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Post by madeline on Jul 13, 2019 17:14:10 GMT -5
The trial is supposed to last 4 weeks. For her not to wait that long to file, something serious must have happened. I can't help wondering if after all these years, she somehow found out that he murdered his wife. I hope you're right. If he's found not guilty, he will have gotten away with murder. No one else had a motive to kill Belinda Temple and the defense is trying to blame a neighbor kid, though there's no evidence at all that he did it. The day after the murder, the police went out on the street and stopped cars and asked people if they traveled that road about the same time the day of the murder and of those that had, no one saw anyone walking around carrying a shotgun, which would be something everyone would notice. Neighbors didn't see anyone either and that means that someone inside the house shot her and put the shotgun in his truck in the garage, where no one would have seen him.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 15, 2019 23:34:17 GMT -5
Testimony Continues in David Temple Retrial
The retrial of David Temple entered its second week with the reading of the testimony of three brothers who said they heard a “boom” during the time they were watching the video, Dr. Doolittle. The children’s claims are important to the defense, which is attempting to prove Temple could not have committed the crime. Another neighbor testified he heard what sounded like two gunshots at approximately the same time, however, there is no proof the sound the children heard was, indeed, a gunshot.
Establishing the time of the murder is important to both the defense and prosecution. Temple was recorded on surveillance video at Brookshire Brothers between 4:32 and 4:38 p.m., and later at Home Depot at 5:14 p.m. In his opening statement, defense attorney Stan Schneider said if the boom heard by the children was from the gunshot that killed Belinda Temple, his client wasn’t at home.
Another witness, Jenifer Stockdick, now a member of the Katy city council and former acquaintance of David Temple’s, testified she noticed a partially-full box of shotgun shells while helping remove items from the home a month or two following the murder. Stockdick admitted she and the Temples weren’t particularly good friends, but got teary when asked to describe Belinda: “She had a heart to serve,” the witness said.
Last week, a crime scene investigator testified he saw several decorative items at the home indicating David Temple was a bird hunter and bird hunters use shotguns.
Jim Parker, another former neighbor, testified regarding the aggressiveness of the Temple’s dog, a Chow. Neither he nor his wife heard the dog barking the day Belinda Temple was murdered.
The lead detective in the case, Mark Schmidt, testified and discussed how, based on his investigation, the crime scene appeared to have been staged. He also revealed the Temple family, i.e., David Temple’s parents, purchased a 12-gauge shotgun in 1958 and a 12-gauge was used to kill Belinda Temple. Schmidt is expected to be continue his testimony tomorrow (July 16), after which he will be cross-examined by the defense.
Following Monday’s proceedings, Judge Kelli Johnson announced she has released a public admonishment of the news station KHOU, after reporters allegedly violated an order related to the case last Monday (July 8) by leaving a live stream running. Defense attorneys agreed with the prosecution’s assessment of the video, i.e., that the footage revealed nothing damaging.
Last week, Heather Scott Temple, David Temple’s second wife and the woman with whom he was having an affair, filed for divorce. She is expected to testify sometime this week.
Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 15, 2019, and Sally Mamdooh and Aaron Barker, KPRC, July 15, 2019.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 17, 2019 11:38:39 GMT -5
Investigator Testifies Belinda Temple Had Just Gotten Home When She Was KilledAccording to Sgt. Mark Schmidt of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Belinda Temple was likely wearing shoes and reading glasses at the time of her death, indicating she had just gotten home when she was murdered in her bedroom closet in 1999. The testimony of Schmidt, the primary investigator assigned to the case, contrasts with some accounts that gunshots were heard in the neighborhood later in the afternoon. His assessment aligns with the state’s contention that the murder occurred during the time David Temple was present in the home. “She obviously hadn’t been home long,” Schmidt said. “It indicates to me this happened very quickly.”
In 1999, David Temple told authorities his wife, a schoolteacher at Katy High School who was eight months pregnant, had just lain down to rest when he left for the park and store with their 3-year-old son.
Prosecutors estimate Belinda Temple arrived home up to 45 minutes before her husband was first observed on surveillance tape at Brookshire Brothers.
Defense attorneys are attempting to narrow the time period in which the former Alief Hastings football coach would have been at home, accounting for driving time from his house to the store. They also have tried to prove that given her condition, Belinda Temple would have been moving more slowly and would have gotten home later than the prosecution claims. In prior testimony, two witnesses said they heard what sounded like gunshots in the neighborhood during the time when Temple was caught on surveillance footage at the store.
Temple claimed he came home to find his home broken into and his wife dead in the closet. However, investigators testified last week the break-in appeared to have been staged.
