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The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast

June 23, 2025 / 53:53

This episode covers the murder of David Harris by his wife Clara Harris, the impact on their family, and the subsequent trial. Key topics include infidelity, revenge, and the emotional turmoil surrounding the case.

Hosts Ash and Elena discuss Clara's discovery of her husband's affair with Gail Bridges, which led to a tragic confrontation. Clara's emotional state and the involvement of her stepdaughter Lindsay during the incident are highlighted, emphasizing the trauma experienced by all parties.

The episode details the sensational media coverage of the case, including the public's reaction and the trial's proceedings. Clara's defense attorney, George Parnham, argues that her actions were a crime of passion, while the prosecution presents evidence of premeditation.

Listeners hear about the jury's deliberation and the eventual verdict, which results in Clara being sentenced to 20 years in prison. The episode concludes with reflections on the lasting impact of the case on the family and the broader implications of infidelity and violence.

TLDR

Clara Harris murders her husband David after discovering his affair, leading to a sensational trial and emotional fallout for their family.

Episode

53:53
00:00:06
Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I am Elena. And this is Morbid. [Music] This is morbid. Trying to figure out
00:00:29
what to eat for dinner. Not flaming hot Cheetos. No, I just tried flaming hot Cheetos for the first time. I like that
00:00:35
you say flaming. Flaming. What is it supposed to be? Like flaming. Flaming. Flaming. Oh, I thought it was flaming.
00:00:41
Flaming. It's flaming. Such an author. I have tried flaming hot Cheetos for the first time. It's Yeah. I've never tried
00:00:50
them before, which you would think I would. I love cheesy goodness. Yeah. Um, they're okay. Yeah, I took a video of
00:00:58
her trying them. She just said, "So spicy." They're so spicy. They're not like crazy spicy and then they're so
00:01:05
artificial tasting. I think I've just like lost a taste for super artificial tasting stuff. I get that. You offer the
00:01:11
most and I was not interested. Yeah, I think that's what happened. Remember I tried Takis? Oh, yeah. And it made me
00:01:18
literally sick. Like I think it was just I couldn't get That's another thing I've
00:01:21
never tried. I know my bounds when it comes to this IBS body of Well, your stomach is a is the wild west, so I
00:01:28
don't blame you for putting up boundaries. Listen, I'm going to say some crazy [ __ ] right now. I'm not a
00:01:32
medical doctor, so don't [ __ ] listen to me. But no, no, no. And it's I'm not I was going to say it, but then I
00:01:39
decided not to. But you're not someone who claims that you can beat infertility with a positive mindset. No. Or raw
00:01:45
milk. But I do find a difference in my Tum Tums happiness when I eat chia seed pudding in the morning, you know. And
00:01:56
there's actually scientific evidence behind that and like how it works as it travels through your body. Well, people
00:02:01
also people like it. It's I've never really had it, but I I think there's something to that. You don't like
00:02:07
pudding, though. I do love pudding. You do like pudding? Yeah, I love pudding. Why did I think you don't like pudding?
00:02:11
I don't know. Pudding. I love a pudding moment. It's I think it's really good and it's also really easy to make. So
00:02:18
there it's like four ingredients. I should try that because I really need to I got to get back I was in a really good
00:02:24
uh like meal preppy place of of being um for like the last few months I was like
00:02:30
every Sunday I was doing my meal prep for the week and it was mostly like snacks for the kids and like you know
00:02:37
just getting things ready so we could have an easier week and like that es and flows so much. It just cuz life Yeah.
00:02:43
It's like we would have a couple of busy weekends and it would throw me off or we
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people got sick like the kids got sick, I got sick, John got like somebody got sick and it just threw us all off. But I
00:02:52
need to get back in my [ __ ] because I do think the that life flows nicer when there's a little bit of prep involved. I
00:02:59
like a prep. I just prepped three of these for this week cuz I was like I'm I was waking up I've been waking up so
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late lately because I happen to get it coming into the office ridiculously late. I just roll up in here at [ __ ]
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like 9:17. I'm like, "Sorry." Hey everyone. We start early usually, but I just I don't know what's going on with
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my life. Dash says, "Fuck y'all." Yeah. I make myself up when I want to. I show up I show up when I can. When I can. I
00:03:26
show up pretty regularly. Um but yeah. No, I I kept I kept just like not eating breakfast or like grabbing something
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stupid or being exponentially more late because I was like, I have to eat breakfast. Yeah. And these chia seed
00:03:38
puddings, you make them, you have to set them in the fridge cuz they um they'll [ __ ] you up if they don't Oh, if they
00:03:45
cuz they're they're like loaded with fiber, but um they have to soak in a like some kind of liquid so that they're
00:03:51
not so they're not as like crazy. I don't know. Yeah, but cuz I think basic I think they can like maybe not exactly,
00:04:00
but I think they can like explode in you if you don't soak them first. I think people have had like ruptures. Here's
00:04:06
the thing. I don't know if I'll be doing chia seed pudding. I don't like having any kind of risk with my food. No,
00:04:11
there's no risk if you soak them. Like like one thing, rhubarb pie. What? I'm a little scared of rhubarb pie. Why is
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that? Because you have to like they don't take there's a certain part of a rhubarb that if you eat it, it's
00:04:23
poisonous. For real? Yeah. I have you ever had a rhubarb? Um I I don't know if I have to be honest. I don't even know
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if I've come across a rhubarb in the produce section. is a is a thing. But yeah, it's like the
00:04:35
leaves. I think if you like leave any of the leaves on, they're poisonous. And that I don't like having any kind of
00:04:41
risk with my food. No, I got that. You know, like I'm not one of those people who's going to eat that like highly
00:04:46
poisonous like [ __ ] sushi that like you know that like crazy thing that it's like if they don't do it perfectly.
00:04:53
Wait, there's highly poisonous sushi. It's like a It's in like I think it's like some crazy delicacy that like Oh,
00:05:00
if they don't prepare it exactly right, it can kill you. Is it like the kind of fish or something? I think so. I've
00:05:05
never heard of this. It's like the way you prepare it. I think if you don't do it correctly. Oh, [ __ ] I'm not living
00:05:10
that life. Like that's why I don't bungee jump. That's why I'm not skydiving. Yeah. That's why you ruined
00:05:15
oysters for me and my husband. That's why I ruined oysters for as many people as I could. Cuz I'm just like, "No, live
00:05:21
this life with me where we eat food that doesn't kill us." It's good. No, honestly, chia seed pudding is fine. You
00:05:26
literally just have to soak it in a liquid before you eat it. Otherwise, it could just, you know, kill you. Yeah,
00:05:32
I'm a little scared by that. It won't kill you. It'll just explode in your diet. It's going to support you. I don't
00:05:36
know. Look into it. I honestly I recommend it though because gets things moving. It gets things moving and um it
00:05:44
might really get things moving by exploding inside of you. So just just soak it in a liquid. Um but they're
00:05:50
loaded in fiber and we as women especially don't get enough fiber. And this is not an ad. We literally just
00:05:55
don't. That sounded like it was about to be an ad. I know for a second I was like
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do we have an ad? I was like [ __ ] off. No, I feel I feel passionate about this.
