|
Post by JoannaL on Jul 26, 2019 1:20:53 GMT -5
There's something terribly wrong with a woman who would be flattered that a man killed his wife to be with her, and why was she smiling during an interview about a pregnant woman's murder?
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 30, 2019 14:24:46 GMT -5
Fourth Week of David Temple Retrial
The retrial of David Temple for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1999 resumed Monday, July 29.
Prosecutors attempted to establish that several shell casings examined following the murder did not match those found during the autopsy of Belinda Temple. Some of the shells in question were turned over to authorities by Riley Joe Sanders III, an alternate defense suspect, and an expert in firearms ammunition identification said a spent shell casing found in a shotgun used by Sanders could technically match the one used to kill Mrs. Temple.
Belinda Temple was found face-down in her walk-in closet Monday, January 11, 1999, with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. David Temple told police he came home and found his wife dead and believed she was killed during a robbery in which nothing was taken.
Corey Reed, former friend of Joe Sanders, told jurors about the burglary he and two classmates committed at the home of Howard Robert Gullet, his mother’s boyfriend. He said Sanders wasn’t involved in that burglary and didn’t know anything about it beforehand.
Last week, Sanders told jurors he wasn’t involved in Belinda Temple’s murder, either, and that he smoked weed, then fell asleep on the sofa the afternoon she was killed.
Prosecutors are nearing the end of their presentation.
Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 29, 2019, and State of Texas v. David Mark Temple, Cause No. 1008763, Harris County District Court, Houston, Texas
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 30, 2019 19:05:09 GMT -5
David Temple and Stanley Schneider State Rests in David Temple Retrial The retrial of David Temple continued today (July 30) with the testimony of two important prosecution witnesses.
Tom Bevel, a crime scene analyst and reconstructionist with questionable credentials, told jurors he believed the entire crime scene was staged and that Belinda Temple’s body had been moved after she was fatally shot. “She was on one knee, crouched down in the closet. Her head was about one to two feet from the floor,” Bevel said. He also testified that blood spatter in the closet indicated that when the shotgun was fired, it was horizontal to the floor. In response to Bevel’s testimony, defense attorney Stanley Schneider explained his client did, indeed, move his wife’s body, explaining to the jury that “the 911 operator asked David Temple to perform CPR and check for a pulse.” The lawyer added that Temple said in his statement to investigators he straightened his wife’s legs to check for vitals, and reminded the jury the defendant is 6-feet 4-inches-tall. “Wouldn’t it be difficult for someone his size to shoot someone in the head who was crouched down and had her head so low to the ground?” Schneider asked.
Also called to the stand was Brenda Lucas, Belinda’s twin sister, who spoke about her dead sister in a quiet, melancholic tone. She told the jury she witnessed David Temple’s verbal abuse of his wife days before her murder. She recounted specific incidents, saying their relationship “was a lot more tense” than what she had observed in the past. “I had never seen it like this before,” she added.
Specifically, she recalled that on the night of December 27, 1998, the first night of her visit, she overheard Belinda and David talking and Belinda said, “You aren’t happy about having this baby girl,” to which Temple replied, “If you say that again ...,” pausing when he noticed Brenda had heard their exchange. She described Temple’s tone of voice as “hateful and disrespectful.”
She also told jurors how Temple criticized his heavily-pregnant wife. “David was making fun of how big she was getting and how much weight she had put on,” she recalled. Ms. Lucas found this particularly “hateful,” adding, “I told him to shut up.”
On another day during her after-Christmas visit, Ms. Lucas said her brother-in-law disappeared, ostensibly to spend time with other football coaches, and this upset her sister. Then on January 30 – Brenda and Belinda’s birthday – the twins spent the morning running errands and at dinner, David announced he was leaving the following morning to go hunting.
The sisters spoke by phone after Brenda left Katy and Ms. Lucas said she called Belinda at 4:38 p.m. on Monday, January 11, after their grandfather suffered a fall that required hospitalization. Belinda didn’t answer and Brenda later found out her twin sister was dead.
Brenda then sadly recounted the days after her sister’s death. The night of the funeral, she overheard David telling someone “he hadn’t been hunting for over a year.” Then sometime after the funeral, he called her aside and admitted “he went to a friend’s house and got real drunk and was with a girl,” she told the jury. “He said he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Belinda,” she continued, and her brother-in-law claimed he “hadn’t seen the girl since.”
Temple had, in fact, lied about going hunting on New Year’s Eve. Instead, he spent two nights with Heather Scott, the teacher with whom he was having an affair. He and Heather Scott married June 9, 2001.
