Harris says she was trying to hit Bridges' car - "Husband said I was fat"

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 7, 2003 | By ALLAN TURNER

[MeekOneGOP]

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State

Feb. 7, 2003, 2:22PM

Harris says she was trying to hit Bridges' car

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

EXTRA

Clara Harris is accused of running over her husband after catching him with his former receptionist at a hotel.

• From the arrest to the trial

Video:
Private investigator catches incident on tape
(Video courtesy of KHOU, Ch. 11. Video requires Real Player)

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The trial:
• The indictment
• What we know about them
• The experts: Why they're split over jurors
Preparing for the trial: Video report from Jan. 19.

The testimony:
• Day 1: Hotel employees tell what they saw
• Day 2: Grainy videotape reveals little
• Day 3: Clara Harris told private eye husband "a good man"
• Day 4: Defendant's sobs halt trial twice

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From the Chronicle's archives:
• The story of Clara and David Harris: They epitomized success and happiness, but underneath the facade... - Jan. 19
• The wife: Mother of twins kept to herself - Aug. 4
• The mistress: Mistress not a stranger to the spotlight - Aug. 4
• The married couple: Victim wanted to end marriage - July 27

Clara Harris, on trial for the murder of her husband, said today she was trying to smash his lover's car the night she ran over and killed David Harris with her Mercedes Benz.

Testifying after today's lunch break, Clara Harris finally got to tell her version of the events of the night of July 24.

She said that, following a fight July 24 in the Nassau Bay Hilton Inn's lobby with her orthodontis husband and his mistress, office manager Gail Bridges, she was escorted by hotel security outside.

There, she testified under questioning by defense attorney George Parnham, she went to her own car. Suddenly, she thought she would smash Bridges' black Lincoln Navigator, which earlier that evening she had vandalized.

"I saw three people standing by the driver's door," Clara Harris testified. "Two running toward the front and I thought I saw surprised eyes -- David -- in front of the car. I didn't expect impact with the median. It looked so tall. I think I closed my eyes. After that, I didn't know who was driving. Everything was like a dream."

Clara Harris testified she stopped the car, opened the door and got out. She said she looked at something on the side of the Mercedes and saw David.

"I couldn't understand what he was doing there. I had just seen him running way," she said. "I held his face. There was a small line of blood from his ear. His eyes were half open. His mouth was halfway open. He seemed to be going in and out of consciousness."

She said she "saw a shadow behind his head. I didn't want to look. I know now it was blood."

She said she put her hand on his heart and felt his pulse.

"It was fast," she said, but she thought he was all right. "Everything was in such a slow motion. My action was slow... Nothing made sense. What was David doing there?"

Before the lunch break, defendant Clara Harris testified she stalked the hotel parking lot for an hour, searching for her husband's car before coming upon the Lincoln Navigator owned by his lover and vandalizing it.

"I grabbed the windshield wiper in the back, and bent it so many times," Clara Harris testified between bouts of sobbing. "It was so painful in my hand, but it was more painful in my heart."

That incident capped half a day of determined searching for David Harris and his office manager/lover, Gail Bridges, on July 24 before Clara Harris and her stepdaughter Lindsey finally stumbled across the Navigator at the Nassau Bay Hilton.

The day before, Clara Harris testified, she and Lindsey went into a room at the Hilton, where David Harris had told her he frequently brought Bridges for trysts. From there they could see the Windemiere Racquet and Swim Club, where David and Clara Harris were married.

Seeing that view from the room, Clara Harris testified, "I could not believe they would stay there."

The description of events leading up to David Harris' death eventually brought wracking sobs to Clara Harris, and state District Judge Carol G. Davies recessed the trial for lunch at 11:40 a.m.

Harris testifed today that on July 23 -- the day before her husband's death -- she ran errands and then picked up her stepdaughter. They went to the Hilton for lunch, and sat near the table where David Harris frequently ate with Bridges.

Clara Harris said she only had a glass of wine, and then the two went up to see the room.

The next morning, she testified David Harris talked about why he had not left her for Bridges.

"He said, 'The reason I am still here -- he was in the closet, I was in the bed, waiting -- I still love you. I will never leave you or the kids,'" Clara Harris testified. "I was relieved."

She said she later got a call from an employee at David Harris' office, who indicated that Bridges and David Harris had disappeared together somewhere.

That launched a daylong search for David Harris and Bridges by Clara and Lindsey Harris. The two drove by Bridges' house, several restaurants and other places where the couple was known to meet.

