"This is going to be a hard case," Parnham told Primetime 2 months before the trial. Clara Harris leaving prison on May 11, 2018. Join Facebook to connect with Harris David and others you may know. He and Gail both contributed to the situation. Mr. Harris said he had been aware of ''some difficulties in the relationship'' between his son and Clara, but suggested that he saw no serious impediments to a future together. When they arrived at the hotel, she said, they went to the front desk, where they were told that neither Dr. Harris nor Ms. Bridges was registered. He was pronounced dead at 9:48 p.m. and Clara Harris was charged with murder. Clara was arrested for murder. All the while, Lindsey sat screaming at her stepmother from the Mercedes passenger side; begging Clara to stop. She changed so many times to appease him, but it was never good enough. They then walked around the parking lot looking for Ms. Bridges's Lincoln Navigator. They watched as prosecutors built a case against Dr. Harris, 45, a former beauty queen who is a dentist. When she arrived, Clara found Gails Lincoln Navigator in the hotels parking garage and set about vandalizing the car by bending windshield wipers and keying the paint. Harris completed her residency at the University of Texas School of Dentistry in Houston and was crowned Miss Colombia Houston at a local beauty contest shortly after. They seemed like the perfect family but on July 24, 2002, Harris fatally ran over her husband with her car. She said at no point did she intend to kill her husband. His close buddies call him, "Val." She stomped on the accelerator and went for him.''. In 2007, Clara Harris, shown with attorney Dean Blumrosen, was ordered to pay her dead husband's parents, Gerald and Mildred Harris, $3.75 million in a wrongful-death suit. The story of an angry dentist killing her husband spread like wildfire. Many of the mock jurors said that judging from what they had heard in the media, they believed Harris had killed her husband intentionally. Paul May Other occupants: Paul May View 2 Lindsey A Harris ER 2002 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3. ''He provided well,'' Mr. Harris testified. This time, Harris got in on the drivers side. Fleeing for Your Life? ''I know that he was trying to get away and he couldn't.''. Gideon Lindsey Harris, who went by the name of Lin or Lindsey, was born December 12, 1813 in Wilson County, Tennessee on his father's farm off the south bank of the Cumberland River. By the time she saw him, it was too late to stop and she hit him by accident, lifting his body onto the Mercedes' hood. As the defense rested its case, Parnham was concerned about the damaging police statement and some of the testimony, but he was confident the jury would accept Irwin's testimony that Harris only hit her husband once. Facebook gives people the power to. . "This is Dr. David Harris and he's fing this woman right here!" There are 5500+ professionals named "David Harris", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. What very few people knew was that Clara was a model prisoner. Parnham was relieved; he believed the jury would recommend something close to the two-year minimum. Bring on the Shiplap? In his cross-examination, Parnham did not question her account, but mentioned that Lindsey was suing her stepmother for a share of her father's multimillion-dollar estate. Staring at a photo of her twin boys, Clara bowed her head, her dark brown eyes brimming with tears, and then was escorted away. Click here to find personal data about Mark Harris including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. Harris was 60 years old at the time of her release, and she was looking for a job as a condition of her parole. ''I felt the bumps,'' she said, making a distinction between the sound of the car going over her father's body and that it made running over a pair of medians. Granted parole in November 2017, Harris was released from prison at 8:20 a.m. on May 11, 2018. Their most devastating witness was David Harriss teenage daughter Lindsey, who testified that a week earlier her stepmother had told her, With all hes done to me, I could kill him and get away with it. On the night of the killing, she said, Clara stepped on the accelerator and went straight for him, saying moments before impact, Im going to hit him.. Claras goal was to get paroled so she could be reunited with her sons, Emily Detoto, one of her original defense attorneys, told me. Bridges says before Clara Harris was pulled off of her, Harris attacked her -- she pulled her hair, punched her head and face, and bit her. Its daily. Creger, who said she was trained in CPR to care for a premature son, tried to help the injured dentist breathe. Recent work includes the illustrations for Alan Mulhern's two books: Healing Intelligence, the Spirit in Psychotherapy (Karnac, 2012), and The Sower and the . Read More . She stood up well to a tough cross-examination by the prosecution, but her testimony allowed them to introduce selected excerpts from her police statement, including her remark that she wanted to hurt her husband. Theres An App for That. Also in 2004, an episode of American Justice called "Murder by Mercedes" (episode 3, season 13) was released that detailed the Clara Harris case. This was said to be the equivalent of Davids half of the estate plus a little over 50 percent of Claras half. Probation and therapy would have been the better option because she has no history of this behavior and no criminal behavior on her record prior to this. "I drove over David," she said in tears, adding that she was so disoriented she wasn't aware of being at the wheel of her car. In November, Claras application for parole was granted, and her release date was set for May 11. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Anyone can read what you share. One of the English tabloids nicknamed Clara The Driller Killer. In Houston, it was the story of the year. Im thinking about pulling a Clara Harris, a woman would say with a laugh after learning her husband had done something really stupid. Lindsey Harris in Florida. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Column: Did the DOJ just say Donald Trump can be held accountable for Jan. 6? Ashok Moza, who was playing tennis at the yacht club next to the hotel on the evening David Harris died, testified that he heard squealing tires as he went to retrieve a ball. She and her future husband met as colleagues at the Castle Dental Center in 1991. "This was an unfortunate tragedy and it did not have to end this way," Bridges said. One of the prosecution's most powerful witnesses was 17-year-old Lindsey Harris, David Harris' daughter from a previous marriage, who was riding in her stepmother's Mercedes when it struck her father. Join Facebook to connect with David Harris and others you may know. She probably hoped she could become what he wanted her to be and change him. A 2016 parole request was also denied. "Did you see the car coming towards you?" Well aware she had run over her husband, Clara circled aroundcrossing two grassy medians, according to witnessesand ran over Davids motionless body; then circled around to run over him again. "I thought we were in good shape," he told Primetime later. She suffered plenty without going to prison. Most women in her shoes would've snapped. When Parnham and his team watched the tape closely, they decided they could make the argument that the Mercedes hit David Harris only once, and that the subsequent passes went around his body, not over it. Her sons went to live with another couple who had been close friends with Clara and David. When it was over, the young girl was traumatized and frightened for her own life. Prosecutors, however, went after her, saying she knew exactly what she was doing in that Hilton parking lot. Im going to hit him, Harris told the teenager. They succeeded in getting a jury of nine women and three men. Lindsey Harris filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her stepmother and was awarded about $2 million from her father's estate, as were her half brothers. Her sons were placed in the care of family friends, and her stepdaughter Lindsey testified against her at the trial that began in January 2003. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. Clara struggled to get pregnant; after undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to twin boys Brian and Bradley in 1998. They had twin sons named Brian and Bradley in 1998. She has no history of trouble with the law or of misbehavior I need society. On one hand, Lindsey said, she strenuously objected to her father's affair and disliked Ms. Bridges, who, she said, flirted openly with her father in his office. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lindsey later testified that Harris said, Im going to hit him, as they sat in the car and waited for David to appear. As she listened to her stepdaughter's testimony, Clara Harris began crying. The tape did not capture the moment of initial impact, but it showed Harris' Mercedes driving in circles afterward, lurching over what prosecutors were saying was her husband's body. David Harris is on Facebook. Clara Harris then circled around and ran over him three times, Lindsey said. Refine Your Search Results All Filters 1 Lindsey Fore Harris, 53 Resides in Collierville, TN Lived In Marietta GA, Newnan GA, Fairhope AL, Huntington Woods MI The defense team also found that some of the women were quick to judge Harris by her appearance. Also known as Lindsey D Clay, Clay Lindsey. 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. Clara! a reporter shouted. '', Youth Who Saw Killing Says Stepmother 'Stomped' Accelerator and 'Went for' Father, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/us/youth-who-saw-killing-says-stepmother-stomped-accelerator-and-went-for-father.html. She will at some point be transferred to a maximum-security prison to serve out the rest of her term. The man was a bully and terrible husband, he broke her spirit, soul and eventually her mind. Looking up, he saw a Mercedes ''bumping over an object,'' he said. Harris knew her husband was being unfaithful and hired a private investigation agency to follow him, as reported by ABC News. In her turn on the stand, Mildred Harris said she and her daughter-in-law ''were like friends.''. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. They saw David and Gail heading to Gails SUV in a different part of the parking lot. "He once told me that he would like to spend the rest of his life with me, and he did," Bridges said. Seven months later, she called News2Houston's Cindy Garza and said she was ready to talk, but only under one condition -- no cameras, only audio. The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. ''Sometimes I think she loved him too much,'' the victim's mother said. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. ''But there is no problem with me getting to see those children.''. During jury selection, they aimed for married women who seemed likely to have the kind of self-esteem problems Harris had had with her weight and appearance. He says he replays the trial in his head every night, wondering what went wrong: whether it was the tire track on the police photograph, or the jurors' jealousy of Harris and her success. David Harris was gasping for air, making gurgling sounds and his limbs were drawing close to his body, similar to those of stroke victims, she testified. In the heat of the moment, she went on to say, she didnt even know she had run over David. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Her husband had confessed to her on July 17, and Harris had confronted Bridges at the orthodontics office that same day, telling her she was fired. That would change sometime in June 2002, when Clara hired the services of Blue Moon Investigations. David Harris and Bridges entered the hotel lobby hand in hand, Lindsey said. Today, the judge sent the jury out and told her: ''Either you will sit here in a composed manner or you will be removed from the courtroom. Clara, who had been tipped off to Davids whereabouts by a private investigator she had hired, went berserk. Her actions, in the years leading up to the event, indicate she did everything she possibly could to save her marriage and preserve her family. Join Facebook to connect with David Harris and others you may know. Whats more, she didnt violate any prison rules. All she wants to do is make up for lost time with her boys., Clara is now sixty years old, and her hair is getting gray. If jurors find she acted under the legal definition of sudden passion, she could receive a two-to-20-year sentence. 11/21/2022 8:44 AM. In 2005, Oprah arrived at the prison in the town of Gatesville (near Waco), where Clara was incarcerated, to interview her for her talk show. 1 Lindsey Harris ER 2006 Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10. ''I love her very much,'' Mildred Harris, beaming toward her daughter-in-law, said this morning from the witness stand shortly before the defense rested its case. View Lindsey Harris results in Oklahoma (OK) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? After it was over, Clara Harris led Lindsey to the Mercedes. As part of a prison program, she learned braille and worked several hours a day translating school textbooks into braille. Lindsey testified that Harris ran over her father three times. Most believed she had not intended to kill her husband, saying she was in a "jealous rage" and "lost it," and that she "didn't know what she was doing." ''What David did outside his marriage was a tragic mistake, and what Clara did was a tragic mistake,'' he said. "His last words to me were, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry' and then he lost his life shortly after that.". "We were leaving the hotel and I was looking at David and I noticed all of a sudden his face changed. David Rice Harris, in Perry County, in the late 1860s and early 1870s. David Lindsay Harris. Garza asked Bridges. ''She just had this evil look on her face,'' Lindsey, now 17, said, describing how her stepmother appeared as they drove around for several hours trying to find David Harris, 44, an orthodontist who had told his wife several days earlier that he was having an affair with Gail Bridges, 38, who worked in his office. Harris agreed, but she secretly hired a private investigator to follow them to dinner and ensure her husband ended the relationship. Lawsuit by Clara Harris' children settled, Willie Nelson pays lovely tribute to another country legend, Rare photos show 2 ocelots crossing South Texas road, Astros GM Dana Brown has more praise team's top prospect, This is what Houston looks like from space. Six months later, all Lindsey knows for sure is that her father is dead, and that her stepmother is to blame. Nevertheless, Claras attorneys persuaded the jurors that Clara had acted under sudden passion rather than with intent to kill, and they gave her a twenty-year sentence. Only 16 at the time she witnessed her father's traumatic death, Lindsey stated she had since attempted suicide on at least four occasions. A Harris County, Texas, jury would have the official and final say. This is Dr. David Harris and hes fing this woman right here!. This is a sad story all around. Yes, the twins acknowledged, they had lost their father, but at the same time they had lost their mother, whom they loved deeply. She knew what she did and she wasnt sorry, said Lindsey. Harris was released in 2018, a full five years before completing her sentence. Clara Harris was granted parole in November 2017, and she was ultimately released in May of 2018. "I've always said I thought that video eventually would be the best thing in the world for us," he said. David Harris, a suburban Houston orthodontist, died July 24 after Clara Harris' car struck him. View the profiles of professionals named "David Harris" on LinkedIn. At the Clear Lake office, he employed a married woman by the name of Gail Bridges as his receptionist. Clara Harris still rotting in prison is a waste of taxpayer money. She'd never seen her stepmother behave this way before. It was just a big fight.''