin's Paperbacks, the book follows the story of the murder and the reasons behind it. During his marriage to Clara, David began to have an affair with his former receptionist, Gail Bridges. The case was profiled on the Oxygen Network series Snapped in 2004, on ABC News's 20/20 in 2006, and on Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women in 2010. While their marriage seemed perfect from the outside, David Harris began an affair with his receptionist Gail Bridges in the spring of 2002, as reported by CBS News. She said Harris' boys would be provided for and they would adjust and survive, "because that's what children do. Harris agreed, but she secretly hired a private investigator to follow them to dinner and ensure her husband ended the relationship. In the heat of the moment, she went on to say, she didnt even know she had run over David. Harris said she snapped out of her daze as her stepdaughter screamed for her to stop. Clara! a reporter shouted. Also introduced at her trial was a videotape of the crime, recorded by the detective agency Clara had hired when she suspected David of the affair. } On March 11, 1896, Gideon Lindsey Harris passed away and is buried in the old Mars Hill Cemetery beside his second wife, Catherine, and among many of his descendants who rest there. "What I want you to think about is what, based on all of the evidence in this case, what would David want?". Gabriel Harris Daughter, Jasmine, Is Close To Her Grandmother Joan Baez and David Harris were once the power couple in the music world. Do you miss David?, At her trial, in February 2003, she testified before a packed courtroom that she did not mean to kill her husband but was only trying to wreck Gails SUV. Reward offered as manhunt for Texas shooting suspect reaches "dead end" I'm so sorry. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. "What did Lindsey say to you?" Im so sorry, she was heard saying over and over. While David Harris daughter Lindsey spent the school year in Ohio with her mother, the teenager lived in Houston with her dad and stepmom over the summers. Lindsey was with Harris when she sped off in the direction of the hotel on July 24 to confront her husband. Harris found her husband and Bridges in the hotel lobby. You b, hes my husband! Staring at a photo of her twin boys, Clara bowed her head, her dark brown eyes brimming with tears, and then was escorted away. In July 2002, Clara Harris had her teenage stepdaughter with her as she tracked down her husband David Harris to the Nassau Bay Hilton where he was with his They saw David and Gail heading to Gails SUV in a different part of the parking lot. As part of a prison program, she learned braille and worked several hours a day translating school textbooks into braille. "She stepped on the accelerator and went straight for him," Lindsey Harris told jurors. They seemed like the perfect family but on July 24, 2002, Harris fatally ran over her husband with her car. Henry was born in Bute (later Warren) County, North Carolina. But back in February, after Clara Harris was convicted of killing her husband, News2Houston asked the other woman in David's life for an interview. She was in the Mercedes-Benz when her stepmother, Clara Harris, ran over her husband in the parking lot of the Clear Lake-area hotel on July 24, 2002. "I knew she had killed my dad," Lindsey Harris testified. All rights reserved. "Harris gets 20 years for Mercedes murder", A Wife Betrayed Finds Sympathy at Murder Trial, "Private Investigators, Police Testify at Dentist's Trial", "Trial in Killing of Orthodontist Goes to Jury", "Victim's Daughter Testifies at Murder-by-Car Trial", "Clara Harris denied parole in husband's death", "Clara Harris, infamous Houston dentist who ran over husband, released from prison", "Clara Harris released from prison after 15 years", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_David_Lynn_Harris&oldid=1145070527, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 March 2023, at 03:41. "I think I closed my eyes" just before impact, she testified. "It will be really interesting to find out whether the same jurors who so quickly and harshly judged her will now show some sympathy for her situation and recommend a lighter sentence," said Cohen. Clara Harris was convicted of murdering her cheating husband, David Harris, by running him over with her Mercedes-Benz on July 24. Generator vs power station: Which one is right for you? Accompanying her was Davids sixteen-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Lindsey, who was visiting from Ohio, where she lived with her mother. The Harrises, who also were business partners, then spent an evening at a bar talking about their relationship. A police officer who witnessed the crime testified that she ran him over three times, however. Lindsey opened the door and stuck her feet on the ground, as if she was attempting to escape, according to witnesses, who then saw Clara whip the car around, hit the accelerator again, and drive over her husbands crumpled body a second time. [1][7] The prosecution claimed Clara's actions were more than a crime of passion, but that she "wanted to hurt" David, as she was heard saying in a police interview. Lindsey was with Harris when she sped off in the direction of the hotel on July 24 to confront her husband. Click Here to try 4 Free Trial Issues of Time! Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. Bacha said that she would sue Clara Harris for breach of contract since she should not have gone to the hotel after receiving the report. Bridges says that's when Harris came back around and hit David then ran over him repeatedly. They argued that Clara could only have run over David once, and that the turning radius of her Mercedes would not have allowed for her to sharply turn and run over him a second time. The 44-year-old Colombian had moved to America in the 1980s and opened her own successful dentistry practice. In an interview with Oprah before her release, Harris said, I want to be judged by what really happened, not by the speculations people had made I found myself in a situation that I never thought myself capable of.. The prosecutor lowered her voice to almost a whisper as she made her final points. Lindsey testified Clara "peeled out" and headed around to another part of the parking lot where her father and his alleged mistress were getting into a Lincoln Navigator. Its too bad if they do, said Detoto, who has kept in touch with Harris since her conviction. On July 22, 2002, she got into her silver S-Class 430 Mercedes-Benz and drove to the Nassau Bay Hilton, across the highway from the Johnson Space Center. Harris slumped into her chair as the sentence was read. But she denied trying to run him down and said she didn't recall hitting him. She said she could kill him and get away with it for what shes been through, Lindsey testified. Clara Harris was then escorted by hotel employees to her Mercedes S-Class in the parking lot and accompanied by Lindsey Harris. When David and Bridges came out of the hotel, Clara struck down her husband in the parking lot as her teenaged stepdaughter Lindsey sat in the passenger seat. She said she quit her job, had sex with her husband three times a night, cooked his favorite meals and hired a personal trainer. Harris' tears, "certainly didn't look like tears of joy but they should have been. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? She always said that Clara then parks her car next to his body. 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George Wong/Getty ImagesClara Harris and attorney George Parnham after the first day of testimony in 2003. } During a violent confrontation with her husband and his alleged mistress, Gail Bridges, in the hotel lobby, Clara Harris "went straight for Gail, hitting and ripping her shirt off," Lindsey testified. And I went to look at the direction, and then we saw her," Bridges said. He was trying to get away but couldnt., Harris was expressionless as she steered the car over a concrete median, then circled around the lot, said Lindsey. Davis said the settlement followed a long day of mediation among the parties in May but will not be final until Galveston County Probate Judge Gladys Burwell approves it. Abbott, FBI announce rewards for info on Cleveland mass shooter, Massive ranch up for sale near Texas next big state park, 3,800-acre San Antonio-area property to become Texas state park, Texas man catches giant alligator snapping turtle, releases it, Former KPRC 2 anchor Dominique Sachse to launch podcast Monday, Uber ranks Houston among most 'forgetful' U.S. cities, Texas to host national hot air balloon championship this summer, Report: Texas man took break from dinner date to kill man outside, One of Houston's tallest skyscrapers to become apartment complex, J.J. Watt tweets the 2 things he doesn't miss about Houston, You can own your own cave system for a cool $875k, home included, Texas college baseball player hit by stray bullet mid-game, Greg Abbott announces $50k reward for information on Cleveland shooting, Massive Coastal Bend ranch up for sale near Texas next big state park, Property north of San Antonio set to become a new Texas state park, Texas man catches massive alligator snapping turtle, then releases it back into the wild, How former KPRC 2 anchor Dominique Sachse is getting back to reporting, Uber ranks Houston among the most 'forgetful' U.S. cities. Days earlier, David had admitted to Clara that he and Gail had been having an affair, and he had promised Clara that he would end it. In the darkened cabin of her stepmothers Mercedes-Benz, Lindsey Harris thought the drama was over for the night. I'm sorry. She was in the car with her stepmother when her father was killed. The same nine-woman, three-man jury deliberated about eight hours before returning the murder conviction. display: none; Sheriff says Texas shooting suspect "could be anywhere now" Bridge's now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder -- flashbacks, nightmares and is on medication. Clara Harris had it all. "(Clara) went right through (a hotel employee) and straight for my dad. With her stepdaughter in the car, she ran over him three times and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. During