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Closing Arguments Wednesday In Harris Trial

Witnesses: Harris Run Over 3 Times

Published On: Nov 15 2011 11:55:11 AM CST  Updated On: Feb 11 2003 05:28:52 AM CST
HOUSTON -

Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday morning in the Clara Harris murder trial. Harris is accused of intentionally running over her husband in a hotel parking lot after she caught him cheating on her.

State District Judge Carol Davies told jurors to bring necessities for an overnight stay Tuesday in preparation for being sequestered.

Two men who saw Clara Harris fatally run down her husband, David Harris, with her Mercedez-Benz last summer testified Tuesday that she hit him three times.

"I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was real," eyewitness Chris Junco said as he tearfully described the mayhem in a suburban Houston hotel parking lot July 24. "It was weird. I don't know how to describe it. The whole scene was very mad."

Junco and a second eyewitness, Oscar Torres, testified they saw dentist Clara Harris hit her orthodontist husband, David Harris, three times.

He and Torres, the prosecution's final rebuttal witnesses, had been playing tennis across the street from the hotel when they heard the commotion and ventured closer.

"At first I thought it was a low-rider because (the car) was bumping so high," Junco testified. "I even thought that the car was pissed off at him."

Junco also said he believed Clara Harris intentionally killed her husband, though he acknowledged under cross examination by defense attorney George Parnham she appeared not to know what she was doing when she got out of her car.

"When she did get out of the car, she was different," Junco said. "She wasn't thinking correctly."

Clara Harris maintains her husband's death was an accident, and she intended to hit a sport utility vehicle owned by his lover, whom she caught him with at the hotel that night. Prosecutors say she intentionally killed him.

Torres made numerous sound effects as he described what he saw. He said David Harris' teenage daughter, Lindsey, who was in the Mercedes with her stepmother, was screaming "like an animal would when it's in excruciating pain."

Torres also said he got close enough to see David Harris' body. "He was mauled and gasping for air," the witness said.

The eyewitness testimony Tuesday corroborated Houston police accident investigator Rolando Saenz, who earlier testified Clara Harris ran over her husband at least two times. Defense collision reconstructionist Steve Irwin had told jurors David Harris was hit just once in testimony Saenz said was flawed.

Irwin testified the turning radius of Clara Harris' Mercedes-Benz would have made it impossible for her to circle back and hit 44-year-old David Harris repeatedly.

Saenz, who has investigated more than 10,000 collisions over nearly two decades, disagreed.

"As you make a left hand turn, sometimes you will swing out right and it will change the turning radius," Saenz said, explaining how it would have been possible for the car to hit David Harris repeatedly.

Saenz also pointed to separate, distinct blood stains on the underside of the car as evidence Harris' orthodontist husband was run over at least two times and possibly more.

Saenz said Clara Harris also likely took a wider arc around the Lincoln Navigator of her husband's lover than Irwin surmised. That, the investigator said, probably offered Clara Harris a clear look at her husband standing near the open driver's door of his girlfriend's vehicle.

Parnham said the Houston police officer wasn't involved in the investigation last summer, hadn't interviewed witnesses on his own and implied his only role was to rebut Irwin's testimony.

A defense attorney who has closely watched the court proceedings told News2Houston that both sides presented their evidence well.

"It's going to be a hell of a final argument tomorrow. I think (the jurors) are smart enough to comprehend what has happened here. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Now what do we do as your peers, Clara Harris, as your peers?" said Rocket Rosen, a defense attorney.

Jurors have four options: murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide or not guilty.

If convicted, Harris could face up to life in prison. But if jurors decide she acted as a result of sudden passion, she could get between two to 20 years behind bars or probation.

Sudden passion is legally defined as the following:

  • Accused was provoked by the victim
  • Crime happened at the time of the offense
  • Provocation made an ordinary person so enraged that he or she was incapable of cool reflection
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