What would you do?

[QUOTE]HOUSTON (AP) - A dentist who killed her adulterous husband with a Mercedes-Benz wept Friday as she testified she was trying to smash his lover's luxury sport-utility vehicle but, ``I think I closed my eyes.''

``After that, I didn't know who was driving,'' Clara Harris told jurors at her murder trial. ``Everything seemed like a dream.''

After the collision, she got out and looked at David Harris' battered body lying in a hotel parking lot.

``I couldn't understand what he was doing there,'' she said. ``I had just seen him running and I didn't know how he got there. ``I said, `David, David, please talk to me.'''

Prosecutors say Harris, 45, intentionally ran down her husband last July after confronting him at the hotel with his lover. A medical examiner has testified the orthodontist was run over at least twice.

Clara Harris insisted the collision was an accident. She also said she had been working tirelessly to save the 10-year marriage since learning of his affair the week before, quitting her job so she could have sex with him three times a night, cook his favorite meals and schedule breast enhancement surgery.

Harris, who first took the stand in her own defense Wednesday, was emotional but composed as she recounted the evening she caught her husband and his receptionist Gail Bridges at the suburban hotel.

She brawled with Bridges in the lobby, then returned to her car. Her teenage stepdaughter was a passenger.

``I was in so much pain, it was a physical pain that I was feeling. I wasn't thinking anything,'' Harris testified. ``Suddenly, I thought about smashing my car against her car and then I (picked) up speed.''

Clara Harris said she saw three figures near Bridges' black Lincoln Navigator. Two dodged right, she said, but her husband moved left, toward her approaching Mercedes.

She veered around the Navigator toward a grassy median within the hotel parking lot when, she says, things got fuzzy.

She had glimpsed her husband as the silver sedan raced toward him, she said: ``I saw some surprised eyes.''

Clara Harris said she snapped out of her fog as her stepdaughter screamed for her to stop. That's when she got out and saw her husband lying on the pavement, blood streaming from his ears and mouth, and his eyes slightly open.

``I checked his heartbeat and pulse. Both were good, but fast,'' she said.

She called for an ambulance. ``Everything was in slow motion. I don't know if my voice came out,'' she said.

Earlier, Harris testified about all she had been doing since her husband admitted the two-month-long affair.

On July 18, the day after he confessed to sleeping with Bridges, the Harrises spent an evening at a Houston airport bar going over each woman's attributes and liabilities in exacting detail, she said.

Clara Harris took notes on bar napkins, which were introduced as evidence. While Clara Harris might have had a slight edge in appearance and intelligence, he said, his adulterous lover was a better listener.

According to the napkins, David Harris also thought his wife weighed too much, worked too much and ``dominated conversations without letting anyone else talk,'' while Bridges was ``petite with the perfect fit to sleep with, holding her all night.''

Clara Harris said the remark stunned her.

``I couldn't believe he could sleep holding her all night because we had never slept like that - never,'' Clara Harris said.

According to her notes, David Harris seemed fixated on Bridges' breast size, though he gave his wife higher marks for ``much prettier hands and feet'' and ``prettier eyes.''

``He told me, `I would love you when you get your boobs to just be around the house waiting for me,''' Clara Harris said. She testified she quit her job that week, scheduled liposuction and breast surgery, went to a tanning salon, had her hair done daily and exercised at a gym.

The questioning by defense attorney George Parnham was the first since Wednesday. The trial was suspended after Parnham buckled in a courthouse hallway at midday and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

His associates blamed a mix of the flu and stress.

If convicted, Harris faces up to life in prison. If jurors determine she acted under the legal definition of sudden passion, they could consider a lighter sentence of two to 20 years in prison.





My 2 cents, In the state of mind I was in when it happened to me I would have killed him or tried to, in fact, I tried too when my ex did this to me, but friends held me back.
Who's to say?? I am sure there are saintly woman out there, but when passion hits, it hits.
See, cheating is bad for ALL involved.