David Temple was arrested five years after the murder in 2004 and found guilty by a jury in 2007. His conviction was reversed approximately 10 years later when an appeals court found dozens of instances of prosecutorial misconduct in the first trial.
This time, Temple is being prosecuted by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.Source: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 16, 2019.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 17, 2019 18:45:22 GMT -5
David Temple Changed His Story in Police Interviews
Testimony today (July 17) revealed that when questioned in 1999, David Temple told a law enforcement officer he didn’t take his son to the park the day of his wife’s murder, which contradicted his original statement to authorities. The football coach initially told deputies he and his 3-year-old son went to a park, a grocery store (Brookshire Brothers) and Home Depot before returning home to find Belinda Temple, his heavily-pregnant wife, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Later, he told another deputy a different version of the story, saying he started to take his son to a park, but changed his mind and went to the grocery store instead. According to Sgt. Mark Schmidt, Temple told the deputy, “My son decided he wanted something to drink. After that, he decided he wanted to go home.”
Prosecutor Lisa Tanner noted during the trial that after Evan (the 3-year-old) told his father he wanted to go home, Temple “went across town to Home Depot instead.” He was seen on surveillance video at both Brookshire Brothers and Home Depot.
Both sides have endeavored to determine exactly where Belinda and David Temple were on the afternoon of Monday, January 11, 1999, and what time the fatal shot was fired. Defense attorneys are attempting to narrow the time to prove the Defendant would have been at home with his wife before he went to the store, but Schmidt clearly told jurors the two were home at the same time at some point that day. “Can we all agree that on the afternoon that Belinda was murdered, she was in the home with the Defendant prior to her death?” Tanner asked the investigator.
“Yes,” Schmidt replied.
Joe Cadena, another former neighbor who lived just across the street from the Temple house, testified he heard a truck backfire twice while outside his home on the afternoon of January 11. The time he heard the “pops” of the backfiring truck coincided with the time the three brothers heard what they described as a “boom” while watching the Dr. Doolittle video.
Defense attorney Stan Schneider brought up the fact the neighbor went on TV following Belinda Temple’s murder, saying he heard two gunshots. Tanner countered that the neighbor was consistent in telling authorities he heard a car backfiring.
Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 17, 2019, and David Mark Temple v. State of Texas, WR-78, 542-02 (Tex. App. 2015).
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 19, 2019 0:17:21 GMT -5
Witnesses Testify David Temple Criticized and Degraded His Wife
During Thursday’s proceedings, witnesses testified that David Temple directed derogatory remarks toward his wife and demeaned her family.
Quinton Harlan, also a former Alief Hastings High School football coach, worked with Temple and he and his wife, Tammey, were friends with the Temples. Mrs. Harlan testified she and Belinda Temple quickly became friends after hitting it off at a dinner with other coaches. On the witness stand, she said Temple criticized his wife’s weight, housekeeping and parenting, particularly when it came to disciplining their son, Evan. She recalled an occasion when Temple slapped Belinda on the butt and called her “fat ass” because she wasn’t the same size as she had been when they married.
Quinton Harlan also recalled Temple’s saying his wife had been in shape when she worked as a fitness instructor, but had gained weight after giving birth to their son. When asked if he had seen what Belinda looked like after Evan’s birth, Harlan said he had and “She looked fine to me.”
Tammey Harlan told the court Temple also criticized his wife’s family, calling them “white trash,” fat and a bunch of hypochondriacs. On one occasion, she confronted Temple: “It was like I was advocating for her [Belinda],” Mrs. Harlan testified. She also believed Temple was a bad influence on her husband. Following the birth of the Harlans’ youngest daughter in 1998, Tammey said she distanced herself from the Temples because she was concerned her own marriage would suffer. After completing her testimony and walking to the back of the courtroom, a group of women embraced and comforted her.
Quinton Harlan testified that Temple would organize happy hours for coaches and teachers, especially after home football games, but he [Harlan] was reluctant to attend because it made his wife uncomfortable. Harlan recalled Temple would criticize him for not attending, telling him he needed to “wear the pants” in the house and ignore his wife’s complaints. Temple never discussed any conflicts with his own wife concerning the happy hour get-togethers Harlan said.
Former neighbor Natalie Scott testified regarding her friendship with Belinda Temple, saying their kids played together. One day, she saw Belinda assembling shelves for the new baby’s room and recalled being impressed by her ability to put together the furniture while pregnant. She noticed Belinda seemed agitated that her husband wasn’t helping her. “She said he wouldn’t get his ass off the couch,” Scott recalled.