his half-hour closing, Parnham also focused on Harris' twin sons and how they need their mother. He said Burwell probably will discuss the settlement with the parties before the end of July. Sheriff says Texas shooting suspect "could be anywhere now", Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell case: A timeline of events, 1 employee killed, 2 injured at Tennessee Volkswagen plant. The parents of the victim, David Harris, took the stand, too to testify in support of their daughter-in-law. The lawsuit sought damages from the Nassau Bay Hilton Hotel and the Blue Moon Investigations detective agency for the couple's twin sons, Brian and Bradley, 5, and Harris' daughter, Lindsey, 18, by a previous marriage. The woman who ran down her philandering husband with a Mercedes-Benz after catching him with his mistress was convicted of murder Thursday by a jury that rejected her claim she was aiming for his lover's car. Jurors deliberated for six hours before returning with their verdict on the sentence. On February 14, 2003, she was sentenced to twenty years in prison the maximum sentence allowed by the jury's "sudden passion" finding and fined $10,000. Defense and prosecution experts disagreed on how many times David Harris was struck. Assistant District Attorney Mia Magness, who is prosecuting the case, asked the teenager. "I couldn't believe he could sleep holding her all night because we had never slept like that never," she testified. He was trying to get away and he couldn't.". When the car stopped, Lindsey ran around to the drivers side. The story of an angry dentist killing her husband spread like wildfire. A hotel employee tried to stop them. Although she knows she cant disappear, she is going to do her best to stay out of the public eye, said Stouwie. But Clara Harris is a weepy, white, professional woman, someone whose marital troubles generated a lot of sympathy in and out of court. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Bridges responded, "The affair was wrong. According to bar napkin notes kept by Clara Harris, David Harris thought his wife was overweight, dominated conversations and was a workaholic, all in contrast to Bridges. "She stepped on the accelerator and went }, First published on February 13, 2003 / 3:16 PM. Parnham argued that Clara Harris acted out of sudden passion. 1 employee killed, 2 injured at Tennessee Volkswagen plant She got out and saw her husband lying on the pavement, blood streaming from his ears and mouth. When she arrived at the Hilton, Clara Harris caused a scene in the lobby, fighting with her husband's mistress before getting in her car and running over David Harris. Clara Harris dream of being a successful dentist came true when she opened her own practice in 1993. Without warning, she stomped on the accelerator and went straight for my Dad, testified Lindsey, 17, at Harris murder trial Wednesday. The trial was front-page news in Houston and included dramatic testimony from Harris, her romantic rival and her stepdaughter, who was in the car that day and told jurors her stepmother sped toward her father as he desperately tried to get out of the way. She's also suing the detective agency that followed him, Harris found her husband and Bridges in the hotel lobby. Accompanying her was Davids sixteen-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Lindsey, who was visiting from Ohio, where she lived with her mother. They got married on March 26, 1968, at St. Clements Episcopal Church in New York. Henry married his first cousin, Lucretia Riggan, the daughter of Ann Harris and Francis Riggan, on December 12, 1819. "She said, 'I'm so sorry. We went shopping a lot. Hotel employees escorted Clara to her Mercedes-Benz sedan. Most Facebook users can now claim settlement money. She said she felt a bump as the car ran over her father. Court was scheduled to reconvene later Thursday for the sentencing phase. Please enter valid email address to continue. Here's how. When he walked outside, his wife did precisely that, sending him flying 25 feet across the parking lot. He pointed out that even David Harris' parents and brother had testified on Clara Harris' behalf. Copyright 2023 Click2Houston.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Whats more, she didnt violate any prison rules. The chapter title is Luz, overwhelming (Luz, arrolladora). Her sons went to live with another couple who had been close friends with Clara and David. On Friday, one of Texass most notorious killers, Clara Harris, was released from prison. }, First published on February 21, 2003 / 4:32 AM. Clara was advised not to take the stand. The prosecution admitted that it was a good argument, but countered by bringing in a police officer who had been present at the scene who pointed out another tire track on the pavement shown in a police photograph, the angle of which went directly to where David's body had been. [11], Harris was released on parole on May 11, 2018, and was released from parole in February of 2023.[12]. She did not know David was dead until Lindsey, David's daughter who was in the car with her stepmother, approached her.