Nope we can never say how we would act in a moment of seeing our husband with another woman. And no woman should have to get plastic surgery and a whole make over to keep their man, either he loves you or not. When you marry you marry for better or worse, and in richer or poorer,( never abuse though.) This is very tragic and a strong example on why it isn't good to cheat.!!! The poor daughter had to watch her father die by her stepmother, and in terrible circumstances.We will never know what was going on in each of there minds, as the husband layed there near death, may God have mercy on this whole situation, and may healing come to all involved, not being in their shoes I can never say I know their pain, I can only imagine, the broken hearts in all this, and I can only pray for God to see them through.Yea your right SnowPrincess We should NEVER CHEAT!

Originally posted by Julianne
This should be a lesson to everyone about 'letting go'!

i'm totally with you there. dwelling on it, comparing traits (ugh!) and all that was just wrong as hell. then she goes and tries to change herself to please him... all so wrong on so many levels, morally, psychologically... her killing him very likely was the 'sudden passion' or 'temporary insanity,' but it sounds like it was a direct result of all the stupidity they engaged in leading up to it.

the notes comparing her to other women alone is enough to make a normal person just about snap with insecurity, self-loathing and rejection. they were just feeding into this insanity till she finally broke. the "i'd love you if..." thing should've been her first clue to just WALK AWAY.

j

No wonder her defense attorney "buckled." A story like that would do anybody in. I think she should be locked up for life ... if not for running over her husband, then for quitting her job and having her hair done daily. What a self-absorbed a**.

I don't think that she was self-absorbed . I think that she was devoid of any esteem or self respect to demean herself by listening to the comparison and then throwing her whole identity down the drain to win him back. And while she is going to all that trouble to make herself over... he is with the other woman. I am sorry that the guy was murdered and that his poor daughter saw it, but this lady had to have been on the edge anyway to go to the lengths she was going to go to win the cheater back.

I don't know why, but I didn't get mad when I've learned about my ex's cheating. There was no anger and no agression.. there was tremendous pain and numbness.. and certain hopelessnes. His father did that, his older brother did that.. shouldn't be a surprise.. but one always believes that one's life would be perfect...

With the time flow that pain wasn't diminishing because I began to feel worthless.. and at the same time I knew that I've had some important virtues - and that mix made me feel not appreciated, misunderstood, humiliated, you name it. But all that was depression-like and not agression-like.
I was ready to shot him later on, when he abandoned and ignored his daughter. Did I have a gun.. that could have happen.. but I probably wouldn't kill him; just one bullet to change a functionality of his d*** that was affecting guy's brain..

That woman who dragged her husband's daughter to see him cheating, who let the daughter to see her father killed, who self-destructively let her husband compare her and the "other woman" in details.. that woman must be very insecure and probably she felt also very attached to her husband.. Ready to give herself up, to change her appearance and life style, to do ANYTHING..

Sad.. I wish men realize how women hurt...

Teli

Yepp,
agree, cheating is bad. And this story also shows how sadly it could end. But it's very common" , happens every day. Suppose it would been better for all if we talked with eachother than trying to solve our problems by having an affair or cheat mentally to our partner. It's all about respect. Respect to what you allow people to do to you and respect and responsabilityfor the one you're with. What an absolut terrbible story, makes me sad reading it. Seems like a long relationship ended in a very tragic way. Hopefully the daughter get good and professional help to get over it. So sad when children get involved in matters that grown up people should be able to deal with themselves.

// Anna

WOW, great diversified points to ponder, I guess you really never know until your in a "weird" or unique situation, I think its really strange how someone can "snap".
I agree these 2 were in a very weird relationship, but from what I have read just on these boards, many of us had some real weird relationships too, Kids see and hear alot, even when we think they don't.
Makes you wonder though, theres so many weird stories, like the moms who drown their kids, or the dads who strangle their sons, or the kids who kill their parents, or whatever, this was definately a weird story, sounds like it was an abusive one and just kept growing more violent until it hit the snapping point, makes you wonder how delicate the human brain is under stress, I am pretty sane so far, but it scares the shit outta me!!

Yes it would be nice if we all could let a cheater go with grace, but in reality that just doesn't happen all that often, usually there are terrible fights, especailly if you were with them a very long time, or kids are involved, or homes, or property ect.

I have one question for anyone out here who has had their husband/wife cheat on them:
After you found out about the affair, did you try to make yourself "look better"? you know hair done, makeup on, nice cloths if and when you had to see them again, like maybe when they picked up the kids? I know I did, I really don't know why, maybe to show them I was not stressed, and to show them I was still living life.

