David Temple, (pictured), was found guilty for the second time of the 1999 murder of his wife Belinda, who eight months’ pregnant
A former high school football coach was found guilty for a second time of the 1999 murder of his pregnant wife in Texas as he was having an affair with a coworker.
David Temple, 51, was accused of shooting his wife, Belinda, who was eight months’ pregnant when she was killed in 1999.
Temple, who coached at Alief Hastings High School, was found guilty of her murder in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.
However nine years later the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction, claiming that prosecutors hid or delayed turning over hundreds of pages of evidence to Temple’s defense team, ABC13 reported.
He served almost 10 years in prison before the first verdict was reversed, and his retrial got underway in June 2019.
David Temple’s re-trial got underway in June 2019. During closing arguments, State prosecutor Lisa Tanner was reported by the Houston Chronicle as saying: ‘The circumstances are damning. Only one person could do this.’
Temple’s retrial concluded on Tuesday after three weeks of witness testimony and about eight hours of jury deliberation.
Prosecutors argued that David Temple killed his wife, then changed his clothes and left their Texas home to go to the store. They alleged he returned later and staged a burglary scene. The couple are pictured above with their son
He told authorities that he came home from a trip to the park and store with the couple’s 3-year-old son and found his wife dead amid an apparent burglary. She was found in the house with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Prosecutors argued that Temple, who was having an affair with a coworker named Heather Scott, killed Belinda with a close-contact shotgun wound shortly after she arrived home from getting soup for their son who was sick, ABC 13 reported.
He later changed his clothing, washed his hands and went out to the store. He returned home and staged a burglary, the prosecution said.
The defense team argued that that their client had no time to murder his wife due to a ‘narrow window’ of opportunity that he had to murder his wife.
They countered that the killing happened while Temple was at the store by a 16-year-old neighbor. They said the teenager had a grievance with Belinda Temple, who was his teacher at Katy High School.
It was reported that Temple was having an affair when his wife was killed and later went on to marry his mistress, Heather Scott, who he later went on to marry.
David Temple is seen here with his mistress, Heather Scott, who he married two years after the death of his first wife. She filed for divorce as his second trial for murder got underway in June
She remained married to David after he was found guilty of murder and spent a decade behind bars. She filed for divorce on July 8, when Temple’s retrial was beginning.
Last month, jurors saw emails from 1999 that showed Heather Temple communicating with David Temple and another teacher at the school, ABC 13 reported.
‘(They were) some bad choices,’ said Heather from the stand. ‘Emailing seemed fun at the time, I know it’s wrong.’
Heather and lawyers representing both parties went through the details of when the relationship with Temple began. They also dealt with whether she was fully cooperative with officials at the time of Belinda’s death.
Belinda’s family and friends say she suspected her husband was having an affair and that he may not have wanted their second child
Defense had argued that David Temple wasn’t capable of murder just because he had an affair
‘It has been a long process but she’s holding her head up, she’s testifying now, she’s doing good today,’ said Kathy Adibe, Heather’s newly hired divorce attorney told ABC 13 in July.
Prosecutors had claimed that the couple’s marriage seemed perfect idyllic.
However Belinda’s sister and friends claimed that David Temple had mocked his wife for gaining weight during her pregnancy, and she was concerned that her husband didn’t want a second child, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The trial head that Belinda suspected her husband was an affair and he reportedly professed his love for her just three days prior to Belinda’s death.
The trial heard that Scott had tried to end the relationship as he was married.
She married him two years after his first wife’s death. Defense had argued that he wasn’t capable of murder just because he had an affair.
‘This betrayal does not prove he killed her,’ attorney Stanley Schneider said. ‘It proves he’s a lousy husband.’
He again faces a range of punishment from probation to up to life in prison.