He was pronounced dead at 9:48 p.m. and Clara Harris was charged with murder. He then escorted Bridges to her Lincoln Navigator while hotel staff took Harris outside. David was declared dead at 9:48 p.m. that evening. Today, they had the chance to explain why. Harris agreed, but she secretly hired a private investigator to follow them to dinner and ensure her husband ended the relationship. Truth be told, it wasnt Davids first affair. Eventually, Clara and Lindsey stormed back to the Mercedes. They then called Dr. Harris on his cellphone and told him to come home because one of the twins was sick, a statement Lindsey testified was not true. When I went to her first court appearance, nearly a dozen photographers were there to capture her every move. I'm so sorry. In an interview in November in Texas Monthly magazine, Mr. Harris said that he and his wife would do anything to help their daughter-in-law. David Harris, a suburban Houston orthodontist, died July 24 after Clara Harris' car struck him. She has no history of violent behavior. ''I don't know what you are trying to get me to say,'' Ms. Harris said, her smile gone. "We're just glad it's over," he said. With all hes done to me, I could kill him and get away with it, Harris had allegedly stated. He clearly did not make them a priority. ''But there is no problem with me getting to see those children.''. She would tell me pretty much everything that was going on and made me feel part of the family. Lindsey, David Harris daughter from a previous marriage, spent summers and holidays with her father and Harris. 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. 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. Los Angeles, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. Silently, Harris put the car in reverse and began to drive out of the hotel parking lot. ''She was very determined that's what was going to happen,'' Lindsey testified. I do not regret or will ever regret that I got to know him and that he became part of my life.". He openly flirted with women everywhere he went, even showing his wife notes scribbled by waitresses at Hooters. 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.. A total of three times, Clara ran the two-ton car over her husband. ", The phrase stopped Harris for a moment, she said. ''When we came closer, that bag turned out to be a human being.''. "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. She first became eligible for parole in 2013 but her request was denied. A 2016 parole request was also denied. Selfish? Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. View the profiles of people named Lynsey Harris. Her husband and Bridges were not talking at a restaurant but were together at Nassau Bay Hilton the same hotel where David and Clara Harris had been married 10 years earlier. When he landed, it was approximately 30 feet from where he had been standing only seconds before. When asked to choose from a list of possible verdicts, most of the mock jurors chose criminally negligent homicide. "You b, he's my husband!" Harris shouted before slapping Bridges. But last year, she got a new parole attorney, Kevin Stouwie of San Antonio. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. YouTubeDavid and Clara Harris were married for ten years before she killed him in a fit of rage. I believe anyone can be driven to do what Ms Harris did when they are pushed far enough. Looking up, he saw a Mercedes ''bumping over an object,'' he said. But then, on the last day of testimony, the prosecution produced a rebuttal witness who directly contradicted Irwin's theory. Individual details - click to Hide Show Main role not specified . Previously, Lindsey was a Director, Marketing at Frazier Healthcar e Partners and also held positions at Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society, Access MediQuip. Also in 2004, an episode of American Justice called "Murder by Mercedes" (episode 3, season 13) was released that detailed the Clara Harris case. 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. View Lindsey Harris results in Oklahoma (OK) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. However, when your mind has been overtaken by grief, depression & severe stress, it's not possible to THINK rationally about anything. . Bridges then walked to her car with David following. But then, to his horror, the judge read the jury's sentence: 20 years. Its daily. And I went to look at the direction, and then we saw her," Bridges said. He said it would all come down to one thing for the jury: Did Harris want her husband dead or did she want him back? Then, the theory went, Harris panicked and locked the wheel to the left, driving around her husband's body in a 40-foot circle, but not hitting it again. Garza asked Bridges. Im so sorry, she was heard saying over and over. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. In 2007, Clara was brought back to Houston for a civil trial to defend herself in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Davids parents. Enraged, Clara ordered her teenage stepdaughter into her Mercedes-Benz and headed for the hotel; the very same hotel in which she and David had promised to love one another only 10 short years ago. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. I pray for her continuously and I am glad she will have something to come home to, her twin boys. Lindsey Harris is a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis based in Chicago, Illinois. "'She killed my dad. 