Brenda Lucas was the prosecution’s final witness. The state has now rested its case.Sources: Andy Cerota, KPRC, July 30, 2019, and Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 30, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by pat on Jul 30, 2019 19:25:39 GMT -5
A man who talks to his pregnant wife like that and goes off and leaves her on New Year's Eve to be with another woman doesn't want her or the baby. I just hope the jury realizes that.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 1, 2019 20:27:39 GMT -5
Defense Rests in David Temple Retrial
The defense rested Thursday (August 1) in the retrial of David Temple, the former high school football coach charged with the 1999 murder of his pregnant wife.
Jurors watched a video of Ken Temple’s deposition from November 2017. In the deposition, the elder Temple claimed his son couldn’t have killed his wife because he had taken his son shopping and to a nearby park.
On Wednesday, July 31, the taped deposition of Jim Galbraith, a civil lawyer for Mike and Peggy Ruggiero, former neighbors of David and Belinda Temple, was played for the jury. Galbarith claimed he accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Ruggiero to a Harris County Sheriff’s substation on January 14, 1999, three days after Belinda Temple was killed by a shotgun blast to the head. He had advised his clients to write down everything they believed relevant to the murder, but the detective took statements himself. According to Galbraith, the detective was often inaccurate and selective while taking such statements.
Before court adjourned for the day, Judge Kelli Johnson announced the attorneys would present closing statements Monday, after which the jury would begin deliberations.
Sources: Phil Archer, KPRC, August 1, 2019, and Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, July 31, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 5, 2019 22:05:15 GMT -5
Jury Begins Deliberations in David Temple RetrialThe retrial of David Temple for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1999 resumed this morning (August 5) with prosecutor Lisa Tanner doing a speed-walk from one corner to the other of the courtroom to demonstrate how Temple was able to stage a break-in to cover up his loathsome deed. Tanner’s demonstration sought to tie a bow on the prosecution’s timeline of what transpired on January 11, 1999, the day Belinda Temple was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in the walk-in closet of her Katy home.
Before members of the jury began deliberations, Tanner explained how Temple shot his wife, washed his hands and changed his clothes before grabbing his sick 3-year-old son and heading to a store, where he knew there was a video camera, to establish an alibi. He then drove to a location outside town near the home of his parents and got rid of the gun and other incriminating evidence. “The circumstances are damning,” the prosecutor declared. “Only one person could do this.”
Defense attorneys countered with a different version of events, claiming the former football coach did not have the time or means to kill his wife. Belinda and David were home together for no more than a few minutes, the defense alleged, before Temple went shopping, taking his child with him. The lawyers alternately attempted to convince jurors that another individual – namely, Riley Joe Sanders Jr., a teenage neighbor – could have committed the crime. “The possibility of guilt is not enough,” Romy Kaplan told the jury panel. “There are many, many reasonable doubts in this case.”
After four hours of closing arguments, the jury of seven men and five women commenced deliberations. The 12, along with four alternates, will spend the night in a hotel.
The trial consisted of 18 days of witness testimony, marked by stories concerning the tense relationship between Belinda and David Temple, and how Temple and Joe Sanders were investigated. The prosecution insisted Temple, now 51, was the sole person with a motive and opportunity to fatally shoot his wife. From the outside, the couple’s marriage seemed perfect, prosecutors said. But Belinda’s sister and close friends knew how Temple made fun of his wife for gaining weight during her pregnancy and that Belinda had come to believe her husband didn’t want the baby girl she was carrying.
Belinda also suspected David was having an affair, which proved to be true. He was involved with Heather Scott, a co-worker, and professed his love for the other woman just three days prior to his wife’s death.
Prosecutors argued that Belinda Temple was in the way and Scott had threatened to end the relationship because Temple was married. The defense, however, contended that having an affair doesn’t make one a murderer and it was two years after Belinda Temple’s death before the defendant and Heather Scott married. “This betrayal does not prove he killed her,” Stanley Schneider emphasized. “It proves he’s a lousy husband.”
The real suspect, Schneider continued, was 16-year-old Riley Joe Sanders. The teenager was mad at Belinda, his neighbor and teacher, for tattling to his parents about how much school he was missing. Sanders was also friends with teens who had committed a burglary over the New Year’s holiday, laying the foundation that he [Sanders] knew people who could help him break into the Temple house. In Schneider’s scenario, Sanders cut class on January 11 and likely went to a friend’s house, where he was hiding his father’s 12-gauge shotgun. Following the burglary and shooting, the teen and his friends escaped over the back fence and returned the gun to the friend’s house, where it remained until law enforcement officers came knocking at the door. Investigators, the defense attorney continued, never located the murder weapon and an expert witness indicated a spent shotgun shell found in the gun belonging to the father of Joe Sanders could have produced a shot matching what was found at the scene.
Earlier in the trial, Joe Sanders swore to the jury he had no involvement in the burglary or shooting and on the afternoon in question, he smoked weed with friends, after which they drove around trying to score additional marijuana, before he arrived at home and fell asleep on the sofa.
