Texas woman who repeatedly ran over her cheating husband with her car, is released from prison after 15-year sentence
A Texas woman who was sentenced to 15 years for killing her husband by repeatedly running him over with her car was released from prison.
Sixty-year-old Clara Harris walked out of the prison on Friday, according to CNN
In 2002, Clara hired a private detective to investigate if her husband David Lynn Harris was having an affair with a receptionist.
On July 24 of the same year, she confronted him and his lover at a parking lot of a Hilton hotel in the Houston area where she fought with the woman and repeatedly ran her Mercedes over him, resulting in his death.
The murder made world-wide news and was even the subject of a made-for-television movie.
Clara, a Columbian immigrant, worked as a dentist. The couple was married in 1992 and raised three children, their twin sons and a daughter Lindsey from David's previous marriage.
Lindsey was in the car during the act and testified against Clara in the 2003 trial.
According to a CNN report in 2003, the then 17-year-old testified that she had tried to commit suicide four times in the months after her father's death.
Prosecutor reminded jurors how Lindsey Harris had gotten her father's clothing out of the trash, where they had been thrown earlier that day, and laid the items out on her bed so she could feel like he was there.
During the trial, Clara's attorney argued that the crime happened moments after an emotional and volatile confrontation and at the same hotel where the couple got married.
The crime was caught on tape by the private investigator who was present in the vicinity.
Initially, Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison and $10,000 fine. She was granted parole last year.
As part of the parole conditions, she must wear an ankle monitor, be employed all the time and stay in the Houston area. She won't be allowed to contact her late husband's family or his former wife. She will remain on parole until February 2023.
According to Wikipedia, the case was profiled on the Oxygen Network series 'Snapped' in 2004, by '20/20' with Diane Sawyer reporting in 2006, 'Deadly Women' in 2010, and the 'Corrupt Crimes' episode "Murder by Mercedes" in 2016 (Season 1, episode 88). It was also the topic of a Lifetime Original movie, 'Suburban Madness' starring Elizabeth Peña and Brett Cullen.