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as women do not get in. I was like lately I feel so passionate about like women's like like just like health.
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There's no [ __ ] research into women's health whatsoever. And I've been looking
00:06:15
more into it and they don't recommend that we have enough fiber and all of us are lacking in fiber and that makes us
00:06:20
tired and irregular and have IBS and you know this is a health podcast now. Yeah.
00:06:26
Welcome. No. Anyways, um we were gonna say something else. No. Uh I don't know. We just have uh we have some some stuff
00:06:34
coming up that's fun. We do um that I just you know I'm just sharing with my besties here. You know all of you
00:06:41
everybody you Mikey all the people listening um we get to go to the Jack's Mannequin concert soon.
00:06:50
I mean you it's like the day after tomorrow. I was going to say it's like by the time you hear it come out we'll
00:06:55
have already been it was awesome. I'm sure it was great. Good job Andrew. Yeah. We get to hang with Andrew. Yeah,
00:07:00
I'm sure for a minute again. And that'll be fun. And Aiden's coming. Um because that's always a fun thing to be like,
00:07:06
"Oh, let's just hang out with Andrew McMahon again." Rockstar. Um again, 16-year-old me is just not not really
00:07:13
fully grasping that as reality, but here we are. Yeah. Um and I'm just excited to
00:07:17
see Jack Mannequin play again because I haven't been to a Jack Mannequin concert
00:07:21
in a long time. I actually can't believe I talked about fiber before this. That's
00:07:26
like the worst transition ever. We just talked about like digestive tracks and fiber before and now you're like, "Let's
00:07:31
talk about Jack's mannequin." I'm like, "That's good." You're like, "Oh, yeah." You know, that really shifted us into
00:07:36
gear. Jesus Christ, I love it. I'm so excited. I haven't seen Jack's Mannequin since I think 2016. Yeah. It's been a
00:07:44
long time. Yeah. So, that'll be fun. Mhm. We got that. And hopefully, you know, hopefully we see some of you
00:07:49
there. Yeah. I bet we did. We probably did. It was so much fun. Oh, we did. We saw some of you there. And it was Hey.
00:07:55
Hey guys. Good to see you. Hey, you. We saw there listener. You know what's gonna be, you know what's super duper
00:08:01
cool? What? There's only like 20ish episodes left where we have to be so far ahead. 20 episodes left that we
00:08:09
have to Yeah, we only have we only have a handful of episodes where we're not going to understand where it's uh
00:08:15
falling in the pushing order where we're at the spaceime continues. Yeah, we're almost at a point where we're going to
00:08:20
be up to date with you guys in our episodes. So nice to see you guys again. You guys can't wait. Yeah, it's going to
00:08:28
be nice. What if I laughed like that? Whenever I say, "What if I laughed like that?" So
00:08:33
many people comment. They're like, "You do. You do." I'm like, "Don't tell me I laugh like that." You laugh like that. I
00:08:39
just said, "Don't tell me that. I'm reckless today. You are reckless." Um, and this is a reckless story that
00:08:47
you're about to finish. Yeah, I guess. Reckless is a great way to describe it. I I think we bantered the banter a
00:08:55
thousand sons. That was beautiful. Thank you. Poetic even. All right. So, yeah, we are in part two of the murder of
00:09:02
David Harris. This is like Elena just said, a reckless story. Harrowing one might say. Mhm. Uh in part one, we
00:09:09
started obviously with the unfortunate act of Clara Harris running over her husband David while his 16-year-old
00:09:16
daughter Lindsay sat in the passenger seat of the car. I cannot get over that. Yeah. I just feel deep deep sadness for
00:09:23
her. Like I'm sending her all of my condolences at all times. Yeah. So Clara had just learned two weeks earlier that
00:09:29
David was having an affair with his secretary Gail Bridges. How cliche. Obviously that was absolutely
00:09:35
devastating to her for so many reasons, but they had been married for 10 years at that point. They had threeyear-old
00:09:44
twins. Wow. Three-year-old twins at that point. Three years old. And she's being
00:09:50
told that she's like not bouncing back quick enough. Oh yeah. Because remember in part one, that's another part to
00:09:57
revisit. Yeah. She had him sit down with her and make a list of all their attributes that like she so she could
00:10:03
compare to make herself better, which is horrifying. The saddest thing I think I've ever heard. And he wrote down that
00:10:09
Gail had almost a per a perfect body with almost no fat. And that good for Gail. Clara was a large person, too big.
00:10:21
And again, she had three old twins. So, so that's [ __ ] terrible. That's cool. But also, so that all of that was
00:10:29
devastating. And they also were owners of multiple practices across Houston together and he's cheating with one of
00:10:37
their employees. Yeah. When you think about that, like her money that she's earning, Clara is going to this woman
00:10:44
who's having an affair with her husband, paying this woman's salary, who's having
00:10:48
an affair with her husband. Yeah. Not anymore, though, because remember, she got fired. She got fired. Clara said,
00:10:53
"Hand over those keys." So, now that she knew pretty much everything there was to
00:10:57
know about her husband's affair, Clara wanted to know more about Gail Bridges. Who was this woman who had managed to
00:11:03
easily lure her husband away? You don't want to know. She You know what, though?
00:11:08
You do. No, no, I know you want to know. That's why I just looked at you. But for
00:11:11
real, you don't. It's not going to do anything for you. It's not going to do anything for you. Upset you more. It's I
00:11:17
totally understand people's response to this. Oh, 100%. Cuz I have to know everything about everything, too. Even
00:11:24
like when it's a bad thing. Oh yeah. I can't imagine this specific bad thing. It's never good though. Oh, it's
00:11:29
awesome. It just never ends in you being like, "Wow, I feel so much better for having known that." I know. Well, she
00:11:36
found out g that Gail I mean she knew that Gail had worked for the company for several months, but Clara didn't really
00:11:41
know a lot about her. So, she started asking around. What she learned about Gail was kind of just a mix of vapid
00:11:46
facts, salacious rumors, and obviously biased opinions. But one thing caught her off guard. Caught Clara off guard.
00:11:52
Supposedly, Gail had left her husband years earlier to be in a relationship with another woman. So, the news was
00:11:58
unconfirmed. It was just a rumor, but it was confusing to Clara. Her understanding of sexual identity.
00:12:03
Remember this is like very early 2000s in Texas. Her understanding was somewhat rigid. Yeah. She wondered how could Gail
00:12:12
be interested in a sexual romantic relationship with David if she was a lesbian which like you can be in a
00:12:18
relationship with a woman and not be a lesbian in case anybody was confused. Yeah. So upon learning more about Gail,
00:12:23
Clara got determined to learn as much as she possibly could. Every time she learns a new piece of information, she
00:12:28
wants more and more and more and more. Yeah. See, it's a slippery slope. And she didn't just want information, she
00:12:33
wanted revenge. Great band. To that end, on July 22nd, Clara made an appointment
00:12:39
with Blue Moon Investigations, which was a private investigation firm that she found in the yellow pages of the phone
00:12:44
book. The yellow pages. Yeah. A few hours later, she found herself sitting down with the with Blue Moon's owners,
00:12:53
Lucas and Bobby Baka, where she handed out a large sum of cash in advance. What she wanted, she explained to them, was
00:12:59
them to just surveil Gail Bridges to get any information or even possibly recordings of her with her supposed
00:13:05
lover, Julian Knight, that Clara could use to publicly shame Gail and ruin her reputation, which is like homophobic and
00:13:14
annoying. And also, it's not doing anything. No. And this is where it's not doing it. That's childish. It's
00:13:21
childish. And this is where I Clara really loses me. Yeah. She's thinking that she's gonna publicly shame this
00:13:28
woman for being a lesbian. Yeah. And it's like, nope. And also, and it's literally just like, for why? Yeah.
