Woman on trial for running over husband
Posted on 01/21/2003 2:27:45 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
Woman on trial for running over husband
01/21/2003
HOUSTON - Jury selection began Tuesday in the murder trial of a Houston dentist accused of running down her orthodontist husband with her Mercedes-Benz after catching him with another woman.
Clara Harris, 44, is accused of killing her husband, David Harris, on July 24 in the parking lot of a Houston area hotel following a physical confrontation with him and his alleged mistress in the building's lobby.
Defense attorneys for Clara Harris contend she did not mean to run over her husband. Prosecutors say she intentionally hit and killed him.
KHOU-TV |
By early Tuesday afternoon, State District Judge Carol Davies had excused a handful of potential jurors from an initial pool of 120. Jury selection is expected to conclude by Wednesday.
Defense attorney George Parnham hired Dallas-based trial consultant Robert Hirschhorn to help him with jury selection.
If convicted, Clara Harris faces life in prison.
But on Tuesday, Davies told potential jurors that if they determine Clara Harris acted under the legal definition of sudden passion, they could consider a sentence of two to 20 years in prison.
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According to the law, sudden passion is a passion directly caused by the provocation of the person killed which arises at the time of the offense.
"A jury can take into account what ... the circumstances are," Davies said.
Harris, who wore a brown outfit and had her hair pulled back, entered the courthouse accompanied by David Harris' parents, Mildred and Gerald Harris.
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Once the trial begins, jurors are expected to view a videotape taken in the hotel's parking lot by a private investigator Clara Harris had hired to follow her husband.
Testimony also is expected from Lindsey Harris, Clara Harris' 17-year-old stepdaughter. She was a passenger in the car when David Harris, 44, was struck and killed.
Parnham said Clara Harris learned her husband was having an affair a week before finding him at the hotel with Gail Bridges, a divorced mother of three who once worked in David Harris' orthodontics office.
Parnham says Clara Harris didn't set out to kill the night she struck her husband, but instead wanted to "bring David home." Parnham said Clara Harris wanted to save her marriage and family.
Lindsey Harris could be the most pivotal witness for jurors who will have to determine her stepmother's intent as she drove toward the Lincoln Navigator her husband and Bridges were entering.
Prosecutors said last week that Lindsey Harris is prepared to testify that an hour before her father was struck by her stepmother, Clara Harris told her: "I could kill him and get away with it for all he's put me through."
Accident reconstructionists, psychiatrists, Bridges, police officers, witnesses, neighbors and employees of the couple are among those expected to testify during the trial, which should begin later this week and is expected to last several weeks.
"The simple issue is whether she intentionally killed her husband or whether it was an accident," Parnham said.
Parnham says Clara Harris didn't set out to kill the night she struck her husband, but instead wanted to "bring David home." Parnham said Clara Harris wanted to save her marriage and family.She brought him 'home' alright, may he rest in peace...
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She should get the maximum - but I'm not cutting him any slack. He was playing with fire and he got burned.
These parents are sick, sick, sick.
His daughter, her stepdaughter.
If he treated his parents the same way he treated his spouse, their reaction wouldn't be all that puzzling.
Only in America!
Thrice bump.
hee hee ! Not many times...
BWAHAHA... I dunno how much of a lady she was... "The simple issue is whether she intentionally killed her husband or whether it was an accident" It weren't no accident, I can tell that much... I dunno about these "crimes of passion" gigs. I mean, who really knows whether a body had preconceived murderous intent or not? Sounds like Miss Clara had something-or-nother rattling around the back of her mind, at any rate... And if the end result is the same whether one spent a year or a second dreaming up another's untimely demise, why should the penalty be different?
I have murderous thoughts all the time, specially when I get behind some dumbass in a minivan doing 16 in the 35 zone. I, however, have enough selfcontrol to keep from leaping at the hapless mouthbreather, dragging him/her from the cab, and beating s/him senseless with my steering wheel. I bet I could get off pretty easy on a few passionate-murder charges around here though, the way some folks drive...
A bit of advice to all: Anyone that will cheat with you will cheat on you.
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