David Temple sentencing: Former HS coach sentenced to life for murder of pregnant wife
HOUSTON - David Temple was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife Belinda Temple on Friday. The case has been dragging on for decades.
It's been 24 years since Katy High School teacher Belinda Temple was shot to death inside her Katy home shortly after she got off work. Two different juries have convicted her husband David Temple of her murder. Now this jury, after deliberating a little more than two hours, sentenced Temple to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
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Temple was convicted for the first time in 2007 for his wife's murder after years of an investigation, but the ruling was overturned in 2016, and he was granted a retrial.
During a retrial in August 2019, Temple, a former Alief Hastings High School Football coach was found guilty for the second time in the 1999 death of Belinda, but they couldn't agree on his punishment.
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However, a judge declared a mistrial in the sentencing phase in 2019 after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision. Now, more than three years later, a new jury has determined his sentence.
"David Temple executed his wife and his unborn child," Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner told jurors in Closing Arguments.
After jurors sentenced the former coach to life in prison, Belinda's siblings gave victim impact statements.
"You're despicable. You're a piece of trash. You called our family white trash, look at you David. I want you to think about this everyday as you spend the rest of your life in prison, as you rot in hell," Belinda's brother Brian Lucas told Temple from.
"I still have a lot of sleepless nights and suffer numerous health problems. The stress from the murder of my sister has been overwhelming for me," says Belinda's twin sister Brenda Lucas. "It's been hell for me the last 24 years."
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Defense attorneys told jurors keeping Temple in prison punishes his son Evan, who was just 3-years-old when his mom was murdered. "He wants his father in his life, not on a telephone, not on a Zoom video, but he wants him in his arms," says Temple's Attorney Stan Schneider.
"Who put him in this position? Who caused his suffering and his pain? It was the defendant," Tanner told jurors.
One of the state’s final witnesses, David Temple’s ex-wife Heather Scott Temple, was called to the stand by the prosecution on April 10.
Scott was David Temple’s mistress in 1999 when his wife was murdered. Prosecutors say Temple shot his wife to death in order to be with his mistress. Temple and Scott married two years later, but they have since divorced.
Prosecutors said the affair is what gave him motive.
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He was said to be out running errands on Jan. 11, 1999, when she was murdered, but according to the timeline assembled by investigators, he had time to slip home and kill her.
The defense in the 2019 trial hearing said the prosecution had the timeline of the murder all wrong. They say investigators retraced Temple's steps in the evening not during the time of the murder when traffic was heavier, and argued there simply was no time.
At the time, Belinda was eight months pregnant with the couple's second child. The baby also died.
On April 10, prosecutors told jurors on April 10, before Temple murdered his wife Belinda and his unborn baby girl Erin Ashley in a staged burglary, he would openly insult her.
David and Belinda also had a son, Evan, who was 3 years old when his pregnant mom was murdered. Evan is now 28, with a wife, one child, and one on the way. Evan was raised by Scott.
"Belinda Temple had just turned 30 years of age when this defendant took a shotgun and put it to the back of her head and executed her," said Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner during the hearing on April 10.
Scott testified on Monday to having an affair with David Temple who was her colleague in late 1998 and on January 5, 1999.
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Scott says she told Temple they "need to stop" the affair but three days later - three days before Belinda was shot to death, Scott says David told her, "I'm totally falling in love with you," and she told him she felt the same way.
Prosecutors say that's why Temple murdered his wife, to be with his mistress whom he married two years later in 2001. Although they divorced in 2019, Scott still didn't say anything incriminating against Temple when she was on the stand.
Temple's punishment range was from probation to life. He has already spent 13 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in another 17 years.
Prosecutors told jurors Temple's punishment should fit his crime, and they say someone who would murder his wife and unborn daughter should never walk free again.
Defense attorneys are now appealing the life sentence.