Why is this even on the news? These people are just spoiled yuppies. This story is exactly like a soap opera. Or maybe a porno. I wonder if the daughter is hot?
Woman Who Killed Spouse With Car Is Guilty of Murder
By NICK MADIGAN
[H] OUSTON, Feb. 13 ? Clara Harris, the dentist who ran over her adulterous husband with her Mercedes-Benz, was found guilty of his murder this morning, and her jury began determining the sentence she will face.
Dr. Harris, 45, could receive as little as probation or as much as 99 years in prison. Standing as the jury's verdict was read in the crowded courtroom, Dr. Harris, with two members of her legal team holding her arms, appeared drawn and pale. She sat down without speaking and bowed her head.
Later today, as the sentencing phase was under way, Dr. Harris begged her 17-year-old stepdaughter to forgive her. "I'm sorry, Lindsey," she said. "I'm sorry, baby."
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The jury of nine women and three men found that Dr. Harris intentionally and repeatedly ran over her husband, David Harris, a 44-year-old orthodontist, on July 24 after finding him at a hotel with his mistress, whom he had promised to leave.
The murder conviction could bring Dr. Harris, the mother of 4-year-old twin boys, a sentence of 5 to 99 years. A death penalty was not applicable because the case did not meet any of the special circumstances the state requires.
Even so, the wide disparity in the potential sentence illustrates the latitude Texas juries have in considering mitigating circumstances, the defendant's potential for rehabilitation and her general character.
If the jury decides that Dr. Harris, acted with "sudden passion," as the law puts it, it could mean a prison term of 2 to 20 years. The jury could then recommend that she be put on probation or perform community service, provided that her prison sentence was for 10 years or less.
In today's verdict, the jury also found Dr. Harris had used her sedan as a deadly weapon, which could mean having to serve at least half of any prison sentence she receives before being eligible for parole.
The jury, which had deliberated for about eight hours starting on Wednesday afternoon, also had the option of convicting her of lesser charges: manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.
This afternoon Lindsey Harris, who was riding in the passenger seat of her stepmother's car as it sped toward her father in the parking lot of the Nassau Bay Hilton here, testified as the prosecution's only witness in the sentencing phase, telling the jury that she had become so depressed after her father's death that she had twice tried to commit suicide by cutting her wrists.
Hearing this, Dr. Harris ? against whom Lindsey Harris has filed a wrongful death lawsuit ? began sobbing audibly, as she has on several occasions during the trial. Fearing the jurors would be affected by the display, Judge Carol G. Davies asked them to retire momentarily and, as they filed out, Dr. Harris cried out her apology to her stepdaughter. By that point, Lindsey was crying too.
"Be quiet," the judge warned Dr. Harris. "I'm going to give you one more chance. Don't blow it, or you will be out of the courtroom."
Her lawyer, George Parnham, stood up for her. "She just got convicted of murder," he said.
Judge Davies said later in the hearing that she was not insensitive to the emotions produced in such a case but that a courtroom was no place to show them.
The case of the well-to-do dentist and her philandering husband has been high drama in Houston. In the three-week trial, the most damning witness against the defendant was Lindsey Harris, who vividly described her stepmother's rising fury as she sought out her husband and Gail Bridges, 39, with whom he was having an affair.
Lindsey said she had initially been sympathetic to her stepmother's despair about her father's infidelity, but she testified how, once Dr. Harris found him and Ms. Bridges in the hotel lobby, she had attacked her as David Harris tried to separate them.
According to testimony, as David Harris led Ms. Bridges to her Lincoln Navigator in the parking lot, Clara Harris climbed into the Mercedes. At that point, Lindsey testified, she thought they were going home.
Instead, she said, Clara Harris "stomped on the accelerator" of the car and lurched toward her husband of 10 years, who was standing at the driver's side of the Navigator.
Witnesses said that David Harris's body was thrown about 25 feet by the impact. Lindsey said that as she screamed at her stepmother to stop, the Mercedes turned in a tight circle and ran over the body. Other witnesses said the car ran over the body at least twice more.
The defense contended that the car had hit David Harris just once, accidentally. In her own trial testimony, Dr. Harris said her sole intent was to ram into Ms. Bridges' Navigator. She was unaware, she said, that her husband was standing next to the vehicle as she drove toward it.
During the sentencing phase, defense lawyers called David Harris's parents and brother to the stand as part of their effort to win a mild sentence for Dr. Harris.
"I forgave her as I have been forgiven," said Gerald Harris, the victim's father, referring to his daughter-in-law. "I would not turn away from her."
In response to a question from the prosecutor about whether the twins would be well cared for if Dr. Harris went to prison, Mr. Harris said his son had a life insurance policy worth up to $6 million and that the family had other "significant" assets. Dr. Harris testified earlier that the dental practice she ran with her husband brought in about $650,000 a year.
Dr. Harris, who had been free on $30,000 bond, was taken into custody and was to spend the night in jail pending her sentencing. Testimony resumes on Friday.