The defense also claimed no one could prove David Temple owned a shotgun. However, two individuals testified Temple was a hunter and they had seen shotgun shells in the Temple home. “I think the question is, why isn’t there a shotgun in your closet?” Bill Turner of the Attorney General’s Office quipped.
Prosecutors reiterated to jurors how investigators were bothered by the scene at the Temple home: (1) The super-aggressive dog in the backyard wouldn’t have allowed anyone to enter the house through the back door, and (2) The manner in which the glass in the door was broken and the fact nothing was taken pointed to a staged event.
Temple’s defense lawyers argued that investigators had tunnel vision in the case and didn’t properly investigate Joe Sanders as a suspect. Two doctors also determined 3-year-old Evan Temple did not witness the murder or see any violence, an indication Temple and his son weren’t home when Belinda Temple was killed.
David Temple was indicted for the murder of his wife in 2004 and found guilty by a Harris County jury in 2007. He was released from state custody in 2016, when an appeals court determined that because of prosecutorial misconduct, he had not received a fair trial.
A new legal team represented Temple in the retrial and the Attorney General’s Office served as special prosecutors.
Deliberations will resume Tuesday (August 6) at 9 a.m.Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, August 5, 2019, and State of Texas v. David Mark Temple, Cause No. 1008763, Harris County District Court, Houston, Texas.
|
|
|
Post by catherine on Aug 6, 2019 6:20:44 GMT -5
I wonder if the defense explained how the Sanders kid, or anyone else, could have gotten past that damned vicious dog in the backyard. There are no reasonable doubts in the case. That son-of-a-bitch is as guilty as they come and I can't believe the jury will take more than a couple of hours to find him guilty.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 6, 2019 16:16:40 GMT -5
Jury Finds David Temple Guilty – Again
Former Alief Hastings football coach David Temple has again been found guilty of shooting and killing his heavily-pregnant wife, Belinda Temple, in 1999. The jury – consisting of eight men and four women – deliberated a little more than eight hours before reaching a verdict.
This is the second time Temple has been found guilty by a jury of his peers. He was tried and found guilty on the same issues in 2007, but the verdict was overturned on appeal because of prosecutorial misconduct. Temple’s lawyers claimed Kelly Siegler, who prosecuted Temple in 2007, withheld information concerning Riley Joe Sanders Jr., the teenager who lived next door to the Temple home. In the current trial, the previously-withheld information was presented to the jury, but in the end, it made no difference.
Temple has already served nine years in prison and according to some legal experts, his sentence could be anything from additional prison time to probation.
Source: KTRK, August 6, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by madeline on Aug 7, 2019 15:16:03 GMT -5
I can't believe the judge would sentence that murderous goon to time served. This wasn't just a man who got mad at his wife and killed her while they were fighting, he took a shotgun and blew her head off when she was 8 months pregnant. It takes a special kind of evil to do something like that.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 7, 2019 18:45:35 GMT -5
David Temple Could Face Life in Prison
A second jury has found David Temple, 51, guilty of the 1999 murder of his pregnant wife. He has been free on bond since December 2016 after an appellate court overturned his 2007 conviction based on prosecutorial misconduct.
Following the reading of the verdict, prosecutors argued for life in prison, while Stanley Schneider, one of Temple’s defense attorneys, urged jurors to “decide what you think is right.” In addressing the jury, Schneider said, “I believe in all my heart and soul that David is not guilty of killing his wife. It’s hard for me to sit here and talk to you about punishment.” Because Temple has already served nine years, the defense is hoping for time served, which most court observers say is unlikely.
Brian Lucas, brother of Belinda Temple, spoke to reporters following the verdict, saying, “The evidence was still there. It never changed. David was guilty from day one. The phone call I got that night, 10 minutes to 9 on Monday night, January 11, I said he was guilty then. Twenty and a half years later, David Temple is still guilty – think about that. A little over two decades I’ve fought, behind the scenes to get justice for Belinda.”
During the trial, the defense alleged Mrs. Temple was killed during a break-in and attempted to place the blame on Joe Sanders, the teenager who lived next door. It was former assistant district attorney Kelly Siegel’s failure to release files concerning the investigation of Sanders that resulted in the overturn of David Temple’s first conviction. Temple’s appellate lawyers alleged the withholding of such documentation resulted in Temple’s conviction. Of interest, the subject documents and information gleaned therefrom were presented by the defense during the second trial, but did not alter the verdict.
“There was only one person on this earth who had the motive, the means and the opportunity to cause her death,” prosecutor Lisa Tanner told the jury, citing Temple’s affair with Heather Scott, a fellow teacher. It was Tanner’s contention Temple killed his wife to be with his mistress and the reason he didn’t simply divorce Belinda was because he didn’t want to pay child support for a second child. Shortly before her death, Belinda Temple accused her husband of not wanting the baby girl she was carrying.
