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Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday morning in the retrial of David Temple, launching weeks of anticipated testimony in the case of the former Katy-area football coach accused in his wife’s 1999 death.
Temple’s trial marks the second time a Harris County jury will seek to determine his guilt or innocence on the murder charge. Jurors found him guilty in 2007, but he was released from prison about 10 years later when an appeals court reversed the verdict because of prosecutorial misconduct in the trial.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals determined that Temple didn’t get a fair trial the first time around, and noted 36 instances of misconduct by a prosecutor. The court found that Temple’s attorneys were denied access to approximately 1,400 pages of offense reports, including a detailed investigation into an alternate suspect, a teenage neighbor.
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Belinda Lucas Temple died on Jan. 11, 1999, in what her husband alleged was a botched break-in at their Katy home. David Temple, an Alief Hastings High School coach who was having an affair with a school employee, said he came home to find his wife dead. She was a teacher at Katy High School.
Prosecutor Kelly Siegler — who has since left the DA’s office and now hosts the true crime television show, “Cold Justice” — argued that Temple failed to account for 45 minutes in his story. He said he was shopping with their young son at the time of the shooting.
Temple’s latest trial comes with a new cast of prosecutors, as Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg recused her office from the case because a number of employees had a connection to the first trial and investigation. The Texas Attorney General’s Office is acting as special prosecutor.
The jurors are made up of seven men and five women. There are four male alternates.