Clara Harris then testified a call from the Blue Moon private investigation agency sent her back to the Hilton. The couple were in a room on floor 4 or 6, Clara Harris said, and had paid cash.

She testified she believed the investigator because David Harris had told her they paid cash at the Hilton to keep the charges off his credit card.

"I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it," Clara Harris said.

She testified she and Lindsey spent a long time at the hotel, searching the parking lot, the lobby and the restaurant for them.

"I was shaking," Clara Harris said. "I asked Lindsey, 'What should I do?'"

Clara Harris began her day on the witness stand today in her murder trial, continuing to recount a humiliating evening in which her husband compared her traits to those of his mistress.

Harris' trial on charges she killed her husband, orthodontist David L. Harris, by running over him repeatedly in her Mercedes Benz resumed after a day off.

On Wednesday, Parnham collapsed in a courtroom hallway, the victim of a combination of stress and the flu.

Today, Clara Harris went into further detail about a July 18 meeting with her husband at a sports bar near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. There, David Harris compared the attributes of his wife and his mistress, office manager Gail Bridges.

Clara Harris said she took notes on cocktail napkins as her husband talked, writing her attributes under the heading "Clara" and the other woman's under the heading "Gail."

David Harris' assessment ran the gamut from the physical to personal values.

At one point, Clara Harris testified, she wrote in the Bridges column, "has big bubs (sic)." Under her own heading, she wrote, "will have big bubs."

She said she had made an appointment with a plastic surgeon to discuss liposuction and breast enlargement.

Clara Harris also wrote on the napkin that David Harris described Bridges as "petite, with perfect fit to sleep holding her all night."

"How did you feel about that?" Parnham asked.

"I couldn't believe holding her all night," she said. "We never slept like that, ever."

The list went into great detail about both women's physical condition. David Harris called his wife "fat," according to the napkin notes, but also said she had "pretty feet," while Bridges' were "kind of masculine."

"He said I had prettier eyes," Clara Harris testified.

"Was that important to you?" Parnham asked.

"Yes," she said.

Parnham asked Clara Harris how the whole comparison exercise made her feel.

"I was feeling so guilty, but I was listening to see how to change things for a better relationship," she said.

David Harris also said both women had "good values," and that neither one was "fanatical."

"I agreed with that," Clara Harris testified. "I saw (Bridges) with the children, two boys and one girl (at a May 16 party). They were so gracious and well dressed. I didn't think the bad comments were true. She was such a good mother."

David Harris was killed in the parking lot of a Nassau Bay hotel the night of July 24 - six days after the meeting being discussed in today's testimony.

Witnesses have testified that Clara Harris went to the hotel to confront her husband and found him with Bridges. After attacking Bridges in the hotel's lobby, she is accused of going outside, getting in her car and running down David Harris.

[MeekOneGOP]

I will post the Dallas Morning News version on this thread in a minute...

AP
Defendant Clara Harris reacts as she
testifies about her husband's affair.

[MeekOneGOP]

Accused murderer: Husband said I was fat

02/07/2003

Associated Press

HOUSTON - The orthodontist who was run over by his Mercedes-driving wife thought she was overweight, too talkative and addicted to her job, she testified Friday.

On the other hand, David Harris thought his lover, Gail Bridges, was "petite with the perfect fit to sleep with, holding her all night," Clara Harris told jurors at her murder trial.

Clara Harris, 45, said her 44-year-old husband compared the two women July 18 as the couple sat in an airport sports bar, she taking notes on napkins. He had admitted the affair a day earlier.

On July 24, she found him with Bridges at a suburban hotel and ran him down him in the parking lot. She says the death was an accident.

AP

Defendant Clara Harris reacts as she testifies about her husband's affair.

Her testimony resumed Friday for the first time since her attorney fell ill around lunchtime Wednesday.

Clara Harris said she was stunned by her husband's remark about holding his lover.

"I couldn't believe he could sleep holding her all night because we had never slept like that, never," Clara Harris said of her 10 years of marriage.

Periodically, Clara Harris wiped tears or covered her face on the stand, a contrast to her composed demeanor Wednesday.

According to Clara Harris' notes, David Harris seemed fixated on Bridges' breast size, though he gave his wife higher marks for "much prettier hands and feet" and "prettier eyes" as he compared the women in exacting detail. She occasionally looked at the notes she had jotted on the napkins.