Perhaps this is to private to write about? But anyhow I deceded to write it down.

I was in my early twenties and had been together with a guy in four years. Everyone thought we were a great couple and I thought so too, feeling that I’ve found the man for my life. I got an opportunity to work abroad for a year. After talking we decided that it was a great chance for me and it wouldn’t be a problem for us though we could meet every month.

An afternoon, five month after I was back home again, at dinner, he tells me that I have to go to a gynaecologist. Why? At that time I had no idea what is was about. And suppose you’ve already guessed? The guy had really lost his head when I was gone. Having, one, two, three or even more dates going on in the same time. One of them had called him telling him to see a doctor because she had a disease. And the doctor he visited told him to at once contact all women he had been with because he was contaminated.

And yes test results showed me to be positive to not only to one venereal disease….and one of them, Chlamydia probably made me sterile, though I despite several examinations never been able to be pregnant. So hearing and listening to stories about cheating makes me sad, angry and furious.

But in a way I was safe from seeing it happen though I was abroad and also I didn’t have any kids being hurt by it. So I couldn’t really imagine all the anger and rage that it could cause to them suffer of cheating. But I do understand it. And it did have effect on me, in my trust in men, in my self esteem. So suppose both women and men that cheats should think once and twice upon the effects of their actions!

Thanks SnowPrincess for making this a discussion, I very seldom talk about it and now when I do, I get surprise how much it still hurts! But forcing me to write about it felt good, even if I feel a little nervous about putting it on this board.


Take care,
Anna

Katmeup7, I agree that there are people who are just very likely to cheat. However, statisticly the majority of men WILL cheat at some point in their marriage (70%). So you can never be total confident that your partner is not going to have an affair. I think that it is very important for both people to keep communicating and romancing each other all their lives.
PS 50% of the women will cheat that are married. So sad.

Well, count me in with the loonies! When I was still with my ex-husband, who cheated on me regularly, no matter what I did to improve my size 5 self, I was at a loss. I was the best I could be, which was pretty damned good, but he STILL cheated, even though our sex was great! At that point, Lorena Bobbitt became my hero. When I heard what she did, I actually cheered and applauded! Would I ever do it? No, I don't have the balls, but I sure contemplated it a time or two.

Now has to this Harris woman, I think she just went over the edge. If a man does all he can to gain your trust and make you fall in love with him, then tells you you need breast implants or whatever, then while you're doing what you can to improve yourself, he is sleeping with someone else...I'm sorry, but that bastard had it coming! I'm extremely disturbed about his daughter being in the car when it happened though.

It's a shame the Harris woman didn't have enough control to walk away, but you know what? Who WOULDN'T go postal after all that? It takes a really strong, secure person to just walk away, and when you're told you're not good enough by the one you love, it really takes away your strength.

My opinion? He did it to himself. It was karma. Again, I'm not happy about the daughter being in the car. That was his fault too, in the end. He just didn't cheat on his wife...he cheated on his family. Find another way hoss, divorce, seperation, but DON'T CHEAT!!!

If it was ME, and I'D have walked into that restaurant and seen him with the *****, honestly, I probably would have done the very same thing. I'd have been THAT disturbed and upset. Well, maybe I actually wouldn't have had the balls to carry it out, but I sure would have thought about it.

my, my, my, polly. still projecting your anger about your broken marriage all over the place, ain't ya? still think your ex-husband cheated on you because of something you didn't do?

i got news for you. his infidelity didn't have anything to do with YOU. it was HIM, and perhaps you know that deep down, but are afraid to admit it. it's not about looks or lack thereof, it is something the spouses are not dealing with or being honest about. beautiful women get cheated on all the time (halle berry, demi moore, etc., ad nauseum).

Murder is murder. I can't buy into the whole "cheating spouses have it coming" philosophy. Or that just because a woman is cheated on, murder is suddenly not only understandable but her right. Maybe Ms. Harris just decided she was pissed enough at Mr. Harris to run him over and kill him in cold blood. Maybe she wasn't insane at the time. But she WAS however stupid. She hired a private investigator to trail her husband and while he was working for her he got the murder on videotape. I know I know, someone will say that just proves she was insane. However, it could be that she just forgot he would be watching, what with all the lipo sessions and hairdo appts. and exercise classes she had to keep track of. :D

I think I need more info...granted anyone's
mind can "snap" one day....but.....the story says there was a step daughter involved...that means he probably had an earlier marriage before.I was just wondering if she( the wife now) may have been the "other woman" earlier in the relationship when he was still with his first wife...and it all came full circle...that why I think I would need more info.....