00:13:36
Like, that's just it doesn't What do you get out of that? It's not doing anything. Like, this is doing nothing
00:13:42
but wasting your [ __ ] time. And if you're truly wanting to work on your marriage, you do have to now concentrate
00:13:48
on the girl in the dirt and the like get her out of here. You know, that's the thing. Like, make sure she's gone. Like
00:13:54
that doesn't mean obsessing over her, which obviously again better easier said than done, but it's like this just isn't
00:14:02
going through this big thing to like publicly shame her and [ __ ] is just not it's not worth your time. It's not
00:14:09
conducive to anything and it's very childish. Regardless of how angry you are or upset, that's childish. It just
00:14:15
is. It is. But the invest the private investigators assured Clara none of this would be any problem. The case file on
00:14:22
Gail Bridges actually came together pretty quickly because it turned out that during her pro her divorce
00:14:27
proceedings three years earlier, Gail's husband, Steve, had accused her of carrying on an affair with her friend
00:14:34
Julie Knight. Oh. It didn't take long for the accusations to get back to Julie's husband, Chuck Knight, who then
00:14:41
in turn filed his own divorce papers alleging his wife was having an affair with Gail. So, this is messy as hell
00:14:47
now. And Gail is messy as hell. Well, neither man offered any evidence. Gail's messy for having an affair with uh
00:14:55
David, but her affair with Julie is unconfirmed. It seems like it might have just been helpful for her husband to
00:15:02
have this in divorce proceedings kind of thing. Yeah, we've seen that. Yeah, cuz
00:15:07
neither man offered any evidence to support their claims. And according to Valerie Davenport, who ended up being a
00:15:13
lawyer for both Julie and Gail, she said the tale of the affair had been invented
00:15:17
by their husbands as a way to divert attention from their own improper misconduct. Ah, apparently Steve Bridges
00:15:24
you had alleged alcoholism and drug abuse and Chuck Knight had his own alleged extrammarital affair. Alleged.
00:15:31
Alleged. For the Bakas, the private investigators, the details in the actual facts didn't really matter very much. So
00:15:38
what they reported was only what appeared in public record. Yeah. So throughout the day, the the bizarre
00:15:44
story started to grow in size and in stranges. It turned out that in 2001, just a couple years earlier, a year
00:15:51
earlier, Julie and Gail had appeared on an episode of the daytime talk show, I don't know if you've heard of it, Sally
00:15:57
Jesse Raphael. Oh, holy [ __ ] The with the glasses. Oh, with the glasses. I remember Sally Jesse Raphael. I never
00:16:04
saw it. It was before my time, but Okay. Just kidding. But Julie and Gail appeared in an
00:16:11
episode entitled My Husband Spies on Me. Shut up. So, this is a real This is an episode. Yes. My Gail is in Google My
00:16:22
Husband spies on me. Sally, Jesse, Raphael, and they're in it. But wearing wigs and dark glasses to disguise their
00:16:27
appearances because daytime talk show. I cannot. Yeah. And because their husband
00:16:32
spies on them. And because their husband spies on them. Julie and Gail described
00:16:35
how their husbands tried to portray them as lesbians in order to get favorable outcomes in their respective divorces,
00:16:41
which is [ __ ] up. It is super [ __ ] up. A few weeks later, after David's murder, the press seized on this
00:16:46
information because obviously it is the perfect thing to write a sleazy story about. Of course, they were hoping that
00:16:52
the scandal, however fabricated it was, would drive readership and it worked. They don't care if it's real. No. The
00:16:58
story of David Harris's murder became a national news story within just days of his death. The Houston Chronicle was
00:17:04
publishing photos of the women in their wigs from the Sally Jesse Raphael episode, elevating the story from one of
00:17:11
local interest to a bizarre sex scandal that would obviously fascinate the nation cuz it is bizarre. It is bizarre.
00:17:18
Like, it's very bizarre the whole thing. It's so layered at this point. Yeah. Other tabloid and tabloid adjacent
00:17:25
papers followed suit. The New York Post declared a headline reading, "Bisexual triangle led to car slay of hubby.
00:17:33
Who wrote that? That's a lot. I wanna That's a lot. I want to talk to the person. I got to talk to you about that
00:17:38
because that one is a lot. That's a lot. They also compared Gail Bridges to the character of Hester Prinn from the
00:17:44
Scarlet Letter, which like do better. Yeah. I mean, that that's also just like, okay, unoriginal. Yeah. Like,
00:17:51
okay, Scarlet A, we get it. Okay. Julie Knight said, "It is madness. There's no other way to describe it." But I feel
00:17:57
bad that she got dragged into it because from the sounds of it, Gail and Julie, like when Gail and Julie were married to
00:18:03
their respective partners, they were all friends and then they just decided to Yeah. It doesn't sound like this scheme.
00:18:10
Doesn't really sound like they had a relationship. Yeah. But within days of David's death, photos of Clara, David,
00:18:15
Gail, and Julie were just plastered across every newspaper, every tabloid, TV talk shows all across the country.
00:18:24
Julie told Skip Hollensworth in 2002, "You really do think you have your life worked out. You really do think nothing
00:18:30
can go too wrong. And now here we all are on the front pages of newspapers." That's rough. But you feel bad for her
00:18:36
specifically cuz she has nothing to do. She's such a side like character in this
00:18:41
whole thing. It's you feel really bad for her. It's really sad given the timeline. It would seem kind of
00:18:46
impossible too that Bobby and Lucas Baka could have dug up so much information about Gail Bridges. It was just like a
00:18:53
day and a half before the murder took place. Oh wow. That Gail got all of this information. Yeah. But they didn't seem
00:18:59
to have any trouble putting together a large file on Gail in a matter of like hours essentially. It was only after the
00:19:05
murder that Clara learned the real reason. Blue Moon Investigations had also been hired by Julie's ex-husband
00:19:12
Chuck Knight to surveil his wife who he believed was having an affair with his with her best friend Gail Bridges. Uh,
00:19:19
Bobby Baka followed both women for days and ultimately came up with nothing. So,
00:19:23
like I said, it doesn't seem like they were even having an affair. She actually told Chuck Knight, "They acted like
00:19:28
Wilma and Betty from the Flintstones and there was nothing quote unquote lesbianike about their behavior."
