Defense attorney happy about Clara Harris' parole

Harris, 60, is scheduled to be paroled from the Crain Unit in Gatesville after 8 a.m. May 11, said Robert Hurst, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

She will have served 15 years of a 20-year sentence.

A parole panel in November approved Harris’ release pending successful completion of certain prison programs and activities, officials said.

On Feb. 14, 2003 — the 11th anniversary of her marriage to David Harris — Clara Harris was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in a state penitentiary. She was eligible for parole after serving 10 years.

Harris was convicted of purposely running over her husband, David Harris, after confronting him and a lover in the lobby of the Nassau Bay Hilton. David Harris’ daughter, 17 at the time, was a passenger in Mercedes when it ran over him.

Parole boards twice denied her for parole before granting it in November, records show.

“She has a great support system,” Parnham said. “The same people who testified for her during trial have stood by her throughout and are sure to be there with open arms when Clara is released. It makes me very happy. I’m happy for her and her kids and I hope things go well for her back in the community.”

Harris’ trial was of a media sensation, Parnham said.

“You have a professional woman who was well thought of in the community and an excellent dentist,” Parnham said. “On the other side of the coin, you have the issue of a cheating husband and the fact that she caught them together.”

By all accounts, David and Clara Harris were both successful dentists.

The couple owned a $500,000 home in Friendswood’s Polly Ranch Estates, six dental practices with yearly revenue of about $650,000, vacation homes in Texas and Colorado and had what appeared to be a solid, loving marriage. At the time of David Harris’ death, they had twin 4-year-old boys.

But their marriage unraveled in July 2002, when Clara Harris learned of her husband’s affair with a woman who worked as a receptionist at his Clear Lake area dental office.

Clara Harris confronted her husband. He promised to end it; she vowed to be a better wife, she testified.

But David Harris didn’t keep his promise. On July 24, 2002, Clara Harris confronted her husband and the other woman at the Nassau Bay Hilton. She found them holding hands. A nasty fight ensued. David Harris told his wife the marriage was over, and she ran him down and killed him in the hotel parking lot with a silver S-class Mercedes-Benz.

Harris, a former Colombian beauty queen, faced up to life in prison but drew a lesser penalty because jurors found she was driven by “sudden passion” to run down her orthodontist husband while his teenage daughter sat horrified in the passenger seat.

Harris later sued Parnham, asserting that he overcharged her and didn’t do enough during her murder trial, but jurors in 2008 found he didn’t breach his contract.