Heather Scott Temple testified at both trials, however, in an unexpected twist, on the fourth day of her husband’s retrial, she filed for divorce. Following the verdict, Heather Temple’s attorney released a statement, saying, in part, “Please continue to respect the privacy of my client, Heather Temple, and her family, as this is a difficult time. Heather’s only concern right now is for her stepson Evan, and she has declined to provide any interviews currently and in the future.”
Sources: Jeff Truesdell, People, August 7, 2019; Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, August 7, 2019; KPRC, August 7, 2019; and KHOU, August 7, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 9, 2019 20:04:53 GMT -5
Mistrial Declared in Sentencing Phase of David Temple RetrialJudge Kelli Johnson (above) declared a mistrial in the sentencing phase of David Temple’s retrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision. Even after 19 hours of deliberation over a three-day period, the panel remained hopelessly deadlocked and on Friday (August 9) morning, the foreman informed the judge a consensus was impossible because two jurors refused to continue deliberating. “Any other jury” could come to an agreement, the foreman declared.
“Judge, severe violence has already been done to most of our conscience to even get this far,” Johnson read in a note penned by the jury foreman. “We believe it is a total fluke, a 1 in 1,000 chance this group of jurors was assembled.” Nevertheless, Temple’s guilty verdict in the horrendous murder of his pregnant wife in 1999 still stands and the sentencing guidelines are the same as they were in 2007 when he was initially convicted. The punishment he faces could range from probation to five years to life in prison. For now, he will remain in custody, though there will be a bail hearing within 10 days.
“Everyone’s very disappointed,” defense attorney Stanley Schneider announced as he stood with members of the Temple family, which included Evan, the son of David and Belinda. “They’re standing with me and David 100 percent and we have a long way to go see if we can do this right the second time,” he added.
Prosecutors with the Texas Attorney General’s Office had argued for a life sentence, emphasizing that Temple had killed not only his wife, who was within weeks of giving birth, but also his unborn daughter, Erin Ashley Temple. “We wanted a verdict, we wanted finality for the family,” prosecutor Lisa Tanner announced. “But I would rather have a conscious, legitimate verdict than one that violated their [the jury’s] conscience. I’m mostly still very, very happy that they found him guilty again for a second time.”
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys emphasized Temple’s innocence and while arguing for a lower sentence, Schneider continuously mentioned that his client had already served almost 10 years in prison, a fact that should have been kept from the jury. Tanner believes this could have influenced some of the jurors, but declined to discuss specifics.
According to Schneider, the jury was deliberating between 10 years to life and “everywhere in between,” but wouldn’t specify whether the 10 jurors who were willing to continue discussing the sentence were in agreement.
Now a new panel of jurors will be impaneled to make a decision on sentencing. It remains to be seen whether the matter will be moved to another county in order to find a less-tainted jury pool. The new jury probably won’t be convened until the spring of 2020.
“Both sides will be able to put on as much or as little evidence as they want to give that new jury a flavor, a sense, of what punishment is appropriate,” said KPRC legal analyst Brian Wice. “That’s a difficult task because you can’t expect 12 folks who may not know anything about the case except what aired on Channel 2 to come in and assess a punishment that’s reasonable, fair and just with a thumbnail sketch of the evidence. That’s why any punishment hearing is likely going to be David Temple: round three.”Sources: Samantha Ketterer, The Houston Chronicle, August 9, 2019, and Aaron Barker, KPRC, August 9, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by madeline on Aug 9, 2019 23:32:48 GMT -5
He's been found guilty. If bail is set, the ugly hulk is likely to leave the country. I hope the judge takes that into consideration and keeps him in jail, where he belongs.
|
|
|
Post by catherine on Nov 3, 2019 19:06:19 GMT -5
This case was on 20/20 Friday night. There was a video clip from that ugly oaf's first trial, where he was pretending to be crying, but then there was a closeup of his face and he wasn't shedding a tear. Everything about that son-of-a-bitch is fake. He murdered his pregnant wife in cold blood and he still hasn't been sentenced. I'm afraid that after the jury recommends a sentence next spring, he might get nothing more than time-served and walk free.
|
|
|
Post by pat on Nov 3, 2019 19:43:42 GMT -5
This case was on 20/20 Friday night. There was a video clip from that ugly oaf's first trial, where he was pretending to be crying, but then there was a closeup of his face and he was shedding a tear. Everything about that son-of-a-bitch is fake. He murdered his pregnant wife in cold blood and he still hasn't been sentenced. I'm afraid that after the jury recommends a sentence next spring, he might get nothing more than time-served and walk free. I noticed that, too. I started to watch "Dateline," but when I checked the other channel, I saw that it was about the Temple murder and watched that instead.
|
|