00:19:33
Nothing. What is lesbian like? Is that just like if they start making out? If they just start like fuking in the
00:19:39
street, is that lesbian? Like, like what? I'm like, it sounds like they were just best friends that were like hanging
00:19:47
out and probably going through hard times in their marriages. Yeah. But please, Bobby, let us do tell about
00:19:53
lesbian lifeisms. But according to Bobby, when she reported her chuck her findings to Chuck Knight, he asked her
00:19:59
to inflame the lesbian aspects of the report again to help him in his divorce proceedings. This is all alleged. After
00:20:05
that, Bobby filed the report away. didn't really think anything else about it until a few months later when Gail
00:20:11
and Julie showed up at her office. They both intended to hire Blue Moon to investigate their husbands, but only
00:20:19
Julie ended up going through with it and Bobby opened a case into Chuck Knight's
00:20:23
life. Ah, among the things that Bobby learned was that Chuck was allegedly having an affair of his own with a woman
00:20:28
named Lorie, who was a part-time baton twirling instru instructor and a wife of a local builder. How How are these
00:20:38
people real? That's what I want to know. You know what? It's so Texas. Like that's real wild. Everything's bigger in
00:20:44
Texas. Time baton twirling instructor. Yeah, why not? You can't make that up. You can't. You really can't. Everything
00:20:52
is in fact bigger and more bodacious and wild. In Texas, apparently. So when Bobby brought the report to Gail and
00:21:00
Julie, the women were stunned. Steve and Lorie Wells had also been very close friends with the Knights in the Bridges
00:21:07
until they drifted apart. Oh, damn. So, because So, Chuck was having an affair with Lorie. So, like all these people
00:21:14
who are friends, like these couple friends allegedly are all having an affair with one or other people. Wow.
00:21:20
Adorable. Yeah. So, after months of court appointments and back and forth with the
00:21:25
lawyers, all three women ended up getting divorced from their husbands, which I would say is good. Probably
00:21:29
great for everybody. Great for everybody. But that's how Gail Bridges found herself in the employee of David
00:21:35
Harris. And it wasn't until 6 or seven months later when Clara hired Blue Moon to follow her husband that the lives of
00:21:42
all these people then became pretty tenuously connected. And only through all of their connections to the Blue
00:21:47
Moon private investigation firm, which like damn, these people got business, huh? Yeah. Seriously. But when Clara
00:21:54
first met with Bobby to hire Blue Moon Investigations firm a few days before David was ultimately killed, Bobby
00:22:00
didn't recognize Gail or Julie's names and assigned the case to one of her part-time investigators. It was only
00:22:06
after the murder that she made the connections. And then by at that point, the media had also made the connections
00:22:13
and started playing up all these crazy aspects of the story. So that's how it got as big as really like inflamed. Yes.
00:22:21
Now, by the time she went on trial in late January 2003, Clara Harris had become a household name across the US
00:22:28
because of all this. Yeah. Her story of a suburban sex scandal and a woman driven to murder had for some reason
00:22:35
resonated with a certain segment of the population. Ah, I can't imagine this story resonating. I'm so sad that it
00:22:42
resonated. I know. You know, like that's just like damn. Yeah. Like can you imagine? No. Like if this is the story
00:22:51
that you're like, "Been there, sister. No." Like that's hard. No, no, not been there, sister. Honey,
00:23:01
no. So, while the tabloids focused on the sensational aspects of the story, like the sex lives of everybody involved
00:23:08
or, you know, tangentally involved. Yeah. Others speculated on the motive or just simply gave their uninformed
00:23:14
opinions on the matter. Yeah. Which is literally what we're doing. So that's exactly what we're doing is what I'm
00:23:20
we're speaking from a points of total not knowing what this feels like. You know, according to Skip
00:23:26
Hollinssworth, local radio talk shows were jammed with callers saying that Clara should not be severely punished
00:23:31
for what she had done, reasoning that she never would have committed murder had her husband not cheated on her.
00:23:37
Okay, here's the thing. Like, go off. Here's the thing. No. No. Because those two two things can be true at once.
00:23:47
Yeah. Would she have committed murder if this didn't happen? Probably not. I don't
00:23:52
think so. Probably not. But that doesn't mean that she shouldn't mean she shouldn't that she should have done it
00:23:57
like or that she's somehow like just relieved of all, you know, guilt for having done it. Then that would mean
00:24:05
that every single woman who's ever been cheated on can run their husband over with their car. That's pretty [ __ ]
00:24:10
lawless. or that anytime someone commits murder in like a crime of passion or something like that, you're like, would
00:24:17
they have committed murder if like this had to happen? Probably not, right? So, I guess we won't punish them for it
00:24:23
because whoops slippery slope. That's the thing. And I get it. Emotions are high. People who
00:24:31
probably have cheating spouses are sitting there being like, "Yeah, like let it let it all happen." But it's like
00:24:37
you really have to take it down about a hundred notches and take yourself totally out of the emotions of it and
00:24:45
say, "Yeah, I get that you are upset. I get that sucks. I get that you can sit there and be like, I want to run him
00:24:50
over with my car." Like saying that as like a I'm frustrated. Hyperbole. Hyperbole. That's the the key here. And
00:24:57
it's like, in the words of Zach from the Valley, is hyperbole dead, everybody? There you go. They Elena doesn't watch.
00:25:03
I don't watch The Valley, so I don't know, but I'll trust you. And But that's and it's like you nobody's taking this
00:25:09
as like a human thing. No. That like yes shitty thing shitty things like leading
00:25:17
up to this for sure. She had every right to be angry. She had every reason to lash out at times and get upset and act
00:25:24
you know a little foolishly at times. Like you can even put that aside a little bit. Mhm. You cannot excuse
00:25:30
murdering someone because they were terrible to you even like you know what I mean like like that they hurt
00:25:37
your feelings and that they betrayed you even. You can't justify it. Slippery cuz
00:25:42
that's a slippery ass slope cuz like everybody takes betrayal a different way. And you can't just blanketly say,
00:25:49
"Well, he did this shitty thing so he deserved it." Yeah. You can't do that. We would have a reckless nation. It
00:25:54
would be a lawless nation. It's like you can't do that. Yeah. So, it's like we got to take it back to being rational
00:26:01
humans here and rational adults and say, "Yeah, you have every right to be pissed. You can't do that. You don't
00:26:06
have every right to have a vehicle." He shouldn't have lost his life. No. Should
00:26:10
he have been, you know, should he have had some of his money spent on her behalf? Absolutely. Yeah. Even the even
00:26:17
the DA says that later. Yeah. Should he have had to like, you know, should he have had to hear it from her?
00:26:23
Absolutely. Should he have had to repair his relationships with everyone around him and had to go through the hardship
00:26:29
of that? Absolutely. And he should bend over backwards for it. But he shouldn't have been murdered. It's just not. No,
00:26:37
it's it's pretty black and white to me. I agree. I I agree wholeheartedly. Well,
00:26:42
the sympathy that many people seem to have for Clara wasn't just lost on the press. Once the trial opened, a lot of
00:26:47
outlets reported on the fact that her high-priced defense attorneys were paid for at least in part by David's parents.
00:26:54
Wow. Which is these are big people. It's Wow. This was very shocking to me, this
00:27:00
piece, but I was like, I think these are good people. Like I can't imagine the parents. Yeah. Just so throughout the
00:27:07
trial, it was actually common to see David's parents escort Clara, their daughter-in-law, in and out of court
00:27:12
each day and sit behind her in a show of support. Wow. In their statement to the
00:27:17
press, the Harrises said, "As a good Christian family, they had forgiven their daughter-in-law and hoped she
00:27:22
would remain free to raise the young twin boys that she had shared with her husband."
