HOUSTON Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday upheld a murder conviction for David Temple, the former high school coach and Katy football star who was convicted of killing his pregnant wife.
Temple was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the 1999 shooting death of his wife, Belinda. She was eight months pregnant at the time and doctors couldn t save the baby.
Temple later married the woman he was having an affair with when his wife was murdered.
Temple s attorneys filed a motion in September 2012 that pointed to a new witness. They said the witness identified only as John Doe heard another suspect admit to burglarizing the couple s home in Katy and firing a shotgun.
This is about David Temple s innocence. We want this heard by a court as quickly as possible, said Attorney Dick De Guerin. David Temple has been in prison for five years and he s an innocent man.
The district attorney s office appointed a special prosecutor to review the case and to determine how the evidence was handled.
The defense said the real killers were four teens, including a then 16-year-old neighbor, originally questioned by police. Three of the four original suspects failed polygraph tests and gave investigators different stories, according to Temple s attorneys.
They also claimed prosecutors hid this valuable piece of evidence from them.
Attorneys for the four men called those allegations a legal charade.
The people they are accusing have nothing to do with this, said Paul Doyle, attorney. They are trying to ruin other people s lives knowing their client committed this murder.
Doyle said the Temple case is a political turf war between the DA, Dick DeGuerin and former prosecutor Kelly Seigler.
Temple s defense attorneys also pointed the finger of blame at the Sheriff s office, claiming someone there publicly released the name of their informant, putting that person s life in danger.
But in its ruling, the appeals court said that information about the other suspect was presented at trial and there was sufficient evidence to support Temple s conviction. They voted 8-0 against the new trial.