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." David, Im so sorry., The murder made headlinesall over the world. Jurors deemed hers a crime of sudden passion, and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, the maximum allowed for murder under such circumstances. 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. 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. She said she has been seeing a therapist, is taking medication and that her leg -- hit by Clara Harris' car -- still bothers her. They had hidden from her, and she was upset by that.'' Harris was 60 years old at the time of her release, and she was looking for a job as a condition of her parole. Clara was first eligible for parole in 2012, but she was turned down. Lindsey testified that Harris ran over her father three times. "What happened when you got off that elevator?" She said she remembered one of them telling her, "Don't go where they're going. Her neighbor at the psychiatric prison is another client of Parnham's: Andrea Yates, who is serving a life sentence for drowning her five children in a bathtub. Lindsey Harris in Florida. Sadly, like too many women, she refused to face this and went into a total denial.This whole story is sad as can be Val..several LIVES destroyed. 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 share and makes the world more open and connected. 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. 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. Also known as Lindsey D Clay, Clay Lindsey. When David Harris wed Colombian-born beauty queen Clara Suarez in a Valentines Day 1992 ceremony befitting royalty at the Nassau Bay Hilton Hotel, he had no way of knowing his loving bride would end his life here some 10 years later. Local radio stations gave breathless updates. Fleeing for Your Life? Suzie from Carson City on October 07, 2017: Triple J.I'm quite aware of my friend's name. Are insane ticket costs pricing Astros fans out of Opening Day? As she listened to her stepdaughter's testimony, Clara Harris began crying. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Mock Jurors Find Harris Account Convincing. 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. Gerald Harris, a former school principal who later directed the transportation division of a school district before he retired, said his son was a good husband and a good father to their young twin boys. "We were leaving the hotel and I was looking at David and I noticed all of a sudden his face changed. When they found it, Clara Harris scratched the vehicle with her keys, ripped off the rear windshield wiper and tried to do the same to the front wipers. She probably hoped she could become what he wanted her to be and change him. Dr. Harris pushed Ms. Bridges out of the way before he was hit, his daughter said. Parnham and Harris gave ABCNEWS extraordinary access to her legal defense, allowing Primetime's cameras to film the defense team's strategy sessions, their meetings with experts, and a mock trial in which they tested their case on a group of stand-in "jurors.". Originally sentenced to twenty years for first-degree murder, the former Houston dentist has been paroled. And she was not going to do anything to jeopardize her chance of getting parole so she could someday be with them.. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. All the while, Lindsey sat screaming at her stepmother from the Mercedes passenger side; begging Clara to stop. Suzie from Carson City on April 16, 2016: I'm very familiar of this extremely high-profile case. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas. Harris knew her husband was being unfaithful and hired a private investigation agency to follow him, as reported by ABC News. Claras goal was to get paroled so she could be reunited with her sons, Emily Detoto, one of her original defense attorneys, told me. Things spun out of control for Joy and she fled the country. Yet they say they have forgiven Dr. Harris and in court today described an unblemished marriage that was, in Mildred Harris's words, ''made in heaven. Join Facebook to connect with David Harris and others you may know. I wish Clara would have been stronger, but unfortunately she wasn't . 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. She turned the car around to run over him a second time, then made a final 180-degree turn to hit him once more. She did not know David was dead until Lindsey, David's daughter who was in the car with her stepmother, approached her. They saw David and Gail heading to Gails SUV in a different part of the parking lot. The mock jury's reaction to her account was encouraging: Just two out of the 20 said Harris was guilty of murder. He came up with a new strategy. She told Parnham that a week earlier her husband, 44-year-old orthodontist David Harris, had revealed he was having an affair with his receptionist, 39-year-old Gail Bridges. 