. I pray for her continuously and I am glad she will have something to come home to, her twin boys. a bunch of times. Matthew J Guthrie Other occupants: Matthew J Guthrie On the evening of July 24, 2002, Harris received a devastating call from the investigator. Her lawyer contends that the 44-year-old dentist acted in the heat of passion, a wife unhinged by her cheating husband. And I went to look at the direction, and then we saw her," Bridges said. '', ''She wasn't sorry,'' Lindsey testified. Accompanying her was David's. Since the trial, Parnham has been asking himself why the jury imposed the maximum. It's time to send her home. Dr Lyndsey Harris is a Criminologist with extensive qualitative research experience. The attorneys said that Blue Moon. Harris already knew about the affair when she hired Blue Moon Investigations, a private detective agency, in July 2002. The trial started off well for the defense team. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Nancy Kissel was in love with a man in Vermont, but she was living the life of an expat in Hong Kong with her husband Robert Kisseluntil she killed him. Lindsey, meanwhile, testified that Harris had made shocking statements one week before David was killed, as reported by ABC News. What more could anyone want? "'She killed my dad. View the profiles of people named Lindsay Harris. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. And she was not going to do anything to jeopardize her chance of getting parole so she could someday be with them.. According to her testimony on Jan. 29, she screamed. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Join Facebook to connect with David Harris and others you may know. Clara Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison but only served 15. With all hes done to me, I could kill him and get away with it, Harris had allegedly stated. A police officer who witnessed the crime testified that she ran him over three times, however. Local radio talk shows were jammed with callers debating whether Clara was a cold-blooded murderer or a good woman who simply did what every woman secretly wants to do when she finds out her husband is cheating. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. David, Im so sorry., The murder made headlinesall over the world. I do not regret or will ever regret that I got to know him and that he became part of my life.". Susan Wright was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her coke-addicted husband, Jeffrey Andrew Wright. She was determined to become a professional dentist. "A lot of women would say, 'I don't feel sorry for (you) because (you were) going out with a married man,'" Garza said. Bridges said she never saw this coming because Clara knew of their affair and David told his mistress he was leaving his wife. Suzie from Carson City on April 17, 2016: Val..I would agree with you about Clara's reaction & out of control behavior, but as you can see from my comment~ I firmly believe she allowed her husband's infidelity to literally drive her to the brink of insanity. She lunged at Gail, slapped her, grabbed her shirt and tore it off, all the while screaming, You bitch, hes my husband! At the same time, Lindsey began hitting her father with her purse, shouting I hate you! "I thought: so they're going together in her car, and so my thought was stopping that car.". Lindsey Harris, 17, David Harris's daughter by his first marriage, was in the passenger seat of the car that killed her father. Harris sons visited her at the Mountain View Unit prison in Gainesville, Texas, every month. He went to church and loved Clara, she said. But then, to his horror, the judge read the jury's sentence: 20 years. A dignified churchgoing couple in tweeds and sensible shoes, Mildred Harris and her husband, Gerald, have sat a few feet behind Dr. Harris in the public gallery alongside another of their sons, several close friends and members of Dr. Harris's family from Bogot, Colombia. 