Life term sought for coach in wife’s slaying
Jurors will return to the Harris County courthouse on Thursday morning to continue weighing a punishment for David Temple, who was convicted this week in the 1999 death of his pregnant wife.
The 12 panelists and four alternates left with no decision Wednesday evening, after about seven hours of deliberation. The ex-Katyarea football coach faces probation or five years to life in prison — a sentence which would not be acceptable under today’s Texas laws but was allowed in 2007, when Temple was first tried for murder.
Prosecutors argued for a life sentence, while Temple’s defense attorney stood by his client’s innocence and urged jurors to “decide what you think is right.”
“I believe in all my heart and soul that David is not guilty of killing his wife,” lawyer Stanley Schneider said Wednesday, sitting on a table and speaking to jurors in a quiet tone. “It’s hard for me to sit here and talk to you about punishment.”
The prosecutors emphasized that Belinda wasn’t the only person lost in the tragedy — her unborn child was almost due.
They also pointed to an incident in 1984, when David Temple allegedly pointed a long gun at his brother, Darren Temple. During sentencing testimony on Tuesday, a former girlfriend of the brother told jurors about the incident and how scared Darren seemed afterward, but Darren testified that the event never occurred.
“We thought it was important for you to know that this was not the first time,” said Lisa Tanner, of the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
Belinda Temple was found shot to death in her master bedroom closet on Jan. 11, 1999. Her husband has always maintained that he came home that afternoon to find his wife dead amid a burglary.
Jurors didn’t accept defense attorneys’ claims that the murder was carried out by a teenage neighbor, however, and placed the blame on the husband.
Temple began serving a life sentence for the slaying in 2007 after a jury handed downa guilty verdict. That decisionwas reversed in 2016 when an appeals court determined that Temple wasn’t granted a fair trial.
He was released from prison after the reversal and was retried by a new team of prosecutors from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
Two of the alternates were relieved from their duties, and two other alternates will remain through the rest of deliberations, state District Judge Kelli Johnson said. The 12 jurors and two alternates were sequestered in a hotel Wednesday night.
Deliberations will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.