Harris completes parole years after killing husband with car
Clara Harris, the Friendswood dentist who more than 20 years ago used her car to run over and kill her philandering husband, has completed her parole and is no longer under state supervision.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Friday confirmed that Harris no longer has any obligations to the state.
Harris, 65, had been on parole since 2018. Before that, she had served 15 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter over the death of her husband and business partner, orthodontist David Harris.
In 2002, Harris hired a private investigator to follow her husband, suspecting that he was cheating on her with other women. On a July night, she was notified that David Harris was at the Hilton hotel in Nassau Bay with his former receptionist, Gail Bridges. Clara Harris went to the hotel and confronted Bridges and David Harris. They left the building and went to Bridges’ car.
It was in the parking lot that Harris hit Bridges with her silver MercedesBenz sedan and then repeatedly ran over David Harris. His then-17-yearold daughter from another marriage was a passenger in the Mercedes during the attack.
The private investigator hired by Harris was in the parking lot with a camera and videotaped the crime.
Harris’ arrest and trial became a sensation. Overseas tabloids referred to her as “The Driller Killer,” and her trial was covered by dozens of news outlets. The crime also spawned true-crime books and a made-for-television movie.
Harris testified that she didn’t mean to kill her husband and had been trying to wreck Bridges’ SUV.
Jurors found that Harris’ crime was a case of “sudden passion” and convicted her of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was first eligible for parole in 2012. Her parole was rejected four times before being granted in 2018.