00:27:28
Those are I'm just bigger people than me. I'm stunned by that. that this is a shocking case. I would say that is one
00:27:36
of the most shocking cases. That's honestly very shocking. I can't even comment on that cuz I don't even That's
00:27:42
shocking. It's It's a whole other level. That's a whole different thing. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's like shocking.
00:27:51
Yeah. I can't say that I would feel the same, but like I don't think I could get
00:27:54
to that place. I really give them a lot of credit because that's a whole other level of forgiveness. Yeah. That I have
00:28:00
never found in my heart. Yeah. I don't think I will ever find that nor but wild and lucky [ __ ] Clara. Yeah. Can you
00:28:09
like how do you face your mother-in-law after running down her child? Yeah, that's Wow. Well, for her part, Clara
00:28:18
did seem to be remorseful for what she had done. As her lawyer, George Parnham, said in a 2002 interview, it was rare to
00:28:25
find Clara not weeping. And Clara was having was still having difficulty believing that David would never again
00:28:30
walk through the front door of their home. Cuz again, I think she blanked out, man. I really do. I don't think she
00:28:36
was with it. I think I definitely think she feels regret. Yeah. But I still think she needed to be punished. Yeah.
00:28:43
Prior to the Harris murder and prior to Clara's trial, George Parnum had actually gained national notoriety as
00:28:49
the defense attorney for Andrea Yates. And for anybody that doesn't know Andrea Yates, she was a Houston mother who
00:28:55
drowned her five children in 2001. I'm not going to say and just so you know, we will literally never cover that
00:29:03
case. And you don't want to hear us cover. Yeah, you don't want to hear my opinions. So, but that notoriety brought
00:29:08
even more attention to an already heavily watched story. the fact that this guy is the same guy who repped
00:29:13
Andrea Yates. Oh yeah, I would say so. That's a whole damn Yeah, we're not talking about that. Yeah, that's a
00:29:19
horrible case. But when the trial finally did get started, Parnham laid out the defense in his opening
00:29:24
statement. When he when she learned of her husband's affair with Gail Bridges, he said Clara was deeply hurt but
00:29:29
willing to work on their marriage, provided David end his relationship, which he did agree to do. But when Clara
00:29:35
learned that contrary to what they had agreed upon, David had checked into the Nassau Bay Hilton with Gail. Clara quote
00:29:41
acted in the heat of anger and betrayal which I do think is what happened. I think that's correct like you know at
00:29:48
the very base level of what it is. I think you're stating facts for sure. Yep. A little more nuanced than that. I
00:29:57
would say yes. Yes. Which is true, but it's it's a little more nuance. That's the perfect way to say it. He said once
00:30:02
she came out of her rage induced fog and uh realized what she had done, she was immediately remorseful and she cradled
00:30:08
David's head in her hands and insisted that he begin breathing. She was according to Parnham desperate to quote
00:30:15
keep her family together to bring her husband of 10 years back to her which he had tried to do through cosmetic surgery
00:30:21
and other beauty products. That this just so sad. It's tragic. It really is. Unlike the outcome in the Yates case,
00:30:28
Parnham's defense of Clara stood a fairly good chance of success with the jury though, which was uh composed of
00:30:34
nine women and three men, which I was like, damn, where was the selection there, right? Nine women and three men.
00:30:39
Damn, that's a that's a for real jury of your peers. Yeah, it is. During jury selection, one potential juror said,
00:30:45
"Any married woman can relate to Clara Harris." Uh, married woman here. Nope. I'm gonna go on the record and say no.
00:30:53
Married woman. Nope. I can't can't say that I do. Two married women right here do not relate to Clare Harris. Another
00:31:01
juror was potential juror was dismissed when she said she quote nicked her husband with a truck after discovering
00:31:06
him with a mistress years ago. Some of these things are inside thoughts that I think uh Texas is crazy. Some of
00:31:14
these things are go to the grave with I feel confident in saying Texas is a wild
00:31:19
place. It's a wild place. And like even I I feel confident saying that because even Texans say that. Yes. Like, and
00:31:25
this story is just such a prime example of Texas being a wild place. Just the fact that this just opened up women just
00:31:33
being like, "Oh, don't worry. I too hit my husband's mistress with my car." Like, it's just like, "Whoa, everybody.
00:31:38
This is not like everybody admit." I don't think in Boston you Well, you know what? Never mind. I'm not kidding. I
00:31:44
don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. But strangely, I was just saying like she's so lucky that there are so
00:31:50
many women on the jury, but even the men in the jury pool seemed open to her defense. One man said he had been
00:31:56
accused of assault when he discovered his wife's infidelity. So, he understood the impulse. He said, "Here's the thing.
00:32:03
I think they are correct in what they're saying. Some of them like being like, I
00:32:07
understand the that you got out of yourself. I can like I think they're almost looking at it like we are where
00:32:13
we're like, I understand the emotion behind it." Yes, that's driving you to this like place of just no return. But
00:32:21
I'm not the act and I'm not understanding not pulling yourself back from that point of no return. Hopefully,
00:32:27
but you can look at it and go, okay, I get that you are upset. I get it. Like you had every right to be upset and some
00:32:33
of them are like I've been there. It's the ones that are like I too have nicked my husband with the car and it's like
00:32:39
whoa. Okay, we're not in the same here. We didn't give that enough attention. Did you say you nicked nicked them?
00:32:45
nicked your husband with your car. Crazy. Just gave him a little boop. Like that's all. You can't nick someone with
00:32:52
your car. You either hit them or you don't. It's a motor vehicle. Like and that's a human body. Like that's you
00:32:57
don't nick someone. You nick someone with like some tweezers or like a some trimmers. No, your toenail cutters. And
00:33:03
that's where the that's where my issue is lying is like we're getting they're getting outside of the real point here
00:33:10
of like of like the emotions and the the betrayal and and all that is not coming
00:33:16
into question. Uhuh. It's the act that followed it. It's like you can It's just the same thing. You can get
00:33:24
upset, you can feel betrayed, you can scream, you can yell, you can act a little out of yourself. I get it. Like I
00:33:31
would I I can't imagine I I'm not going to sit here and say I would be in total control of my emotions and myself. No,
00:33:38
I'm barely in control of my emotions on a good day when I'm happy. I'm barely in
00:33:41
control of it. So it's like I I get that. And it's like but you just there's no excuse. And if for running someone
00:33:48
over three times in your car with their child in the car, there's just no excuse
00:33:54
for that. and to sit there and give the like, well, yeah, like you know, like I beat the [ __ ] out of my wife's, you
00:34:01
know, side piece there, right? And I caught a case for it, so I get it. And it's like, one, that's you shouldn't do
00:34:07
that. And two, that's a little different. It's a little different running someone over in the car three
00:34:13
times with the child in the car. Jury selection for this case sounded buck wild. I think people were just like, it
00:34:21
sounds like people were just kind of they found a lot of people who could relate to this, which is really sad. We
00:34:27
all need to to be better to our loved ones. Well, to sum it all up in one statement, one of the trial watchers
00:34:33
told a reporter, there's the rule of law and then there's the rule of law in Texas. The rule of law in Texas, it's
00:34:39
kind of cowboy law. It's a fine line between sanity and madness. I think that encompasses the movie. No,
00:34:46
I think that encompasses this entire [ __ ] case. It literally does. There is the rule of law and then there's the
00:34:52
rule of law in Texas. I Skip Hollinssworth covers so many cases in Texas. And whenever I do cover a case in
00:34:59
Texas, he's usually a source I'll use. And all of those cases that he has reported on throughout the years and all
00:35:05
of the cases that we have covered in morbid throughout the years, the Texas ones are among the [ __ ]
00:35:11
craziest stories I've ever read in my life. Yeah, Texas is just like, and they even say it like that. This is a man
00:35:18
from Texas. It's cowboy law. And I think that's the thing. I think they're just more willing to say that
00:35:25
like we all felt like we wanted to run someone over in a car. She just did it. And it's like, yeah, okay, I don't maybe
00:35:34
keep that stuff inside. Like I don't that's a lot. Like that there's just so many people openly being like, yeah, I
00:35:41
got it. It's like like please be specific. Tell me you get the emotion. Yeah, you got it. No one's saying that.
