Murder by Mercedes- The Murder of David Harris

For this case, I listened to the podcast Oh, Snapped. This podcast was created by the same girls who do the Killer Queens podcast. On Oh, Snapped, they talk about the show Snapped on Oxygen. This case goes way back to Season 1, Episode 3. It’s hard to find the earlier seasons anywhere, so I suggest listening to their podcast.

David Harris and Clara Suarez were both dentists and they got married on February 14th, 1992. They were very successful dentists and they raised 3 children together, 2 twin boys who were born in 1998 and David’s daughter Lindsay from a previous marriage. They lived in Friendswood, Texas.

During the episode, they talk about how Clara always needed to appear perfect. She always needed to have the perfect house (which they had a huge house), she needed to have nice cars and nice clothes. It has been said that Clara was very emotionally unavailable in her marriage and David wasn’t happy about it.

David began having an affair with his former receptionist, named Gail Bridges. Clara noticed that her husband was distant and she became suspicious, so she hired a private investigator to spy on David. On July 24th, 2002, they found David at a hotel with his mistress, Gail.

The Murder:

They were at the Hilton Hotel in Nassau Bay, Texas. Clara went to the hotel that night. Several witnesses said that Clara attacked Gail in the lobby, and she had to be escorted out to her car, a Mercedes-Benz sedan.

Gail was waiting for David and Gail to walk out of the hotel, and when they walked out, Gail hit her husband with her car. Lindsey, their daughter was in the passenger seat. David died immediately.

The autopsy stated that there was only one tire mark on David’s body, but Lindsey and other witnesses said Clara hit David 3 times.

Clara was charged with first degree murder. Her trial started in February of the next year. Lindsey testified that she tried to stop Clara.

Clara’s defense tried to say this was a crime of passion, but the prosecutors said Clara wanted to hurt David for awhile and even had her on tape confessing to that. There was also a videotape that was shown at her trial, the video was recorded by the detective agency that Clara hired. Clara’s car is seen driving around the hotel parking lot several times. Clara also parks her car next to David’s body.

Clara’s defense tried to show a re-creation of the crime, proving that David was only ran over once. The judge dismissed it. They also tried to examine the radius of her car to say that she couldn’t have made sharp turns to run over him several times. It wasn’t a very good defense in my opinion, there were several witnesses all saying she ran over him 3 times.

Clara also took the stand, after being told it wasn’t a good idea. Her original interrogation with the police was inadmissible, but when she testified they allowed it in. They left out the part of the tape after she said she “wanted to hurt her husband,” but “didn’t want him killed.” Clara’s attorney collapsed during the trial, and had to be taken to the hospital. She ended up being okay.

On February 14th, 2003, Clara was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison. She was also fined $10,000. She was in prison at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

She was released on May 11th, 2018.

Other:

There have been quite a few books written about her case and it’s also featured on quite a few TV shows, especially on Oxygen and Investigation Discovery.

I also heard that Lindsey distanced herself from her father, and believed everything that Clara said about him, including about him being a cheater. Clara could have even manipulated Lindsey into believing her.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I believe that she should still be in prison. I do think she planned the murder, I don’t think it was a “crime of passion.” I don’t condone David’s cheating in anyway, but he still didn't deserve to die and be run over. I think Lindsey was manipulated by Clara, and she’s probably scarred for life after seeing her father die. I hope she’s getting the help she needs.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_David_Lynn_Harris

https://abc13.com/clara-harris-clarra-prison-murder-runs-over-husband/3458966/

https://people.com/crime/clara-harris-houston-dentist-cheating-husband-released-prison/