Sources: Natalie Weber, The Houston Chronicle, July 18, 2019, and David Mark Temple v. State of Texas, WR-78, 542-02 (Tex. App. 2015).
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 19, 2019 18:49:31 GMT -5
Heather Scott Temple Takes the Stand
David Temple’s second wife, Heather Scott Temple, was called to the witness stand Friday, July 19, in the retrial of her husband for the murder of his first wife, Belinda Temple.
Jurors are viewing emails between Heather Scott and David Temple in the fall of 1998 that clearly illustrate a blossoming romance between the two. Heather Temple told prosecutors her relationships with Temple and another coworker (Quinton Harlan) were “inappropriately flirtatious in emails.”
Belinda Temple was killed January 11, 1999, and her husband was found guilty of murder in 2007, however, in 2016, his conviction was overturned.
David and Heather Temple married approximately two years after Belinda’s untimely death.
Heather Temple filed for divorce last week. In her petition for dissolution of marriage, she cited a conflict of personalities.
Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2019, and David Mark Temple v. State of Texas, WR-78, 542-02 (Tex. App. 2015).
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Post by catherine on Jul 21, 2019 10:44:50 GMT -5
So the bitch lived with him for six years before he went to prison and he's been out for at least two years, so that's a total of eight years she's lived with him and it's taken her this long to decide they have a "conflict of personalities"?
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Post by pat on Jul 21, 2019 13:03:54 GMT -5
So the bitch lived with him for six years before he went to prison and he's been out for at least two years, so that's a total of eight years she's lived with him and it's taken her this long to decide they have a "conflict of personalities"? I was hoping she'd have something to offer, but if all she's saying is that they had personality conflicts, that's not going to help. Even if if there's something that convinced her that he killed Belinda, it would be protected because she's his wife.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 22, 2019 22:31:28 GMT -5
Joe Sanders Tells Jury He Did Not Kill Belinda Temple
Riley Joe Sanders III (called “Joe”), the former neighbor whom the defense has blamed for the shooting death of Belinda Temple, took the stand Monday. Sanders, now 37, said again that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the execution-style slaying of the former Katy High School teacher – a conclusion local authorities reached years ago.
In recounting his activities on Monday, January 11, 1999, the day his next-door neighbor was killed, Sanders said he smoked a little weed, then fell asleep on the sofa. When he awakened, he learned Mrs. Temple was dead.
According to the prosecution, in 1999, Sanders was just another lazy, dope-smoking truant. The defense, however, is trying to convince the jury the teenager had a vendetta against Belinda Temple because she informed his parents he was missing too much school and they, in turn, took away his driving privileges.
Sanders, who is now married with children of his own, took the stand and told jurors he had actually liked Mrs. Temple. “She was the lady I’d go to for help,” he said. He explained Belinda Temple was his tutor in a program intended to help students who found their course work difficult. And that she was always good to him. Even after she told on him, he insisted he had no animosity toward her.
He testified he knew nothing about the murder until his father awakened him when he came home from work and the two watched what was happening outside.
“Did you have anything to do with Mrs. Temple’s murder?” asked prosecutor Lisa Tanner.
“No,” Sanders replied.
“Did you kill Mrs. Temple?” she then asked.
“No,” he repeated.
On cross-examination, Stanley Schneider questioned Sanders concerning his disciplinary problems, truancy and drug use. When asked how many times Belinda Temple told his parents he was skipping school, Sanders said it happened only once.
Two other witnesses testified Monday: Riley Joe Sanders Jr., father of Joe, and Dwayne Wolf, M.D., of the medical examiner’s office.
According to the elder Sanders, he barely knew David and Belinda Temple, though his wife and Belinda were friendly. Additionally, on one occasion, he recalled mowing the Temples’ lawn after seeing a pregnant Belinda out cutting the grass.
On the day of the murder, Sanders said he returned home from work to find police cars up and down the street and when he went inside, found his son asleep on the couch.
Dr. Wolf testified the killer placed the shotgun directly to the back of Belinda Temple’s head and her death was instantaneous. On cross-examination, the defense questioned Wolf concerning his accuracy in determining Belinda Temple’s cause of death in an attempt to have him pinpoint her time of death.
The cross-examination of Joe Sanders will continue Tuesday.
Sources: Brandon Walker, KPRC, July 22, 2019, and Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 22, 2019.
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Post by pat on Jul 23, 2019 11:39:22 GMT -5
So does this mean that Heather Scott's testimony is over?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 23, 2019 20:47:49 GMT -5
Friends of Joe Sanders, Forensic Examiner Testify
Several key witnesses for the prosecution took the stand Tuesday in the retrial of David Temple for the 1999 murder of his wife, Belinda Temple.