00:35:48
Everyone's just saying I get it. You got to be specific. And it's like no, we don't get it. We can't get that. We
00:35:55
can't get murdering someone cuz you're mad. The prosecution didn't. That's a good thing. Good news. Yeah. However
00:36:01
sympathetic Clara Harris looked to the jury and anybody even watching the trial, the prosecution flatly rejected
00:36:07
the sudden passion defense and instead pointed to the evidence which they believed would show the murder to be at
00:36:13
least deliberate, if not entirely planned. I don't think, personally, I don't think this was planned. Doesn't
00:36:19
feel I think it was deliberate. I think it was 100% deliberate. Had a moment where she said, "I'm going to run him
00:36:24
the [ __ ] over with my car." And then followed through on it. I don't think that she thought I don't think she woke
00:36:29
up that morning and thought that. I don't think that either. That's just my feeling as a person looking at this case
00:36:35
completely from the outside and hearing. I think she woke up that morning in a really bad emotional state that only got
00:36:42
worse throughout the day. Yeah, I think so, too. And I think she made a poor decision
00:36:50
with going out to look for Yeah. them. Because I think in that emotional state, there should have been a little
00:36:58
self-regulation here to say, I am in a highly emotional state about this. I feel some type of way. I should not go
00:37:05
out looking because also go like I don't I don't know that she had a plan when she did ultimately find them, but you're
00:37:11
sitting like you're going to find them at some point. You're hunting them down. So, what's the plan from there? And
00:37:17
Lindsay never ever ever should have been invited to go along for this. That's really my huge sticking point here.
00:37:23
Obviously, the murder and the entire thing having Lindsay involved in any way, shape, or form should never ever
00:37:32
ever have happened. Yeah. And that honestly should have been the like come down to earth moment of like Lindsay
00:37:39
being around is being like, "Okay, self-regulate." Yeah. Like I have someone that should have been your
00:37:46
thing. And it's and it is a little that was scary that like that didn't regulate
00:37:50
her. Well, Lindsay ended up testifying and I do think that helped bring people down to earth in on the jury away from
00:37:59
like the emotional impact of everything and you know relating to hating your husband. Yeah. Well, on the first day of
00:38:05
the trial, the prosecution called, like I just said, Lindsay Harris to testify against her stepmother. Lindsay
00:38:10
explained that they had gone out looking for her father and Gail that afternoon and how once she learned where they
00:38:15
were, Clara seemed determined to kill David. Lindsay told the jury she said she would kill my father for what he'd
00:38:20
done to her. Now again, who knows if that's like hyperbolic, like I think we've all said, "I'm going to kill, oh
00:38:27
my god, I'm going to kill him." Like, "Oh my god, you don't say that to a kid. You should never say that. I don't care
00:38:31
how old that kid is. 16 years old is still a kid." And it's like, you don't say that about their father. And you
00:38:37
ended up killing him later that day. So that's not great that you said that. Makes it seem like you had a plan here.
00:38:42
Mhm. Which, you know, maybe she did. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But in his opening statement, George
00:38:48
Parnum had, you know, tried to frame the murder as something akin to an accident.
00:38:51
Clara hadn't gone into the hotel in order to kill anyone, but after the brawl in the lobby, she was in a highly
00:38:57
aroused emotional state and acted without thinking. And he challenged the prosecution's claim that Clara had
00:39:02
driven over her husband multiple times, telling the jury that she only hit him once. Despite his best efforts to frame
00:39:08
Clara in a sympathetic light as a woman who had made a terrible mistake, the evidence and the testimony of those
00:39:14
present at the hotel when Davis David Harris was killed was all of those people were telling a very different
00:39:21
story. It's I go back to the cackling. The cackling and she absolutely ran over him more than one time. There's video
00:39:28
evidence of it. Yeah. Lindsay testified she was on a mission to find out where he was. She was determined. They had
00:39:34
tricked her. they had hidden from her and she was upset by that. And once she found David and Gail, she waited to make
00:39:40
her move. In her testimony, Lindsay told the jury that her father was quote really scared when he saw Clara's car
00:39:47
barreling toward him. She said, "I know he was trying to get away and he couldn't." Oh, that's awful. And this is
00:39:53
this will make you cry. She described what it was like when she quote felt the bumps and knew that Clara had driven
00:39:59
over her father again and again and then put the the car in reverse and hit him a
00:40:05
third time. Holy [ __ ] Like that's You see that's where like it's like the salaciousness
00:40:11
of everything. Everybody's like, "Oh my god, yeah, I get it." Blah blah blah. And then you go down this case to the
00:40:17
real [ __ ] in this case. It's like 16year-old girl. Disgusting. It's a 16-year-old girl who was brought along
00:40:25
to run over her father and now has to probably relive that at least every other day of her life. Yeah. Like that
00:40:34
is trauma that you will never unpack. Never. And she never asked for that to happen to her. And she by there's not
00:40:43
one person among us that could say that that would not affect them. No deeply. No. And I can't. That's where like
00:40:51
that's like a whole other like Clara killed somebody and then she the emotional trauma that she inflicted on
00:40:58
Lindsay. I almost wish there was a charge for that. Yeah. Honestly, but she seemed to feel remorse, I guess. As she
00:41:05
listened to Lindsay's testimony, her loud sobbing filled the courtroom to the point where she was repeatedly
00:41:10
reprimanded by the judge who eventually told her either you'll sit here in a composed manner or you will be removed
00:41:16
from the courtroom. I don't blame him. Which is like quiet down. Yeah. It's like, get it together. This isn't your
00:41:20
moment to lose your [ __ ] This Exactly. This is her moment to tell her story. Now, from the outside of the trial,
00:41:26
there was never a plan for Clara to testify on her own behalf. Uh-oh. But about a week in, she stunned everyone
00:41:34
when she insisted that she did want to testify in her own defense, despite her lawyer's own objections.