"He told me, 'I would love ... you when you get your boobs to just be around the house waiting for me,"' Clara Harris said. She testified she quit her job as a dentist that week, scheduled liposuction and breast enlargement surgeries, went to a tanning salon and joined a fitness center.

Defense attorney George Parnham, who had recommended that his client refrain from taking the stand, had begun asking his client about the napkin notes Wednesday when the trial broke for lunch. Moments later, the veteran lawyer swooned in a hallway and was taken to a hospital from what his associates said was the combined effects of stress and the flu.

Clara Harris had told jurors during 11/2 hours of testimony Wednesday that David Harris said Bridges, who was also his receptionist, was more submissive to his desires.

"He was referring to vacations. I always had planned where to go," Clara Harris said.

"How did Gail match up?" Parnham asked.

Clara Harris responded: "She let him do whatever he wanted to do."

Prosecutor Mia Magness, who contends that Clara Harris committed murder in a fit of jealousy, had yet to cross-examine Harris, who faces up to life in prison if convicted.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/020703dntswhusbandrunover.d9693.html

[TheBattman]

What a crock - this woman is a cold-blooded killer. She is a bad actress too.....

Let's see - how many times did she run over her husband? And with her step-daughter in the car with her.

Anyone know if the prosecution is aiming for the death penalty in this case?

[mountaineer]

The list went into great detail about both women's physical condition. David Harris called his wife "fat," according to the napkin notes, but also said she had "pretty feet," while Bridges' were "kind of masculine."

Without condoning the wife's actions in the least, I seriously believe this guy was a world class jerk.

[gov_bean_ counter]

She would have been better off is she had said she was just checking out her car's suspension system.

[skeeter]

Nauseating. I wonder how she'll explain the comment she made to her daughter that she could kill her husband & get away with it.

[EggsAckley]

Clara sounds like a retarded dingbat with the emotional maturity of a 12 year old.

[TRY ONE]

Jay Leno last night....

"Clara Harris said she and hubby, David, had
a great marriage....only had a few bumps in the road.."

[Jaded]

Don't believe it's a DX case. She was out on bond while awaiting the trial.

[MeekOneGOP]

Can you believe this?...

Today, Clara Harris went into further detail about a July 18 meeting with her husband at a sports bar near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. There, David Harris compared the attributes of his wife and his mistress, office manager Gail Bridges.

Clara Harris said she took notes on cocktail napkins as her husband talked, writing her attributes under the heading "Clara" and the other woman's under the heading "Gail."

David Harris' assessment ran the gamut from the physical to personal values.

At one point, Clara Harris testified, she wrote in the Bridges column, "has big bubs (sic)." Under her own heading, she wrote, "will have big bubs."

She said she had made an appointment with a plastic surgeon to discuss liposuction and breast enlargement.

Clara Harris also wrote on the napkin that David Harris described Bridges as "petite, with perfect fit to sleep holding her all night."

"How did you feel about that?" Parnham asked.

"I couldn't believe holding her all night," she said. "We never slept like that, ever."

[jimt]

Last night on O'Reilly they showed the video of her doing it. If she was trying to hit a car she must be a lousy driver - she missed multiple times. On the other hand, the car appears to be driven by somebody who's really pissed off - like she was when she ran over him three times.

The woman is a liar. Her tears are for herself in a plea for sympathy.

[MeekOneGOP]

I thought so. They didn't mention this in previous articles, or I missed it.

Defense attorney George Parnham, who had recommended that his client refrain from taking the stand, had begun asking his client about the napkin notes Wednesday when the trial broke for lunch. Moments later, the veteran lawyer swooned in a hallway and was taken to a hospital from what his associates said was the combined effects of stress and the flu.

[MeekOneGOP]

Anyone know if the prosecution is aiming for the death penalty in this case?

No death penalty possible in this case. I think the most is life in prison...

[11th Earl of Mar]

I don't have much sympathy for her late husband.

But I do think the woman should do time for harming a beautiful Jaguar.

And she vandalized a Navigator? Throw away the key!

[MeekOneGOP]

lol ! Leno comes up with some good ones sometimes...

[Brett66]

I woder what she would have done if he said her butt was big?

[MeekOneGOP]

The woman is a liar. Her tears are for herself in a plea for sympathy.

I think you're right. She is on the stand on her own defense against the advise of her attorney. See my note on #13...

[Cicero]

A couple of criminal cases gave us the phrase: "to go postal."

Now maybe we'll get a new phrase: "to go dental."

When good dentists go bad . . . Watch out!