Clara Harris, one of Texas’ best known killers, was released from the Texas Prison for Women in Gatesville this morning after serving 15 years of a 20 year sentence, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Clara Suarez Harris and her husband, David Harris, owned a series of orthodontics clinics in Houston and were among the city’s elite, owning a mansion in Friendswood.
But Clara suspected David of cheating on her, and a private investigator told her one day in 2002 that he had spotted David and his girlfriend at the same hotel in the resort town of Nassau Bay where Clara and David had gotten married.
So Clara drove to the hotel, and when David and the woman emerged, she ran over David with her Mercedes. Then, according to the testimony of her step daughter, who was in the car with her, she threw it into reverse and ran over him again, running over him three times in all.
Harris was convicted of murder ‘caused by sudden passion,’ and was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
She was approved for parole in December.
The case made international headlines, and dominated the tabloids for weeks.
It was also the bases of the ‘true crime’ book ‘Out of Control,’ TV episodes entitled ‘Snapped’ and ‘Murder by Mercedes.’ The case was profiled again in 2017 in the movie ‘Suburban Madness.’