00:41:41
On the day of her testimony, George Parnum was already in a tremendous amount of stress, which was exacerbated
00:41:48
by the fact that he also had terrible flu at that time. Oh no. Flu symptoms notwithstanding, he did do his best to
00:41:54
proceed as normal when he called Clara to the stand. In her testimony, Clara said of her relationship with David, "We
00:42:02
were best friends. We were very much in love." According to her, she and her husband had been incredibly close
00:42:08
romantically and professionally all until Gail came along. In her testimony heard early in the trial, Gail had
00:42:15
explained that David told her he and Clara had an open marriage, which was the only reason she started to see him
00:42:22
to begin with. I will literally never give any ounce of credence to that. That's what every side chick is told and
00:42:32
you can't believe it. Yeah. You just can't. And honestly, if you're not having any like I don't know. It's so
00:42:39
easy for someone to say that. If you're in an open marriage, let your wife confirm it. Exactly. That's what you
00:42:44
need to say to somebody to a man or a woman who tells you that they are in an open relationship or an open marriage.
00:42:50
You want confirmation directly from their partner cuz how anybody can say that anybody take it at face value.
00:42:57
Exactly. And nine out of 10 times it's not the And also, here's where like my I'm like I call [ __ ] on that because
00:43:05
it's like she could tell that everybody in that office was uncomfortable and was
00:43:09
probably sitting there and being like like what's going on here? If they were in an open marriage then nobody would be
00:43:14
batting an eye. Exactly. Cuz he could do whatever he wanted. And also why are they sneaking around if he's in an open
00:43:19
marriage? Well, that's the thing. Did you act like that when Clara came into the office? That's the thing. It's like
00:43:22
sounds like you were sneaking around. Yeah. So, it's like if you're in an open marriage, I would assume you don't have
00:43:28
to do that. And supposedly, who knows exactly what happened that day, but supposedly when Clara went in and fired
00:43:33
her, she accused Gail of having the relationship. And Gail supposedly denied it, if that's what it in fact happened.
00:43:41
So, it's like why wouldn't you just sit there and say, "I'm so sorry. I thought you were in an open marriage. He lied to
00:43:45
both of us." Exactly. That's when you like sisters unite right there. Exactly. That's when you become a girl's girl.
00:43:50
And you say, "Holy shit." I don't think he told her that. And even if he did, I think she was naive to believe that. I
00:43:55
think so, too. Uh, that statement grew an incredible amount of sarcastic criticism from Clara, who also rejected
00:44:01
it entirely. As for the murder itself, though, Clara explained, "I was extremely upset. He
00:44:06
was holding Gail's hand the way he used to hold my hand when I was special to him." By the time she was in the car and
00:44:12
pulling out of the parking sp space, she described herself as being in a quote fog, like in a dream. She claimed that
00:44:18
she had a blackout and she wasn't in control. She said, "All of this happened in a fraction of a second. I didn't have
00:44:24
time to think." The court broke for lunch just after she walked through the events of her
00:44:29
husband's murder. And just as George Parnum stepped outside of the courtroom to get some air, he collapsed in the
00:44:34
hallway and passed out, lying on the floor for about 20 minutes before he ended up being removed by paramedics.
00:44:41
Holy [ __ ] The press immediately keyed in on that fact uh on the fact that just
00:44:47
prior to Parnham passing out, Clara had more or less confessed to murder. And people were like, "Hey, maybe those two
00:44:54
events are linked." The fact that his client just confessed to murder on the stand when he never wanted her to
00:45:00
testify at all and then he just passed out. Yeah. Yeah. So, that made the case um even more sensational, if you can
00:45:05
imagine. The judge was not very sympathetic though and considered it to be one more unprofessional stunt and a
00:45:13
series of attention grabbing moments in this case, which I don't blame her. I'd be [ __ ] pissed if that's how my
00:45:18
courtroom was going down. I'd be like, "Come on, guys. Now listen to this. On February 13th, 2003,
00:45:26
just one day before what would have been Clara and David's 11th wedding anniversary, the jury retired for
00:45:33
deliberation. Wow. How does that even happen? How does that happen? How does that even happen? That's wild. In her
00:45:41
closing statement, assistant district attorney Mia Magnus focused entirely on the evidence of the case and the rule of
00:45:47
the law. She told the jury, "If the man is cheating on you, this is exactly what
00:45:51
we're saying. You do what every other woman in this country does. You take him to the cleaners." Exactly. You don't
00:45:57
kill him. Yes. It's just That's just the That's just life, man. Yeah. You know, George Parna, meanwhile, continued his
00:46:04
attempt to frame the murder as a crime of passion. He described Gail Bridges as a home wrecker who enticed and seduced
00:46:10
David into a relationship that should never have happened. And he argued that if Clara had intended to kill her
00:46:16
husband that night, why would she have brought along his daughter knowing what she would do to traumatize the girl for
00:46:21
the rest of her life? And you would hope that's the truth that if that was a plan
00:46:26
that she wouldn't have brought. And that's the thing, maybe there's no malice of forethought there. Yeah. But
00:46:32
and he died. Well, and her saying like, you know, I was out of control of myself
00:46:36
and like blah blah blah. like, yeah, okay. But as human beings and as adults, we have to maintain to become in
00:46:44
control. It's just not an excuse to get out of control. Like, it just isn't. That's just the way we run things here.
00:46:51
Like, you can't that's that's the law. I'm sure that happened, but that's on you, man. That you didn't get into
00:46:58
control, especially with that kid in the car, right? Like, this just can't get away from that. Yeah. So the next day
00:47:06
the jury returned their verdict the day that would have been her 11th wedding anniversary which is just the irony
00:47:12
there is not lost on anyone. Darkly poetic. Yeah. They found Clara Harris guilty of the murder of her husband.