Originally posted by yellowrose
Katmeup7, I agree that there are people who are just very likely to cheat. However, statisticly the majority of men WILL cheat at some point in their marriage (70%). So you can never be total confident that your partner is not going to have an affair. I think that it is very important for both people to keep communicating and romancing each other all their lives.
PS 50% of the women will cheat that are married. So sad.

YR,
I often try to argue to myself that it's special people that cheats and not everybody. But suppose your statistics show me that we all seem to be part in a drama that might end up being lured. And suppose I didn't need your statistics to get convinced I just have to look around. But, you know what? I don't think romancing will keep a man (or a woman) from cheating. On the contrary I know a lot of men that are good with "seducing by words" and boasts, knocking themselves on the chest, for each ladie they have succeded in "laying down". I myself allways been kind of suspicious to men trying to romancing me. Not talking to the "latin lover" type of man! Gosh! Not for me!I often keep down to earth and try to keep my head close to my heart, because love is not only enjoyable...and one has to protect oneself for not being hurt. But it's an art of balance act, one can't protect oneself from living and from life it self!

// Anna

Cognitively we know it's not us that the cheater is cheating. It's himself of course. But emotionally we rip ourselves a new butt. Much like Polly describes we become emotional bimbos. Been there and done that.

Rationally of course, it's the cheater who has the problem.

Still, I would have run him down and rolled over him as many times as I could before I got my senses back.

What happened to Clara? She was out of her mind. She was not present at that moment. She probably did want to kill him. I would have wanted to kill him. I have wanted to kill someone before and actually planned many ways to do it. Very intricate planning. I later went to a shrink and told of my broken heart. The shrink asked if I planned to kill him. I was so surprised that he could read my mind. "Yes, I do have some plans to kill him". So the shrink asks me why I didn't kill him. Obviously I couldn't come up with a plan that wouldn't get me caught. Good he says. It's ok to want to kill the bastard, but you got to know that you will get caught and not be willing to pay the price.

I think Clara wanted to kill him and she's willing to pay the price now. I don't think it was truly premeditated though. I think she cracked and freaked. Me? Thank God I wasn't there, cause he'd be a pancake; lunatic that I am!

Cindy

Cindy,
Perhaps my confused mind don’t get every nuance of your writings but you always making me laugh...Anyhow I'm glad you lunatic mind didn't take you so far making pancake of the cheating man...LOL.. Just think of all fuss trying to fix your legal support and in worst scenario all boring visits for friends to se you in jail :D

// Anna

I admire your honesty in sharing with us about apart of you that may have been difficult to share......thanks

:)

"She quit her job so she could have sex with him three times a night"

Oh c'mon! Is that anything that any single person on here would even consider doing? Seriously?

Not a normal relationship, not normal people and I'm not surprised it ended badly for everyone concerned.

That said, no matter how hurt I was by someone's cheating - I would never endanger my own freedom and future.
No way.

The best revenge is living happily ever after - with someone else.

Not rotting in a jail cell for the next 25 years.

If we subscribe to the "he had it coming" theory - then there's really no end to the cynicism, is there?

Next we'll be knocking people off who cut us off in traffic. (Well that's happened, too - hasn't it?)

Emotional pain is emotional pain and it's the price of being alive. You get through it and on to something better.

You don't sacrifice your or anybody else's life to it.

Hasn't anybody heard of homicidal daydreams to cheer themselves up?

What's a fantasy life FOR, if not moments like this?

Cindy! LOL

My ex had an affair on an out of town job, he was there for months coming home on long weekends, I was paying the motel bill without knowing he "shared" the room with his mistress.
I wanted to drive by and throw one of those M-****tail fire thingies(??) into the room and get them both!
I was seriously thinking it, imagining it!
The hurt he caused the children was tremendous.

Now I don't feel like that anymore, infact we get alone pretty civialized.