Niki Biondo-Luende, the girlfriend of Joe Sanders at the time of the murder, told jurors Sanders called her after learning Belinda Temple had been murdered and sounded upset. “There was a sadness in his voice,” she recalled. “She [Belinda] was the one teacher who cared about him and wanted him to succeed.
Cody Ray Ellis, a truant and dope-smoker, like Sanders, told the jury he skipped 7th period and he and Sanders smoked pot together. Ellis admitted Sanders sneaked a shotgun out of his house about a week after the murder, so they could go shooting, and he turned it over to investigators when questioned. He said investigators interviewed him several times during the course of the investigation. “They drilled me for hours,” he said. “Cops threatened me with what would happen in prison if I lied.”
Matthew Clements, a forensic examiner with 25 years experience, testified that nothing collected at the Sanders home matched the buckshot that killed Belinda Temple.
Court will reconvene Wednesday morning (July 24) at 9 o’clock.
Source: Andy Cerota, Aaron Barker and Cory McCord, KPRC, July 23, 2019.
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Post by madeline on Jul 23, 2019 22:33:26 GMT -5
There isn't and never has been any evidence the Sanders kid killed Belinda Temple. The defense is just grasping at straws. The only person with a motive was David Temple and I hope this jury sees him for the murderous beast that he is just like the first jury did.
I noticed in the testimony yesterday that Joe Sanders' father said that he went over and mowed the lawn after seeing Belinda out mowing the yard when she was pregnant. What kind of man expects his pregnant wife to mow the lawn?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 25, 2019 18:10:53 GMT -5
Retrial of David Temple: Murder, the Other Woman and a Husband’s LiesThe retrial of David Temple is in recess until Monday (July 29), when the state will call its final witnesses. The trial is expected to continue until the end of the month, possibly into August.
From the beginning, David Temple, a coach and former football star, has maintained he came home on the evening of Monday, January 11, 1999, and found his wife, Belinda Temple, dead from a shotgun blast. According to the medical examiner, someone placed the barrel of the shotgun directly to the back of Mrs. Temple’s head and pulled the trigger, literally blowing away half her head and face.
The Boy Next Door. Investigators quickly zeroed in on David Temple and Team Temple, in turn, pointed a finger at the next-door neighbor, Riley Joe Sanders III, a 16-year-old pot-head and habitual truant. Sanders and the losers with whom he “hung out” at the time have testified that on the afternoon of the murder, they smoked some weed, then drove around in an attempt to score more marijuana, but weren’t successful. After he was dropped off at home, Sanders said he fell asleep on the sofa, where his father found him when he came home from work. It was determined Belinda Temple was killed with a 12-gauge shotgun, but David Temple denied owning a shotgun and the murder weapon was never found. However, Quinton Harlan, fellow coach and former friend of Temple’s, testified he saw shotgun shells in the house. (When Quinton Harlan and his wife, Tammey, were called to testify before the grand jury, David Temple asked what they said. Harlan reminded him they weren’t supposed to discuss their testimony, simply saying, “We told the truth.” This angered Temple who barked, “You need to keep your mouth shut!”)
The defense has pointed to the fact there was a 12-gauge shotgun in the Sanders home – something that isn’t at all unusual in Texas – which Joe Sanders had sneaked out to go shooting with friends. But neither the defense nor anyone else has been able to explain how Sanders, who had never been inside the Temple home, could have gotten past the vicious dog in the backyard.
Although Temple insisted he didn’t own a shotgun, he was a known duck- and bird-hunter and ducks and birds (e.g., quail and doves) are hunted with a shotgun. Also, Cindi Thompson, a woman who had once dated his brother, Darren Temple, recalled an occasion on which David held a shotgun on Darren and threatened to kill him.
Some of Joe Sanders’s fellow problem students had burgled a house, though Sanders wasn’t involved. As in the Temple case, the teens had gained access by breaking a pane of glass in the back door and left an electronic device setting on the floor – the TV in the Temple home was discovered setting on the floor. Many believe Temple heard about the other burglary and arranged the scene accordingly. Investigators noted the glass in the back door appeared to have been broken from the inside and nothing was taken, not even several items of David’s gold jewelry in plain view of anyone who entered the room.
Furthermore, burglars break into homes to steal, not kill, and don’t call attention to themselves. David Holtke, a crime scene investigator, was shocked a burglar would risk discovery by shooting a woman: “How many burglars,” he asked rhetorically, “do you think walk around carrying a shotgun? In broad daylight?” A man walking around with a shotgun in a residential neighborhood full of children would have attracted attention and no one saw such a person.
