Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killers Amongst Us: David Temple beloved coach, murderer? (part 3)

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

Belinda Lucas Temple is 8 months pregnant when she is murdered in her Katy, Texas, home. Prosecutors argued her husband wanted to get rid of her so he could marry his mistress, a teacher in the high school where he teaches. Does adultery however make a murderer? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome back to Killers Amongst Us, a production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. It seemed like a dream, the perfect job, a beautiful wife, a baby boy, a happy home. Or was it? David Temple cheating. And even worse, cheating openly with the new hot teacher at his own school where he's the chief football coach. Belinda Temple sees her marriage falling apart.

I'm Nancy Grace, and this is Killers Amongst Us. Soon, Heather becomes a regular at the coach's weekly happy hour at the local bar. David spends more and more time talking to her alone. They were spending a lot of time kind of segueing off on their own a separate from the group and people started to look at them like they were kind of a couple there were a lot of people who didn't actually know that David was married the romance escalates Heather invites David over to her apartment invites David over to her apartment.

And the relationship goes from exciting flirtation to a full-blown erotic affair. Behind, David's pregnant wife's back. When I learned he was having an affair, I was not surprised at all. David is completely caught up in the exciting and beautiful English teacher. And she feels the same way. They were both lusting after each other, almost addicted to one another. They couldn't stay away.

They didn't want to stay away. They were each other's drug. Wow. How could anybody not know his wife is pregnant? I mean, Catherine Casey, author of Shattered on Amazon, an incredible dissection of this case. He was from, this is his hometown. These are his peeps. How could anybody be a teacher in that school and not know David Temple's married with a child and a pregnant wife?

Well, you know, he hid it, Nancy. He didn't wear a wedding ring. He didn't talk about his family. And he was going out acting as if he was single. There were some people on the teaching staff who thought that he was probably separated. David and Heather were an item for quite a while before people figured out that he was married and that his wife was expecting a child. Take a listen to Scorned. David Temple has been having an affair with a beautiful new English teacher named Heather. And she's just learned that not only is David married to Belinda, but he has a three-year-old son and another child on the way. Although the news of David's family is upsetting to Heather, she doesn't end the affair.

She'd say that she felt sick to her stomach about it, thinking about it, but obviously not sick enough because she didn't break off the relationship. Nothing changed. In fact, Heather and David only become more deeply involved. Even Heather's roommate can see that the relationship is heating up fast. Heather's roommate started noticing that David was showing up at their townhouse and spending a lot of time with Heather and that gifts were arriving, flowers and perfume and jewelry

for Heather from David. David really gave her that impression that she was the special one. So not only was there the sexual chemistry, this feeling that they had the perfect union, added on top of that was the extra charge that she was winning.

She was winning this man away from a wife who was giving him a child. And as the affair continues, she wants to understand his exact situation. Heather asked David, well, do you have any kids? And he told her that he had a little boy

and another little baby girl on the way that his wife was pregnant. Heather is shocked by the news. This is more than she has prepared for. Does she really want to share david with his wife and expanding family you are hearing scorn and the voices of katherine casey robbie ludwig and debbie burger perfect union i mean katherine casey author of shattered right i'm sure that david temple and his girlfriend heather and Belinda will be very happy together.

No way. I mean, if she says she feels sick to her stomach, why didn't she stop, Catherine? You know, I don't think she wanted to, Nancy. I don't think she really, really sincerely wanted to. At one point in January, actually, I think it's around the 5th of January, she says to David, I can't go on this way. And his response to her is, you won't have to. Wow, wow. Listen to this.

After their romantic weekend together, David begins this new year by declaring his deepening feelings for Heather. In the war for David's affections, it's Heather who's winning. He told her he had fallen totally in love with her, and she said that she felt the same way, and their relationship seemed to be moving to the next level. Straight out to Dr. Robbie Ludwig, author of Till Death Do Us Part, and the host of Talking Live with Dr. Robbie Ludwig at Facebook Watch. Weigh in, Robbie.