But than...............Like I said before thank God my girlfriends prevented me from driving there that night.
Yes, I can admit it, I wanted to kill him, as bad as it sounds now, at that time I wanted him "goner"!!
But I have children to take care of so.........he's alive;)

DS says:
Next we'll be knocking people off who cut us off in traffic. (Well that's happened, too - hasn't it?)


Nah, just a "I am an idiot" sticker on their forehead will do
:p :D

Hey y'all I was kind of looking through this thread, and I read what SnowP said about seeing how someone could get mad enough to do something like this...BUT...
That story was the defendant story, and the story of the daughter that was with her at the time was quite a bit different...such as saying she not only hit him with the car but returned to run over him several times...and saying that she was going to hit him before she did...I don't see any way that this woman will get away with this...and also, I mean, yeah we have all gotten angry and lost our temper, but I think, if the daughter's story is true, the heat of the moment had kind of passed before she ran over him the second and third time. Anyway, here is what the daughter said...

"I thought the affair was wrong," the teen told jurors, "but I still loved my dad.
On arriving, Harris and the teen asked hotel clerks if the couple had registered. They were told they had not. Then they walked into the parking lot to search for Bridges' black Lincoln Navigator.
When they found it, the teenager testified, Clara Harris went wild. She scraped the vehicle with a key, then ripped the windshield wiper from the back window and twisted the front wipers.
Then the orthodontist and his lover walked from the elevator.
Clara Harris charged Bridges, ripping her blouse and slapping her, the girl said. Before the melee ended, David Harris had kicked his wife, and his daughter had collapsed on the floor.
The teen testified that her stepmother almost ran down a hotel employee before spotting her husband, who was standing with Bridges near the Navigator.
She gunned the motor and hit her husband, then circled through the parking lot to run over him twice more, Lindsey Harris said.
"I was really upset and was screaming, `You're killing him!' " the teen told jurors. "I could tell the difference of the bump when we went over a big cement curb and when we went over my dad."
When the car stopped, she said, Clara Harris kneeled over her dying husband, wailing, "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! It was an accident! Are you OK?"
"It wasn't an accident," Lindsey Harris said. "She knew what she did." She said, `I'm going to hit him,' " Lindsey Harris testified. "She said it like that's what was going to happen. I screamed, `No!' lots of times. But she stomped on the accelerator and went straight for him."

How will we ever know if all that drivel about the breast implants and liposuction is true? The other side of the story is DEAD. Obviously both of these people had some "issues," because any married couple that would sit down and make lists comparing the mistress and wife is NOT all there. One sick ***** deserves another. And another. That doesn't justify murder; these kinds of situations are precisely what laws are for. I don't think murder laws were written because people were afraid you might off a stranger while you were in a good mood. Just because somebody makes you feel bad doesn't give you the right to put them on a permanent time out. And thank God, because I know I would have been a casualty of more than one ex by now (not from cheating either.) While the adultery was not a smooth move, I can't say I blame the man for wanting out of a relationship with a woman capable of this. If you don't know what the hell's going on, you're just so distraught, how do you aim your car, drive over someone, put it in reverse, and do it not once but TWICE? I ain't buying what you're selling. Lock her up.

How awful for the daughter....couldn't she grap the stirring wheel from the stepmother to sway her from hitting her dad? Or hit her and knock her out and then get a hold of the stirring wheel, there must of been away. But we never know how we are going to react in a time like that. And yes there are a story behind all the persons involved, lets hope that the truth really comes out and the consequense is rightfully done.

Lorena says:
How awful for the daughter....couldn't she grap the stirring wheel from the stepmother to sway her from hitting her dad? Or hit her and knock her out and then get a hold of the stirring wheel, there must of been away.

I know! I thought of that one, the daughter was 17.
I was also wondering where the mistress was at this time, at least a run over of her foot would have been appropriate :p J/K

I have been watching this on the news, it is interesting thats for sure.

Well the sentence is in. 20 years for Ms. Harris, with the earliest possibility of parole a long ten years away. You know who the real losers are? (apart from the husband's teenage daughter who was a passenger in the murder weapon) ... her 4-year-old twins. Now they will grow up essentially without a father OR a mother. I imagine that will be her greatest punishment of all.

Imagine how screwed up they'd be as adults after growing up with the kind of behavior their parents were modelling for them. Sadly, I think they may be better off now.

~Val