Did She Know Mercedes Was Loaded?

No one disputes the fact that dentist Clara Harris ran over her orthodontist husband, David Harris, with her silver Mercedes.

Was it an accident, as she claims, or did Harris do it deliberately after learning that he was having an extramarital affair? A Houston jury will decide.

Harris' murder trial got under way Tuesday with jury selection. She faces life in prison if convicted.

David Harris was run over and killed last summer in the parking lot of the Houston hotel where he was meeting with his lover.

Evidence in the case includes a videotape taken in the hotel parking lot on the night of July 24 by a private investigator Clara Harris had hired to follow her 44-year-old husband.

Testimony also will come from Lindsey Harris, Clara Harris' 17-year-old stepdaughter, who was a passenger in her 2001 Mercedes Benz sedan when her father was struck and killed.

Defense attorney George Parnham said Clara Harris learned her husband was having an affair a week before finding him at the hotel with Gail Bridges, a divorced mother of three who once worked in David Harris' orthodontics office.

Prosecutors said Lindsey Harris was prepared to testify that an hour before her father was struck by Clara Harris, her stepmother told her: "I could kill him and get away with it for all he's put me through."

Parnham said his client never made the statement.

Parnham said Clara Harris, 44, didn't set out to kill the night she struck her husband with her car after finding him at a hotel with Bridges, but instead to "bring David home."

Lindsey Harris could be the most pivotal witness for jurors trying to determine what was going through Clara Harris' mind as she drove toward the Lincoln Navigator her husband and Bridges were entering after a physical altercation between the trio in the hotel's lobby.

"She should have never have been in that automobile and exposed to her father's death," Parnham said of Lindsey, who was 16 when her father was killed. "But her presence also says something about Clara's intent. If I'm going to intentionally run over someone, am I going to chose to have the daughter or the son of a victim as a witness?"

Lindsey Harris has met with prosecutors but refused to talk to defense attorneys.

Prosecutor Mia Magness said she would not comment until a verdict is reached.

Accident reconstructionists, psychiatrists, David Harris' alleged mistress, police officers, witnesses, neighbors and employees of the couple also are expected to testify in the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

Parnham said evidence would portray Clara Harris as a caring woman who wanted to save her marriage and her family.

Clara Suarez married David Harris on Valentine's Day in 1992, and five years later she described him as a godsend.

"I found the one God had reserved for me," Clara Harris said in an article The Brazosport Facts published about her dentistry practice.

State District Judge Carol Davies has ruled that the acts of David Harris cannot be presented in "an effort to establish his bad or questionable character."

The judge also disallowed any mention that David Harris' family "desires an acquittal, conviction on a lesser offense, a probated sentence or minimal incarceration" for Clara Harris.

The judge said Parnham can tell jurors about Clara Harris' actions in the week leading up to her husband's death, including her decision to schedule breast augmentation surgery and hire a personal trainer in an attempt to improve her appearance for her husband.

"That is the obstacle - being able to bring across through actions and words and observations and charts and measurements - what the intent of the driver, Clara Harris, was at the time that automobile hit her husband," Parnham said. "The simple issue is whether she intentionally killed her husband or whether it was an accident."