00:47:20
Later that day during the sentencing phase, Clara was asked if she had anything to say and she turned to her
00:47:25
stepdaughter Lindsay and said, "I'm sorry, Lindsay. I'm sorry, baby." Which is like you got to say a whole lot
00:47:32
more than that. That's not going to do it. That's never gonna Yeah. Yeah. At the same time, the jury had the option
00:47:38
of accepting the sudden passion defense, which carried a sentence of two to 20 years or a seconddegree murder sentence,
00:47:45
which was up to 99 years. Wo. Because the case didn't meet the special circumstances threshold, the death
00:47:50
penalty was not on the table. Before the sentence could be passed, the judge had
00:47:55
to stop the proceedings on account of Clara hysterically sobbing, which made it completely impossible for anyone in
00:48:01
the courtroom to hear anything, which once again, you have to get it together. Yeah, she has no control over. Yeah, you
00:48:07
are not in control right now when it's showing. The judge warned her, "Be quiet. I'm going to give you one more
00:48:12
chance. Don't blow it or you will be out of this courtroom." Damn. And this time,
00:48:16
her attorney, George Parnham, stood up for his client, saying she just got convicted of murder. I mean, yeah, but
00:48:22
it's like but it's still a court of did that murder. And again, as an adult, you
00:48:27
literally need to find some goddamn way to control yourself. That's the And also, like the whole thing is like you
00:48:34
have been highly emotional and out of control this entire time. It's not like you just fell apart. Like you've been
00:48:41
screaming and sobbing the whole time. Like you can't do that. Yeah, you just can't. And it's not really helping your
00:48:47
case at all. It's really not. Once the courtroom was finally back in order, the judge read the sentence that was handed
00:48:52
down from the jury. 20 years in prison with a minimum of 10 served before becoming eligible for parole, which I
00:48:59
would say is a pretty sweet [ __ ] deal. That's a pretty after running your husband over with your car multiple
00:49:05
times. Yeah, I would say so. In her statement to the press, the assistant district attorney said that she was
00:49:10
pleased with the outcome. She said after hearing all the evidence, this jury recognized the case for what it was and
00:49:16
that it is the senseless taking of a human life. their verdict recognized Mrs. Harris's conduct and they didn't
00:49:21
excuse it. I was overwhelmed with just how tragic the whole thing was and that it seemed to me the victim was getting
00:49:26
lost in the process which it I think this case was so heavily sensationalized and I'm sure the the people who could
00:49:34
relate to Clara had some kind of hatred in their heart for David. So he did very
00:49:38
much get lost in this process. I can see that for sure. And he made a bad choice
00:49:41
by stepping out on his wife and he made a bad choice of bad choices by stepping out on his family and not ending the
00:49:47
relationship. But he was also a human being. He was also a father. And you can't just kill people because they hurt
00:49:54
your feelings. Because they hurt your feelings. And that that really does come down to that. No matter how much they
00:49:59
hurt your feelings. His life should have been a little more precious than that. Yeah. It was Yeah. It's just not The
00:50:07
punishment for cheating is not death. It just isn't. No. I know it feels like when you're on the other side of it that
00:50:14
maybe that's that feels like it should be the punishment. But the reality of the situation is it's not. It's just
00:50:20
not. Yeah. So, a year after the sentence was passed, Clara did appeal the verdict
00:50:25
uh to the court of appeals for the first district of Texas on the grounds that among other things, the judge didn't
00:50:30
allow the inclusion of two videotapes showing the murder and the fact that the judge refused to impeach a witness who
00:50:36
they thought lied on the stand. But on all points, the appeals court sided with the trial judge, finding it was
00:50:42
reasonable to defer to experts in excluding the tapes and deferring to the judge's judgment when it came to witness
00:50:49
testimony. In their conclusion, they said, "We note that even if the appalent were correct in her interpretation of
00:50:54
the law, she could not show harm. Therefore, the order of the argument did not disadvantage Appalent in meeting her
00:51:00
burden." So they said, "Stay in jail. Stay in jail. Stay in jail." In 2018, in May of 2018, after serving 15 years of
00:51:09
her 20-year sentence, Clara Harris was released on parole. In the years since her release, she has completed the terms
00:51:15
of her probation and has concluded her obligation to the state. She is now a free woman. Wow. And hopefully doesn't
00:51:23
drive around often. Yeah. And maintains her control. Yeah. I mean, she hasn't popped up in the news again, so that's
00:51:31
good. So, there's that. Yeah. But I just what a devastating tale. Truly. Yeah. I
00:51:38
feel the most for Lindsay. Yeah. And then their other two children who not only lost their father but then lost
00:51:45
their mother for 15 years. That's the thing. Like they grew up without two parents. Yeah. They absolutely did. And
00:51:51
that's awful. No matter if she regretted it or not. Yeah. Like everyone loses in
00:51:56
this scenario. Everyone lost. Clara lost. She lost her freedom which she should have. for the time being. Lindsay
00:52:02
lost her dad and a stepmom who she actually really liked up until that point. And those twins lost both their
00:52:10
parents. And the Harris has lost their son. Yeah. And somehow stood by Clara, which I just really commend them for
00:52:16
that. That's that's big people. Yeah. Like that's what a devastating case. That's just everyone so layered.
00:52:24
Everyone just And it's very interesting to see how everybody had their own two cents, you know. Yeah, even us. Even us,
00:52:32
you know, we've always got our own two cents. We've always got our own two cents. Four cents right here. Yep.
00:52:36
That's right. Well, with that being said, we definitely hope you keep listening. Yeah. And we hope you keep it
00:52:42
weird. And tell us your two cents. Yeah. I want to know what you think. [Music] [Music]
00:53:23
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Most controversial
  • 80
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • First Time Trying Flaming Hot Cheetos
    Elena shares her first experience with flaming hot Cheetos and the surprising spiciness.
    “They're so spicy. They're not like crazy spicy and then they're so artificial tasting.”
    @ 01m 02s
    June 23, 2025
  • Clara Harris's Devastating Discovery
    Clara learns of her husband's affair just weeks before a tragic event.
    “Clara had just learned two weeks earlier that David was having an affair.”
    @ 09m 29s
    June 23, 2025
  • Media Frenzy After David's Murder
    The bizarre details of David's murder quickly become a national scandal.
    “The story of David Harris's murder became a national news story within just days of his death.”
    @ 17m 00s
    June 23, 2025
  • The Shocking Support
    David's parents supported Clara during the trial, showcasing an unexpected level of forgiveness.
    “As a good Christian family, they had forgiven their daughter-in-law.”
    @ 27m 19s
    June 23, 2025
  • Clara's Emotional Turmoil
    Clara Harris faced immense emotional distress after discovering her husband's affair, leading to tragic consequences.
    “She was having difficulty believing that David would never again walk through the front door.”
    @ 28m 27s
    June 23, 2025
  • Texas Trial Dynamics
    The jury selection revealed a striking openness to Clara's defense, reflecting Texas's unique cultural attitudes.
    “There's the rule of law and then there's the rule of law in Texas.”
    @ 34m 36s
    June 23, 2025
  • Clara's Emotional State
    Clara's emotional turmoil led to a poor decision that spiraled out of control.
    “I think she woke up that morning in a really bad emotional state.”
    @ 36m 37s
    June 23, 2025
  • Lindsay's Testimony
    Lindsay testified against her stepmother, revealing shocking details about the murder.
    “I know he was trying to get away and he couldn't.”
    @ 39m 49s
    June 23, 2025
  • Clara's Confession
    Clara confessed to the murder during her testimony, claiming she was in a fog.
    “All of this happened in a fraction of a second. I didn't have time to think.”
    @ 44m 24s
    June 23, 2025
  • Verdict and Sentencing
    The jury found Clara guilty of murder, sentencing her to 20 years in prison.
    “They found Clara Harris guilty of the murder of her husband.”
    @ 47m 17s
    June 23, 2025
  • Clara's Release
    After serving 15 years, Clara Harris was released on parole, becoming a free woman.
    “In May of 2018, after serving 15 years of her 20-year sentence, Clara Harris was released on parole.”
    @ 51m 06s
    June 23, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • I'm not one of those people who's going to eat that like highly poisonous sushi.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • They acted like Wilma and Betty from the Flintstones.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • You can't make that up. You can't. You really can't.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • It's tragic. It really is.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • That's trauma that you will never unpack.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast
  • The punishment for cheating is not death.
    The Murder of David Harris (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast

Key Moments

  • Affair Discovery09:29
  • Unexpected Forgiveness27:19
  • Emotional Struggles28:27
  • Texas Justice34:36
  • Emotional Turmoil36:37
  • Lindsay Testifies38:08
  • Clara's Confession44:16
  • Guilty Verdict47:17

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown