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American Morning

Driven to Kill?

Aired February 11, 2003 - 08:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Closing arguments are expected to begin at the trial of Clara Harris. The Houston dentist is accused of murdering her husband, David Harris, by running over him repeatedly, depending on whose testimony you're going to buy, with her Mercedes last July. Before resting its case yesterday, the defense called Clara Harris' in-laws who surprisingly testified on her behalf.
Gail Delaughter, a reporter for KTRH Radio, has been covering the Harris trial. She joins us again this morning from Houston.

Welcome back. Glad to have you back -- Gail.

GAIL DELAUGHTER, REPORTER, KTRH RADIO: Hi, good morning -- Paula.

ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about the in-law's testimony. How do you think the jury might react to that ultimately?

DELAUGHTER: Well they probably found it pretty surprising. It wasn't that much of a surprise to us because Gerald Harris, Clara Harris' father-in-law, gave a statement on the courthouse steps a couple of weeks ago, read a brief statement, didn't take any questions, but he said we support Clara. We love her like a daughter and we want nothing more than for her to be at home with her children and we're going to stand by her throughout this. They arrive at the courthouse hand in hand. They spend time together on the weekends. They go to church together. The grandparents visit with their grandkids and they're standing by her all the way through this thing.

ZAHN: There are some people who believe that the in-laws have taken this position to protect their right to see their grandchildren by Clara Harris. Is there any truth to that?

DELAUGHTER: Well that's something that prosecutor Mia Magness tried to get in to on her cross-examination saying well Clara Harris, she's now the sole custodian of their 4-year-old boys, what would happen if you had an adversarial relationship with her, would she still let you see the kids? She didn't get very far with that but that's something that she tried to do during the cross-examination.

ZAHN: Now Clara Harris didn't testify again yesterday, which she was expected to do. Help us understand what her lawyer wanted her to do, he wanted the jury to hear something very specific that she had told police, right?

DELAUGHTER: Yes, he wanted to bring in her entire statement to police in its entirety to give the jury an idea of her state of mind that night after she was arrested, after the shock and horror of everything that happened. But the judge wanted to play just some specific parts of that statement and he wasn't happy with that. He wanted the jury to hear the whole thing.

ZAHN: Let's talk about what the jury did hear from police evidence investigators about any evidence showing how many times she ran over her husband. One defense witness said once or twice, right, and the other one said once. Why is that so important?

DELAUGHTER: The defense's expert said that there was an initial impact and then he was rolled over one time after that. But the prosecution brought in an investigator from the Houston Police Department as a consultant, he wasn't the person who investigated the night it happened, he was brought in after the fact to examine the situation. And he said according to him it looks like David Harris was rolled over at least twice, two times or more. And what the prosecution plans to show with that evidence is that there was intent to kill her husband. The defense says it was an accident, it only happened one time, but the prosecution says she rolled over him repeatedly and that shows that she intended to kill him.

ZAHN: So how do you cut through that as a jury member?

DELAUGHTER: It's going to be difficult. It's hard to say how long they're going to be out. It's hard to say where they're going to go with this. We have no idea how long deliberations are going to last, but I can imagine it's going to be really, really tough. You're going to have people on one side of the spectrum, people on the other side of the spectrum and they're going to have to come to some sort of happy median with this.

ZAHN: Of course you would also think that the lasting impression the jurors would be left with was Clara Harris' testimony from Friday, which was pretty powerful, wasn't it?

DELAUGHTER: Well they had the chance to think about that over the weekend. I don't know how that's -- how that's going to play in their minds, but that was the image that they left with, this very poised, very calm woman talking about how she loved her husband, loved her family, wanted nothing more than to keep her family together. So that's what they went home Friday in their minds and had a couple of days to think about that.

ZAHN: Well we will be relying on you in the days to come to help us better understand what happens in the courtroom. Gail Delaughter, as always, good to see you.

DELAUGHTER: Thanks -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks for your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 11, 2003 - 08:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Closing arguments are expected to begin at the trial of Clara Harris. The Houston dentist is accused of murdering her husband, David Harris, by running over him repeatedly, depending on whose testimony you're going to buy, with her Mercedes last July. Before resting its case yesterday, the defense called Clara Harris' in-laws who surprisingly testified on her behalf.
Gail Delaughter, a reporter for KTRH Radio, has been covering the Harris trial. She joins us again this morning from Houston.

Welcome back. Glad to have you back -- Gail.

GAIL DELAUGHTER, REPORTER, KTRH RADIO: Hi, good morning -- Paula.

ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about the in-law's testimony. How do you think the jury might react to that ultimately?

DELAUGHTER: Well they probably found it pretty surprising. It wasn't that much of a surprise to us because Gerald Harris, Clara Harris' father-in-law, gave a statement on the courthouse steps a couple of weeks ago, read a brief statement, didn't take any questions, but he said we support Clara. We love her like a daughter and we want nothing more than for her to be at home with her children and we're going to stand by her throughout this. They arrive at the courthouse hand in hand. They spend time together on the weekends. They go to church together. The grandparents visit with their grandkids and they're standing by her all the way through this thing.

ZAHN: There are some people who believe that the in-laws have taken this position to protect their right to see their grandchildren by Clara Harris. Is there any truth to that?

DELAUGHTER: Well that's something that prosecutor Mia Magness tried to get in to on her cross-examination saying well Clara Harris, she's now the sole custodian of their 4-year-old boys, what would happen if you had an adversarial relationship with her, would she still let you see the kids? She didn't get very far with that but that's something that she tried to do during the cross-examination.

ZAHN: Now Clara Harris didn't testify again yesterday, which she was expected to do. Help us understand what her lawyer wanted her to do, he wanted the jury to hear something very specific that she had told police, right?

DELAUGHTER: Yes, he wanted to bring in her entire statement to police in its entirety to give the jury an idea of her state of mind that night after she was arrested, after the shock and horror of everything that happened. But the judge wanted to play just some specific parts of that statement and he wasn't happy with that. He wanted the jury to hear the whole thing.

ZAHN: Let's talk about what the jury did hear from police evidence investigators about any evidence showing how many times she ran over her husband. One defense witness said once or twice, right, and the other one said once. Why is that so important?

DELAUGHTER: The defense's expert said that there was an initial impact and then he was rolled over one time after that. But the prosecution brought in an investigator from the Houston Police Department as a consultant, he wasn't the person who investigated the night it happened, he was brought in after the fact to examine the situation. And he said according to him it looks like David Harris was rolled over at least twice, two times or more. And what the prosecution plans to show with that evidence is that there was intent to kill her husband. The defense says it was an accident, it only happened one time, but the prosecution says she rolled over him repeatedly and that shows that she intended to kill him.

ZAHN: So how do you cut through that as a jury member?

DELAUGHTER: It's going to be difficult. It's hard to say how long they're going to be out. It's hard to say where they're going to go with this. We have no idea how long deliberations are going to last, but I can imagine it's going to be really, really tough. You're going to have people on one side of the spectrum, people on the other side of the spectrum and they're going to have to come to some sort of happy median with this.

ZAHN: Of course you would also think that the lasting impression the jurors would be left with was Clara Harris' testimony from Friday, which was pretty powerful, wasn't it?

DELAUGHTER: Well they had the chance to think about that over the weekend. I don't know how that's -- how that's going to play in their minds, but that was the image that they left with, this very poised, very calm woman talking about how she loved her husband, loved her family, wanted nothing more than to keep her family together. So that's what they went home Friday in their minds and had a couple of days to think about that.

ZAHN: Well we will be relying on you in the days to come to help us better understand what happens in the courtroom. Gail Delaughter, as always, good to see you.

DELAUGHTER: Thanks -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks for your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com