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. In short time, the Harrises were showing signs of success, with an expensive home and high-dollar import vehicles. A symbol of her American success story, the luxury car soon became a murder weapon. ''She started pulling her shirt off. Leona Candy Stevens lying in court to liberate her husband Charles Manson, rich teenager Ethan Couch being released from prison despite murdering four people. Sixteen years ago, Clara was a pretty and personable dentist who lived in a prosperous south Houston suburb with her husband David, an orthodontist, and their twin three-year-old sons. David Harris was enamored. She said she has been seeing a therapist, is taking medication and that her leg -- hit by Clara Harris' car -- still bothers her. The worst was yet to come, however. Clara and Lindsey walked into the lobby just as David and his office receptionist, Gail Bridges, were emerging from an elevator. He openly flirted with women everywhere he went, even showing his wife notes scribbled by waitresses at Hooters. They had hidden from her, and she was upset by that.'' ''I thought it was maybe a duffle bag or something like that,'' Mr. Moza added. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Attorneys for Lindsey Harris filed a lawsuit Thursday, naming Blue Moon Investigations and the Hilton Nasa Clear Lake, Nasa Road 1, in Nassau Bay. Under the conditions of her parole, she has to wear a monitoring bracelet, take regular drug and alcohol tests, be gainfully employed, and reside in Galveston County. Jeff Moore, chief of investigations for Blue Moon, said company officials are "very pleased" with the outcome. With the help of accident reconstructionist Steve Irwin, they developed the following theory: Harris was intending to ram Bridges' car, and as she rounded the corner, her view was obstructed and she could not see her husband. Bridge's now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder -- flashbacks, nightmares and is on medication. In the darkened cabin of her stepmothers Mercedes-Benz, Lindsey Harris thought the drama was over for the night. But in cross-examination, Parnham got them to admit they couldn't see clearly. 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. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? ''There was a lot of shouting going on,'' Mr. Moza said. 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. Once she discovered the couple's whereabouts, Clara Harris called the family's nanny at home and told her to put some of her husband's business clothes on the porch and to throw everything else away, Lindsey said. ''She said she could kill my father for what he'd done to her,'' Lindsey testified, glancing only briefly at her stepmother, a former beauty queen and dentist, in almost five hours on the witness stand. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Trial consultant Robert Hirschhorn, whom Parnham had hired to help him pick a winning jury for Harris, said the defense team needed to working on "softening her up. I hate you! She said her father had told her he would end the affair with Ms. Bridges on July 24. Harris found her husband and Bridges in the hotel lobby. Clara Harris retained $1.2 million in assets. The lawsuit also said hotel management failed to provide effective security or notify police in time to prevent Harris' death and failed to train its employees to deal with domestic disputes. Parnham was confident. Her devastation is understandable, but comparing to many broken-hearted women who just leave their cheating husbands, she went to an extreme. Harris, a 45-year-old Houston dentist, was accused of killing her cheating husband by running him over with her Mercedes in a hotel parking lot in front of half a dozen witnesses. Who the hell are you, the Name Police? The impact threw him about 25 feet, prosecutors said. A dozen photojournalists flocked to Harris first court appearance. "I told him 'look, look what she done,'" Bridges said. If convicted, Harris could be sentenced to life in prison. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. I don't believe she should have been sent to jail for 20 years. ''I don't know what you are trying to get me to say,'' Ms. Harris said, her smile gone. As the naughty couple approached Gails car, the Blue Moon detective tasked with capturing the marital indiscretions of David was shocked as he witnessed, through the lens of his video camera, Clara behind the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz, speeding toward the other womans car in a direct path toward the husband. Leave them blank to get signed up. On the other, it gave her an opportunity to get closer to her stepmother, from whom she said she had felt distant since the birth of twins to the Harrises in 1998. Clara and husband David were both respected dental practitioners in Houston, Texas, with a shared office in the shadow of NASAs Johnson Space Center. During hearings on the matter, Lindsey Harris testified she was severely traumatized from her stepmothers actions. She said she remembered driving around in circles, "confused," with no conscious thoughts going through her mind. In 2007, Clara was brought back to Houston for a civil trial to defend herself in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Davids parents. This time, a jury had little sympathy for Claras story, and it ordered her to pay $3.75 million in damages. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? She already missed out raising her boys.
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