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. Clara Harris is serving a 20-year sentence for murder in the case, which drew national attention. David Harris is on Facebook. (Photo By Carlos Antonio Rios/Chronicle) Clara Harris Clara and David Harris Clara and David Harris Bridges said she never saw this coming because Clara knew of their affair and David told his mistress he was leaving his wife. Houston pitmaster goes viral after hilarious TV interview, Willie Nelson's new album is a lovely tribute to a fellow country legend, Two ocelots were photographed crossing a road in rare South Texas sighting, Astros GM Dana Brown sees bright future for top prospect Drew Gilbert, This is how astronauts see Houston, Texas Gulf from space with unaided eyes. Clara had a lucrative practice as a dentist, while Davids specialty was orthodontics. She then cradled her husband and told him she was sorry and loved him, according to The New York Times. Her parole requests in April 2013 and September 2016 were denied, but her third request was boosted when her sons argued that they had now lost their mother as well as their father. The same day his twin daughters were born, Billy Gibbs would commit a crime so horrific he would die in the electric chair two years later. 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. I hate you!. David Harris' parents testified in support of Clara Harris, saying she had a strong marriage with their son and had been emotionally distraught on learning of his infidelity. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. By the time they tracked him down at a hotel, Harris was livid. Garza asked Bridges. ''They had tricked her. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. I wish her nothing but the best for the rest of her life. Bridges spoke to News2Houston in an exclusive interview Thursday. In short time, the Harrises were showing signs of success, with an expensive home and high-dollar import vehicles. She killed my dad,'" Bridges responded. The witness, a police accident expert, displayed a crime scene photograph showing a tire mark pointing directly toward David Harris's body possible evidence that he had been run over more than once. 30 people named Lindsey Harris found in Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, Saginaw-Bay City-Midland and 3 other cities. 1 most stressful city for U.S. workers, To get these special tacos, drive out to the Houston Ship Channel, MLB legend makes surprise appearance at Astros' Spring Training, 'This is about profit': Houston leaders condemn HISD takeover, Oops! 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. 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. "He once told me that he would like to spend the rest of his life with me, and he did," Bridges said. Her devastation is understandable, but comparing to many broken-hearted women who just leave their cheating husbands, she went to an extreme. Whats more, she didnt violate any prison rules. 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. Without warning, she stomped on the accelerator and went straight for my Dad, testified Lindsey, 17, at Harris murder trial Wednesday. David Harris was a narcissist who bullied his wife into believing she wasn't good enough. The defense had a setback when the judge ruled that their computer simulation was inadmissible because it was dramatized. Garza asked. It seemed that life was perfect and complete for the Harris family. A Harris County, Texas, jury would have the official and final say. When Dr. Harris and Ms. Bridges came down from their room, Clara Harris ''went straight for Gail,'' Lindsey said. Gail Bridges stood watching, too stunned to move. The young woman's appearance in court clearly displayed her ambivalence about the events that led to the death of her father, who married Clara Harris, his second wife, on Valentine's Day in 1992, in the same hotel, the Nassau Bay Hilton, where he died. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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.. That was when she struck me on my leg with the vehicle," the mistress said. 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. 20 years was extremely unfair. "This is going to be a hard case," Parnham told Primetime 2 months before the trial. His wife, Lucy, died in early 1856, after giving him twelve children, and later that . The 44-year-old Colombian had moved to America in the 1980s and opened her own successful dentistry practice. Clara Harris had it all. I don't believe she should have been sent to jail for 20 years. David Harris was enamored. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Accompanying her was David's. 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. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The hotel's attorney, Ervin Apffel Jr., confirmed that the lawsuit had been settled but declined to comment further. 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. Creger, who said she was trained in CPR to care for a premature son, tried to help the injured dentist breathe. Bridges responded, "The affair was wrong. If she was cheap enough to carry on with a married man, she's cheap enough to have no remorse. Read Skip Hollandsworths 2002 piece on Harris, Suburban Madness,. David and Clara Harris were married for ten years before she killed him in a fit of rage. She has since filed a wrongful death suit against her stepmother. Blue Moon investigators would make a deadly mistake when it came to their client Clara Harris. Murder Defendant's In-Laws Tell Jurors Why They Remain Her Strongest Supporters, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/11/us/murder-defendant-s-in-laws-tell-jurors-why-they-remain-her-strongest-supporters.html. Harris is currently in a psychiatric prison 140 miles north of Houston. Yes, the twins acknowledged, they had lost their father, but at the same time they had lost their mother, whom they loved deeply. Menu Log In Sign Up Lindsey was with Harris when she sped off in the direction of the hotel on July 24 to confront her husband. 