Harris says she was trying to hit Bridges' car - "Husband said I was fat"

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 7, 2003 | By ALLAN TURNER

[MeekOneGOP]

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State

Feb. 7, 2003, 2:22PM

Harris says she was trying to hit Bridges' car

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

EXTRA

Clara Harris is accused of running over her husband after catching him with his former receptionist at a hotel.

• From the arrest to the trial

Video:
Private investigator catches incident on tape
(Video courtesy of KHOU, Ch. 11. Video requires Real Player)

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The trial:
• The indictment
• What we know about them
• The experts: Why they're split over jurors
Preparing for the trial: Video report from Jan. 19.

The testimony:
• Day 1: Hotel employees tell what they saw
• Day 2: Grainy videotape reveals little
• Day 3: Clara Harris told private eye husband "a good man"
• Day 4: Defendant's sobs halt trial twice

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From the Chronicle's archives:
• The story of Clara and David Harris: They epitomized success and happiness, but underneath the facade... - Jan. 19
• The wife: Mother of twins kept to herself - Aug. 4
• The mistress: Mistress not a stranger to the spotlight - Aug. 4
• The married couple: Victim wanted to end marriage - July 27

Clara Harris, on trial for the murder of her husband, said today she was trying to smash his lover's car the night she ran over and killed David Harris with her Mercedes Benz.

Testifying after today's lunch break, Clara Harris finally got to tell her version of the events of the night of July 24.

She said that, following a fight July 24 in the Nassau Bay Hilton Inn's lobby with her orthodontis husband and his mistress, office manager Gail Bridges, she was escorted by hotel security outside.

There, she testified under questioning by defense attorney George Parnham, she went to her own car. Suddenly, she thought she would smash Bridges' black Lincoln Navigator, which earlier that evening she had vandalized.

"I saw three people standing by the driver's door," Clara Harris testified. "Two running toward the front and I thought I saw surprised eyes -- David -- in front of the car. I didn't expect impact with the median. It looked so tall. I think I closed my eyes. After that, I didn't know who was driving. Everything was like a dream."

Clara Harris testified she stopped the car, opened the door and got out. She said she looked at something on the side of the Mercedes and saw David.

"I couldn't understand what he was doing there. I had just seen him running way," she said. "I held his face. There was a small line of blood from his ear. His eyes were half open. His mouth was halfway open. He seemed to be going in and out of consciousness."

She said she "saw a shadow behind his head. I didn't want to look. I know now it was blood."

She said she put her hand on his heart and felt his pulse.

"It was fast," she said, but she thought he was all right. "Everything was in such a slow motion. My action was slow... Nothing made sense. What was David doing there?"

Before the lunch break, defendant Clara Harris testified she stalked the hotel parking lot for an hour, searching for her husband's car before coming upon the Lincoln Navigator owned by his lover and vandalizing it.

"I grabbed the windshield wiper in the back, and bent it so many times," Clara Harris testified between bouts of sobbing. "It was so painful in my hand, but it was more painful in my heart."

That incident capped half a day of determined searching for David Harris and his office manager/lover, Gail Bridges, on July 24 before Clara Harris and her stepdaughter Lindsey finally stumbled across the Navigator at the Nassau Bay Hilton.

The day before, Clara Harris testified, she and Lindsey went into a room at the Hilton, where David Harris had told her he frequently brought Bridges for trysts. From there they could see the Windemiere Racquet and Swim Club, where David and Clara Harris were married.

Seeing that view from the room, Clara Harris testified, "I could not believe they would stay there."

The description of events leading up to David Harris' death eventually brought wracking sobs to Clara Harris, and state District Judge Carol G. Davies recessed the trial for lunch at 11:40 a.m.

Harris testifed today that on July 23 -- the day before her husband's death -- she ran errands and then picked up her stepdaughter. They went to the Hilton for lunch, and sat near the table where David Harris frequently ate with Bridges.

Clara Harris said she only had a glass of wine, and then the two went up to see the room.

The next morning, she testified David Harris talked about why he had not left her for Bridges.

"He said, 'The reason I am still here -- he was in the closet, I was in the bed, waiting -- I still love you. I will never leave you or the kids,'" Clara Harris testified. "I was relieved."

She said she later got a call from an employee at David Harris' office, who indicated that Bridges and David Harris had disappeared together somewhere.

That launched a daylong search for David Harris and Bridges by Clara and Lindsey Harris. The two drove by Bridges' house, several restaurants and other places where the couple was known to meet.

Clara Harris then testified a call from the Blue Moon private investigation agency sent her back to the Hilton. The couple were in a room on floor 4 or 6, Clara Harris said, and had paid cash.

She testified she believed the investigator because David Harris had told her they paid cash at the Hilton to keep the charges off his credit card.

"I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it," Clara Harris said.

She testified she and Lindsey spent a long time at the hotel, searching the parking lot, the lobby and the restaurant for them.

"I was shaking," Clara Harris said. "I asked Lindsey, 'What should I do?'"

Clara Harris began her day on the witness stand today in her murder trial, continuing to recount a humiliating evening in which her husband compared her traits to those of his mistress.

Harris' trial on charges she killed her husband, orthodontist David L. Harris, by running over him repeatedly in her Mercedes Benz resumed after a day off.

On Wednesday, Parnham collapsed in a courtroom hallway, the victim of a combination of stress and the flu.

Today, Clara Harris went into further detail about a July 18 meeting with her husband at a sports bar near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. There, David Harris compared the attributes of his wife and his mistress, office manager Gail Bridges.

