Clara Harris completes parole nearly 21 years after repeatedly running over husband with car

The act was captured on camera in the parking lot of a Nassau Bay hotel on July 24, 2002.
Friday, February 10, 2023
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Clara Harris is no longer under the watch of the Texas criminal justice system, for now.

Parole for the woman behind one of the Houston area's highest-profile murders expired on Friday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

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The former Friendswood dentist was convicted in 2003 for hitting and killing her husband, David Harris, with her car the year before in the parking lot of a Nassau Bay hotel. The whole act was captured on camera by a private investigator whom Clara Harris hired to follow her husband.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released on parole in 2018 after serving 15 years.

SEE MORE: Scorned lovers and deadly consequences: 6 violent love triangles that shocked Houston

Her case is best known for grabbing international headlines due to the wild twists and turns that came out during the trial, including the unleashed brutality described when David died.



Among them was the reasoning that could be best described as a crime of passion. Clara found her husband, who was a then-44-year-old orthodontist, with an alleged mistress named Gail Bridges.

The first impact sent David Harris flying 25 feet. Then, prosecutors said Clara Harris crossed two grassy medians and ran over her husband three more times before she put the car in reverse and backed over his body, leaving the car parked on top of him.
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David Harris' 16-year-old daughter - Clara Harris' stepdaughter - was in the passenger seat of the car at the time.

Prior to the attack, a confrontation between Bridges and Clara Harris occurred in the hotel lobby, and witnesses said Clara Harris tore Bridges' shirt.

PHOTOS: The Clara Harris murder case


David Harris had been walking Bridges to her car at the time of the attack. He later died of his injuries.



The location of the killing was also where Clara and David married on Valentine's Day in 1992.
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ABC News chronicled the trial, with Clara Harris admitting that the moment she confronted her husband and later ran him over was the moment she knew everything ended.

"I pretty much consider my life is over," Clara Harris told Diane Sawyer before her conviction.

Clara Harris just turned 65 on Feb. 3.

ABC News contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: RELATED: Attorney: Clara Harris never wanted her husband to die
Steve Campion reports on Clara Harris' awaited release from prison
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