Inconsistencies in David Temple’s Story. There were numerous inconsistencies in David Temple’s story. For example, he couldn’t seem to remember which park he took his son to that afternoon: First, he said it was Peckham Park, then changed that to Cimarron Park, but police questioned people who were at both parks the afternoon of January 11 and no one remembered seeing Temple or Evan. Finally, he said he didn’t go to either park, but was on his way to the park when his son said he was thirsty, so he went to the grocery store instead. In fact, Evan was so sick the day care called for someone to come get him, so why was Temple taking him to a park to play? He also claimed Evan was in a car seat when he took him on his ride around Katy, but investigators found the child’s car seat in Belinda’s vehicle.
The Other Woman. When investigators learned there was another woman in the picture and questioned Heather Scott, she initially said she and David had never been alone together and alleged what they had was a “casual romantic relationship.” However, when Detective Tracy Shipley questioned her a second time after Scott had consulted a lawyer, she began by saying, “I just need to explain our situation a little more. He was at my house for New Year’s Eve,” and admitted the relationship was sexual.
When confronted, Temple admitted spending New Year’s Eve at his girlfriend’s apartment after telling Belinda he was going hunting. Nevertheless, he insisted Heather meant nothing to him, that it was just a “physical” thing and he “enjoyed the attention.”
Heather Scott, however, informed Shipley that just three days prior to Belinda’s murder, “David said something like ‘I think you know I have totally fallen in love with you.’”
Temple countered by telling investigators, “I didn’t want to be with Heather. Heather knows that.”
According to Shipley, when she reminded Heather that when a husband is in love with another woman, “that could be a motive for someone to kill his wife,” the slender blonde actually smiled and asked, “You mean you think he killed his wife for me?” The woman was actually flattered Temple might have loved her enough to murder his wife and unborn child, Shipley recalled.
In January 2001, near the two-year anniversary of Belinda Temple’s murder, David Temple and Heather Scott became officially engaged. Toward the end of May, Temple purchased a three-bedroom, one-story home in Richmond, Texas, a small city approximately 20 miles south of Katy, and on June 9, 2001, he and Heather were married.
Was David Temple Planning to Kill His Wife? In the fall of 1998 prior to Belinda Temple’s murder, Katy High School had a winning football season and the Tigers were on their way to the playoffs. Then a teacher noticed one of the students was ineligible to play because of failing grades and reported the violation. David Temple immediately commenced spreading the rumor that Belinda was the teacher who “ratted out” the student – she wasn’t. Many consider Katy football-crazy and there are those who believe Temple already intended to kill his wife and spread the false tale so that when he murdered Belinda, people would think someone had killed her for ruining the team’s chances of winning the championship.
A Mother’s Doubts. When she arrived at the scene of her daughter-in-law’s murder, Maureen Temple, David’s mother, exclaimed, “I just could not have raised a son who killed his wife,” an indication she suspected he had done just that. The following afternoon, Kay Stuart, wife of Bobby Stuart, head football coach at Alief Hastings High School where David was employed, went to the home of Ken and Maureen Temple to pay her respects and wait for her husband to arrive. She found Mrs. Temple very emotional, as was to be expected, and as they sat and talked, the older woman admitted when the call came, she initially thought Belinda had gone into labor. “She thought it would be a happy call and she’d be going to meet her first granddaughter,” Mrs. Stuart remembered. Then Maureen told her the family had hired an attorney for David at a cost she estimated at $30,000. Following an awkward pause, Mrs. Temple looked at her and in a pained voice remarked, “Kay, surely I didn’t raise a murderer.” Later, Kay Stuart told people she actually shivered because Mrs. Temple’s comment made her blood run cold. Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 25, 2019; "The Guessing Game," 48 Hours, February 20, 2010; Shattered: The True Story of a Mother’s Love, a Husband’s Betrayal and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder by Kathryn Casey; David Mark Temple v. State of Texas, WR-78, 542-02 (Tex. App. 2015); and State of Texas v. David Mark Temple, Cause No. 1008763, Harris County District Court, Houston, Texas.
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Post by jason on Jul 25, 2019 19:03:01 GMT -5
This is the best thing you've written on this case. I hope the jurors are able to see through the lies and send this asshole back to prison where he belongs.
I think he began planning to unload his wife as soon as he met Heather Scott and started regretting he was married.
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Post by kitty on Jul 25, 2019 20:22:52 GMT -5
She was the mother of his son and pregnant with another child and it sounds like he hated her. I'm sure no one would kill over something like that, no matter how football-crazy they were, but someone could have flattened her tires or done something else that would have caused her a lot of trouble. He was a real SOB.
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