Background

David Lynn Harris was an orthodontist who owned a chain of orthodontist offices along with his wife, Clara Harris. The chain was particularly successful, and the couple were able to afford an upscale home in Friendswood, Texas

Friendswood, Texas

Friendswood is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The city lies in Galveston and Harris counties. As of the 2000 U.S...

 and luxury cars, including Clara's Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...

. The couple had married on February 14, 1993, and were raising three children, twin sons born in 1996 and David's daughter Lindsey from a previous marriage.

Affair

During the course of his marriage to Clara however, David began having an affair with his former receptionist, Gail Bridges, who later admitted to the affair. Clara, who was suspicious, had hired a private detective agency to spy on her husband, and on July 24, 2002, the agency notified Clara that her husband was at the Nassau Bay Hilton Hotel with his mistress.

Murder and Trial

When Clara Harris went to the Hilton Hotel to confront her husband, she reportedly attacked her husband's mistress Gail Bridges. When hotel security guards escorted Clara to her Mercedes-Benz, she was apparently still mad, and she took her anger out on her husband. When David and Gail came out of the hotel, Clara struck down her husband in the parking lot as her teenaged stepdaughter sat in the passenger seat. According to the medical examiner's office, Clara ran over her husband three times. David was dead at the scene, and Clara was charged with first-degree murder. Her trial began the following February. At the trial Lindsey Harris testified against her stepmother, claiming to have attempted suicide four times after her father's death. Also introduced at Clara's trial was an actual videotape of the crime, recorded by the detective agency she had hired. Clara Harris was found guilty of murdering her husband, and on February 14, 2003, what would have been her and her husband's tenth wedding anniversary but due to having an unknown mental illness, she was only sentenced to 20 years in prison, and is incarcerated at the Mountain View Unit

Mountain View Unit

Mountain View Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison housing female offenders in Gatesville, Texas. The unit, with about of land, is located north of central Gatesville on Farm to Market Road 215. The prison is located in a 45 minute driving distance from Waco...

 in Gatesville, Texas

Gatesville, Texas

Gatesville is a city in and the county seat of Coryell County in Central Texas, United States of America. The population was 15,591 at the 2000 census...

. Clara was also fined $10,000. She will be eligible for parole in 2013. Clara's sons are in the custody of friends, and they see their mother often.

Aftermath

A book titled Out of Control was written by Steven Long

Steven Long

Steven Hayward Long , from Houston, Texas, is an American journalist, magazine publisher and nonfiction author of three true crime books...

 about the murder case. Published in 2004 by St. Martin's Paperbacks (as part of their St. Martin's True Crime Library series), the book follows the story of the murder and the reasons behind it.

This story was the inspiration for the completion of a chapter in the series Mexican Mujeres Asesinas (Mexico) "Killer Women" The chapter name is Luz, overwhelming (Luz, arrolladora).

The case was profiled on the Oxygen Network series Snapped

Snapped

Snapped is an American true crime television series that airs on the Oxygen Network. Snapped debuted on August 6, 2004 and is produced in conjunction with Jupiter Entertainment.-Synopsis:...

in 2004 and Deadly Women

Deadly Women

Deadly Women is a television series first aired in 2005 on the Discovery Channel, focusing on female killers. It was originally a mini-series consisting of three episodes: "Obsession," "Greed" and "Revenge". After a 2 year hiatus, the show resumed production in 2008 and began airing on the...

in 2010.

It was also the topic of a Lifetime Original movie, Suburban Madness

Suburban Madness

Suburban Madness is a drama based on a true story starring Sela Ward as PI Bobbi Bacha of Blue Moon Investigations.Suburban Madness is based on the true story of 44 year old Clara Harris a successful Texas dentist and mother of young twins, who hired private investigator Bobbi Bacha, played by...

, starring Elizabeth Peña

Elizabeth Peña

Elizabeth Peña is an American actress and the daughter of a theater-company co-founder, who has also compiled experience as a television director in her own right.-Early life:...

 and Brett Cullen

Brett Cullen

Peter Brett Cullen is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs. Early in 2007, he was cast as the role of an estranged father to one of the American football players, Tim Riggins , in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights.Cullen was born in Houston,...

.