Murder of David Lynn Harris

David Lynn Harris was an American orthodontist who, together with his wife Clara Suarez Harris, owned a successful chain of orthodontic offices. The couple's business success allowed them to maintain an upscale home and lifestyle in Friendswood, Texas.

Clara Suarez, a Colombian immigrant who had been named "Mrs. Colombia Houston" and worked as a dentist, married David Harris on February 14, 1992, at the Nassau Bay Hilton. Together they raised three children: twin sons Brian and Bradley, born in 1998, and David's daughter Lindsey from a previous marriage. During the marriage, David began an affair with his former receptionist, Gail Bridges. Suspicious of the relationship, Clara hired a private detective agency to monitor her husband's movements.

On July 24, 2002, the detective agency notified Clara that David was at a hotel with his mistress. Clara went to the hotel parking lot and confronted her husband about the affair. During the confrontation, she struck and ran over him with her Mercedes-Benz sedan, killing him.

Clara's trial began in February the following year. David's daughter Lindsey testified against her stepmother, stating that she had told Clara to stop the vehicle during the incident. Clara was found guilty of murdering her husband. On February 14, 2003, she was sentenced to twenty years in prison — the maximum sentence allowed under the jury's "sudden passion" finding — and fined $10,000.

Clara was incarcerated at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where she converted school textbooks to Braille for blind students. Her sons, who were placed in the custody of family friends, reportedly visited about once a month. She was denied parole on her first attempt on April 11, 2013, and her second parole request was denied in September 2016. She was ultimately granted parole in November 2017, and was released on parole on May 11, 2018. She was released from parole supervision in February 2023.

The case attracted significant media attention. It was the subject of a 2004 book titled Out of Control by Steven Long, which examined the murder and its background. The story also inspired a chapter of the Mexican series Mujeres Asesinas ("Killer Women"), titled "Luz, overwhelming" ("Luz, arrolladora"). The case was additionally profiled on the Oxygen Network series Snapped in 2004, ABC News's 20/20 in 2006, and Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women in 2010, and served as the basis for the CBS television movie Suburban Madness, starring Elizabeth Peña and Brett Cullen.