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. She should not have been given 20 years. She suffered plenty without going to prison. David Harris's father, however, refused to agree with Ms. Magness that Clara Harris's behavior in the days leading up to the confrontation at the hotel was anything unreasonable. "A lot of women would say, 'I don't feel sorry for (you) because (you were) going out with a married man,'" Garza said. ''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. Although his Clear Lake staff, and even some at the Lake Jackson office, were aware of Davids infidelity, Clara seemingly had no idea. In the heat of the moment, she went on to say, she didnt even know she had run over David. On February 14, 2003 (which ironically would have been David and Claras 11th anniversary), the jury found her guilty of second degree murder. Running Into Fire: The Legacy of Jeff Blackburn, The Apache, the Irish Catholic Priest, and a 40-Year-Old Miscarriage of Justice, An Unforgettable Texas Tale of Envy, Embezzlement, and Fruitcake, How the Texas Rangers Became One of the Most Powerful Forces in the State. When one suggested reckless driving, Hirschhorn joked that Parnham should take her to lunch. I was yelling, Stop, youre killing him!. A police officer who witnessed the crime testified that she ran him over three times, however. While the sentence for intentional murder in Texas is 20 years to life, murder in sudden passion carries a minimum penalty of just two years, with a maximum of 20 years. Lindsey was already crying when she reached her dying father, and Harris soon joined in. In November, Claras application for parole was granted, and her release date was set for May 11. On the other side of the aisle, with a majority made up of women especially those whose husbands or exes had cheated on themthere are those who insisted it was a crime of passion and David got what he deserved. She was in her 40s when she was arrested. The testimony of Lindsey Harris, a high school student from Columbus, Ohio, in the trial of her stepmother, who is accused of murdering her husband of 10 years, David Harris, in a hotel parking . The thing that made me upset about this case, is that no one ever touched on the fact that David caused his own death due to his own foul behavior. Mayor: HISD has two optionsclose school or be taken over, Meet the Astros prospect tearing up Spring Training, Report: Houston ranked No. She said she tried to save their 10-year marriage by quitting her job, cooking her husband's favorite meals and promising to please him sexually, and that he promised to break up with Bridges over dinner. Harris was released in 2018, a full five years before completing her sentence. They paroled OJ, clearly someone who cannot stay out of trouble. She was quickly inundated with requests for interviews, but she turned all of them down. They entered into a contract for services with Clara, which outline standard provisions of any decent agencyone of those provisions being that the client was not to interfere with the detectives investigation. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. "I thought we were in good shape," he told Primetime later. Prosecutors, however, went after her, saying she knew exactly what she was doing in that Hilton parking lot. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, The problem with Pablo Escobars hippos. We became very close, Lindsey said. When the car stopped, David Harris, 44, was dead. Harris sons visited her at the Mountain View Unit prison in Gainesville, Texas, every month. After a three-week trial, Clara Harris was found guilty on Feb. 14, 2003. I never thought hed do something like that to her. The attorneys said that Blue Moon. Lindsey Harris, 17, took the stand as the prosecution's last witness against orthodontist Clara Harris, who stands accused of running down her husband - David Harris, 44, also a dentist -. Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence? When she saw the car, she said, she decided to ram it with her Mercedes. I also understand what you say about her naivety. The worst was yet to come, however. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. She wasnt saying anything. 1 Lindsey Harris ER 2006 Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10. What very few people knew was that Clara was a model prisoner. During hearings on the matter, Lindsey Harris testified she was severely traumatized from her stepmother's actions. I screamed 'No!' . Bridges was very afraid of the television cameras. Lindsey Harris is a Director, Marketing at CPS Solutions based in Dublin, Ohio. Was her love "above" everybody else's wellbeing? "This is going to be a hard case," Parnham told Primetime 2 months before the trial. When the story about the scorned woman who used her Mercedes to extract revenge on her cheating husband made national headlines, Americans suddenly found themselves embroiled in a debate: Was it really murder? Bridge's now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder -- flashbacks, nightmares and is on medication.
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