Woman who killed husband with car to share in sons' custody08:23 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Associated Press
HOUSTON - The woman convicted of murdering her husband by running him down in a hotel parking lot with her Mercedes-Benz will share custody of her twin sons with her former neighbors.
A judge on Monday also granted visitation rights to the paternal grandparents of Clara Harris' 5-year-old boys. Harris, a dentist convicted of murder for running over orthodontist husband David last summer, is serving a 20-year sentence.
State District Judge K. Randall Hufstetler in Brazoria County approved an agreement naming Harris as well as her former neighbors, Pat and Ana Jones, as joint managing conservators of Brian and Bradley Harris.
Gerald and Mildred Harris, the boys' grandparents, will have visitation rights every other weekend, for extended periods in the summer and on alternating holidays, said attorney Lloyd Stansberry, who represented the Joneses.
"I am very happy the way it ended," Ana Jones, 51, a registered nurse who is now a stay-at-home mom, told the Houston Chronicle in Tuesday's editions. "We've all come to an agreement in the best interest of Brian and Bradley. Because of all this, we both have gotten a bigger family."
Jones' 51-year-old husband, Pat, is an anesthesiologist.
Gerald Harris, 73, and Mildred Harris, 70, of Pearland, had wanted to raise the twins. The grandparents initially took care of the boys when their mother was convicted in February.
The boys' mother and her in-laws originally had joint custody of the twins. But the judge voided the agreement in May after finding flaws in it. The parties had failed to notify the boys' court-appointed attorney in their father's estate case.
Since being incarcerated in Gatesville, Clara Harris said, she has survived prison life because of visits from her sons, who had traveled to the state prison with their grandparents. Harris had urged the court to grant herself her and the Joneses joint custody of her the children. A trial to determine custody of the children had been set for Sept. 29.
Harris, 45, was convicted by a Harris County jury of running over her husband after finding him with his mistress at a Nassau Bay hotel in July 2002. Harris, who has been in the Brazoria County Jail outside of Angleton for resolution of custody, is appealing her conviction.
"I think everybody recognized that the trial was going to be really hard on the kids in creating a legacy for them," Stansberry said on why the grandparents, Harris and the Joneses came to an agreement. "All the nasty stuff that comes out in litigation is not anything anyone wanted to go through.
"In the last four months that we've had these temporary orders, the Joneses and Harrises have seen that they can work with one another," Stansberry said.
This summer, the boys spent half their time with the grandparents and the other half with the Joneses. The boys will now live with the Joneses and their 4-year-old twin sons in Friendswood's Polly Ranch subdivision under the agreement, which takes effect immediately. Pam Hoerster, a court-appointed attorney who represented the boys, said she agreed with the living arrangements.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/091603dntexharris.1babee.html
