A former Texas high school football coach is behind bars after being found guilty for a second time of themurder 20 years ago of his pregnant wife, whose death preceded his marrying a fellow teacher with whom he was having an affair.
David Temple was found guilty in 2007 of shooting Belinda Temple in the couple’s home and staging it to look like a burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison.
But after an appeal in which his attorneys successfully argued that prosecutorial misconduct delayed or withheld evidence in his favor, Temple was set free in 2016 after nine years — only to be brought to trial again in June on the same charge.
On Tuesday a jury in Harris County found him guilty once again, according to multiple media reports.
David Temple, at left, with attorney Romy Kaplan.Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP
Within an hour Belinda was dead — shot execution-style in her master bedroom closet in the couple’s Katy home. Although a cordless phone was found at her side, the 30-year-old didn’t have time to summon help for herself and her unborn daughter.
David’s defense alleged a break-in and claimed at both trials that he was innocent, reports theHouston Chronicle.
During David’s retrial, both the prosecution and defenseacknowledged he had been sleeping with another woman— Heather Scott, a fellow teacher at the school where David coached, Alief Hastings High School, reportsKHOU. He married her two years later, in 2001.
“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 jurors, arguing that David wanted to kill Belinda in order to be with his mistress.
David Temple in 2004.Harris County Sheriff’s office
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Belinda’s brother Brian Lucas told the media after the second verdict: “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.”
His murder trial’s sentencing phase is now underway, with David once more facing the possibility of life in prison.
source: people.com