Clara Harris said she took notes on cocktail napkins as her husband talked, writing her attributes under the heading "Clara" and the other woman's under the heading "Gail."

David Harris' assessment ran the gamut from the physical to personal values.

At one point, Clara Harris testified, she wrote in the Bridges column, "has big bubs (sic)." Under her own heading, she wrote, "will have big bubs."

She said she had made an appointment with a plastic surgeon to discuss liposuction and breast enlargement.

Clara Harris also wrote on the napkin that David Harris described Bridges as "petite, with perfect fit to sleep holding her all night."

"How did you feel about that?" Parnham asked.

"I couldn't believe holding her all night," she said. "We never slept like that, ever."

The list went into great detail about both women's physical condition. David Harris called his wife "fat," according to the napkin notes, but also said she had "pretty feet," while Bridges' were "kind of masculine."

"He said I had prettier eyes," Clara Harris testified.

"Was that important to you?" Parnham asked.

"Yes," she said.

Parnham asked Clara Harris how the whole comparison exercise made her feel.

"I was feeling so guilty, but I was listening to see how to change things for a better relationship," she said.

David Harris also said both women had "good values," and that neither one was "fanatical."

"I agreed with that," Clara Harris testified. "I saw (Bridges) with the children, two boys and one girl (at a May 16 party). They were so gracious and well dressed. I didn't think the bad comments were true. She was such a good mother."

David Harris was killed in the parking lot of a Nassau Bay hotel the night of July 24 - six days after the meeting being discussed in today's testimony.

Witnesses have testified that Clara Harris went to the hotel to confront her husband and found him with Bridges. After attacking Bridges in the hotel's lobby, she is accused of going outside, getting in her car and running down David Harris.

[MeekOneGOP]

Now maybe we'll get a new phrase: "to go dental."

LOL !

[Focault's Pendulum]

Harris says she was trying to hit Bridges' car - "Husband said I was fat"

Mebbe she should have aimed for her Weight Watchers counselor.

[Gophack]

I'm with you ... I don't condone this woman's actions. If I were her I would say, "me or her," and if he picked her, I'd get an annulment and take as much of his money as possible.

If my husband told me to get my boobs enlarged I would tell him to get his you-know-what enlarged! (JK).

If half of what she said her husband said is true, why would she even want to have him back? I just don't understand some women ...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Moments later, the veteran lawyer swooned in a hallway

He swooned? Was his corset laced too tight? (Good thing he didn’t have a fit of the vapors!)

[xsmommy]

i will not condone them, i will not condone them, they were murder, but..... oh did he need killing!

[Slyfox]

Now, I'm not saying what she did was right but, it does sound like she was upset about finding out her husband was playing around with another woman.

Meanwhile, out on the west coast, Scott Peterson would like us all to believe that Laci "was all right with it".

[He Rides A White Horse]

Something really bothers me about this case.

Bear with me for a minute..........it seems that I keep hearing accounts about employees expressing concerns about his affairs, really getting involved in the situation and the marriage, that sort of thing.

[He Rides A White Horse]

David Harris writes their paychecks I'm guessing.........it just seems funny that some would get involved to the degree that some are reported to have. You know, calling her, informing her about her husbands movements. I don't know.

[He Rides A White Horse]

I would be curious as to whether Harris had any 'extracurricular' activities going on herself.

[He Rides A White Horse]

David Harris also said both women had "good values," and that neither one was "fanatical."

"I agreed with that," Clara Harris testified.

She's sleeping with your husband, and you think she has 'good values'...............?...........why would she say something like that?

What would prevent her from condemning a woman who is sleeping with her husband? I don't understand this. Something isn't quite right.

[MeekOneGOP]

Meanwhile, out on the west coast, Scott Peterson would like us all to believe that Laci "was all right with it".

Ah, but of course...

I heard he admitted to the affair. Did he really say that?...

[dalebert]

I think this sick lady had her brain twisted by her sicko husband. After he told her she was fat her mind snapped.

[MeekOneGOP]

What would prevent her from condemning a woman who is sleeping with her husband? I don't understand this. Something isn't quite right.

It may be as EggsAckley said in #7:

Clara sounds like a retarded dingbat with the emotional maturity of a 12 year old.

[Slyfox]

In one of the long Laci threads I remember reading that Scott had told her about the affair and that she was all right with it. Women are never "all right with it" when they find out their husband is cheating on them. They are always upset, unless they are themselves having an affair. I doubt whether Laci was cheating.

My hunch is though, she found out on her own and left the house very upset. I think he talked her into getting into the truck with him. The dog sniffed her trail down a road that was not near the park where Scott claimed she took the dog for a walk as he was leaving that morning.

[AppyPappy]

I bet the women on the jury let her off.

[Bonaparte]

"Cut! I said, CUT! Thankyou for auditioning. Next!"

[MinuteGal]

So the Blue Moon private eye called her and told her the hotel her hubby and his mistress were shacking up in.

Way to go, Sherlock.

Did he ever stop to think what could happen? Usually, these PI's drive over to the tryst spots themselves and snap some photos from behind a potted palm. Bet it'll be a blue moon before this agency ever does that again.

Leni

[Larry Lucido]

"Well, you asked me if that dress made you look fat!"

[MeekOneGOP]

I bet the women on the jury let her off.

Hard to say. This is Texas. She killed the cheater. Texans don't have much sympathy for murderers. Women too.

Have you seen the video of her circling around with the car crushing his body?...

Bump bump !...Bump bump !...Bump bump !

I saw it tonight for the first time...