I believe that was you that uttered the words perfect union. Yeah, I mean, this is what happens when you choose a relationship that is entirely based on fantasy and think that you can actually live in that fantasy picture. It is just a bad setup but people have very poor judgment when they are overcome with feelings of what they think is extreme love or a unique love that they feel you know that they would do anything to keep the relationship alive let's go to January 11 that January the relationship alive. Let's go to January 11. That January,

the relationship with Heather is, you know, as hot as ever, boiling over. David Temple has already told Heather, the English teacher, that she wouldn't have to live this way much longer. To Brandy Chiancini, the owner of the Katie Times. Brandy, that day started off as normal. Tell me about it.

Well, it was a Monday. They were getting ready to go to work. Their son, Evan, had not been feeling well overnight. So he went to daycare. Belinda warned the workers at daycare that he might not make it through the day and that David would pick the little boy up in case he didn't, and off they went to work. At some point during the day, they called and said that he was not feeling well, and so she went and picked him up, met David at home with Evan, and off she went back to work. That day was a normal day in Katy, Texas. Everyone went their separate ways. Their little boy goes to his regular daycare. David Temple heads to work. Belinda Temple goes about her business. She's about to give birth. And then to Catherine Casey, author of Shattered, what happens? Well, the phone rang at 1130, and it was Tigerland Daycare, and they said that Evan had a temperature that was above 100.6,

which was the highest that they would allow children to stay. So Belinda tried to put into action the plan she had with David, where David would go pick Evan up if he became ill again. So she started calling. She called once, twice, three times, five times that morning. David didn't answer. And she kept trying to get in touch with him. And she got frustrated and left school and went to pick Evan up and kept trying to get in touch with David. When she finally reached him around noon, he agreed to meet her at the house. But by then she was angry.

And I've been told by people who saw him as he walked out of work that day that he was angry with Belinda. But why was he angry with Belinda? He was angry because his life had been interrupted that day. He hadn't wanted to be there. The Friday before, he and Heather had pledged their love for each other. This was the following Monday, the first time he was seeing Heather again, after they had said that. And this was an interruption in his day. And in general, he was angry with Belinda.

She knew well enough that she was telling people she thought her marriage was coming to an end. It's a normal start to what looks like a typical day. After dropping their son off at daycare, Belinda and David head to work. But just hours later, the daycare center calls Belinda. Her son is sick and needs to go home. Her son was running a temperature.

She got a hold of David, and he said he would meet her at the house. Belinda left work, picked up her son, and had made arrangements to meet David at the family home so she could return to work because she was pregnant and didn't want to lose her sick leave. David meets Belinda at their house, and he takes over caring for their son for the rest of the day. She returned to the school at 1 o'clock.

I remember looking at the clock, and I said, Oh, you were fast, Belinda. You did a good job. Now, the boy, the baby boy, Evan, has come home from daycare with over 100 degree fever. Okay? So he's at home sick. But then suddenly, a dichotomy. He was sent home early that day with a fever. And David came home to watch him.

He took a bath, made sure his temperature was good. And we just played and waited for mom to get home. When Belinda returned around 4 o'clock, David says she went upstairs to rest, and that's when he took Evan out to play. We went to the park in our neighborhood, which we spent a lot of time at. He enjoyed being out, so that's where we went first. After that, he says, they made their trip to the grocery store and then to the Home Depot. You were hearing our friend Richard Schlesinger at 48 Hours.

Now, I've got a problem. Joe Scott Morgan, you've raised a son along with your wife. You bring him home with 100-plus degree fever. He's too ill to stay at school, but then you take him outside in January to play and then running errands? Shouldn't he be at home in bed? Yeah, he should be. He should be at home, you know, laying in bed, probably taking on fluids, maybe taking a little baby aspirin along the way.

He shouldn't be out playing, and he, you know, he sure as heck shouldn't be going to the store because you don't know what's going on with his child. You need to be able to take care of him, watch care over him like any good parent would. But when David Temple gets home to be with his wife, just about to give birth to their second child, he finds something very unexpected. Listen. When David returns home around 530, he finds something very disturbing. Before he even walks into the house. Temple noticed that the glass in the window of the back door had been broken.

He then went immediately over to his next door neighbor's house, pounded on his door, carrying his son. And when the neighbor entered the door, he said, someone's broken into my house. Can you take care of my son for me? And went back over to his own house. Fearing that something terrible has happened, David Temple has risen to his home. David Temple said that he went inside the house. He went upstairs. And when he got upstairs, he saw Belinda in the house. He went upstairs and when he got upstairs, he saw Belinda in the closet. David is met with a horrifying sight. Belinda is lying face down on the floor with a massive wound to her head. You know, Randy Kessler, defense lawyer, family law specialist, why is it the husband always finds the wife dead? Interesting, right? It's an interesting choice of words, Nancy. Interesting. It's dramatic. It's terrible. Even if we get too used to seeing it over and over, it never makes it

just interesting to me. It's terrible. You were just hearing our friends at Scorned. Let's hear it from the horse's mouth. Listen to David Temple. She got home about four o'clock. We just said I would take Heaven out and run around. We stopped at Berkshire Brothers just to get a drink. We stopped, got two drinks, and I picked up a bag of cat food while we were in there getting the drinks. And then we decided to go to Home Depot. We'd have time to do that, make it home, and time to take Blended to eat dinner. We pulled into the garage, got my son out, started to walk towards the back door. And I could see that the back door is open and it's cracked with glass.

And took my son across the street and banged on my friend's house. And handed them evidence and asked if they would call 911. 911, go ahead. Somebody has broken into my neighbor's house. And then ran back across the street. Where's your neighbor at right now? Went in through the gate and into my house. Wide across the street from me.

And then making it upstairs. I need an address, ma'am. To her line in the port world. In our closet. Their knees up underneath her stomach. To protect her, hey. Drove across the bed and got the phone to call 9-1-1 harris county 911 police fire ambulance somebody's broken into my house and my wife has been shot i just walked in my wife i believe she's been shot it's got blood everywhere okay sir is she breathing her brain is on the floor i think think she's already dead. She's eight months pregnant. She's dead.

Okay. And she's eight months pregnant? Yes. We got a baby, though, right? Right. Okay. Okay. Do you know how to do CPR? Yes. Okay. I want you to do CPR for that baby.

Okay. Okay? Yes. Are you doing CPR for me? She's gone. Okay. Well, let's see if we can use her, okay, for the baby. She's so strong. Is there any way that you can do this?

There's just no way. She's got her brain and just blood is covered on the floor. I got a policeman that's pulled up now. You are hearing the 911 call where David Temple calls to report his wife dead, curled up in the closet. To Brandi Chiancini, owner of the Katie Times, way in. Well, the neighborhood was a nice neighborhood. I would tell you it was fairly middle class. Parts of it were nicer than others, and they were smack dab in the middle. He, by all reports, he was not very friendly with the neighbors except for one family, which happens to be the family that he took his son to.

You know, everybody reacts in different ways, but it is very unusual that he would do that, although he did have a reputation for absolutely wanting to be in control. And it would not be out of character for him to control that situation in the best way he could, which would be to remove Evan from the scene and then go in and see what's what. Listen to this. When they got back, Temple says he saw the broken back door, dropped Evan off at a neighbor's, then ran up the stairs and found Belinda's body sprawled on the floor of the bedroom closet. When you have something like that traumatic happen in your life that you've never seen before, it's incapable of putting into words how you feel.

What were you told about the scene before you got there? That there was a female been found dead in her closet with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Crime scene investigator Dean Holke was surprised that a burglar would be so violent. You're hearing our friends at 48 hours, and you're also hearing Dean Holke, the investigator, and David Temple himself.

Joining me, the author of Shattered, Catherine Casey, dissects the case, the murder of Belinda Temple. Catherine, tell me about the home and the scene that David Temple came home to. Well, the back door was open and the window was shattered. And when he walked inside, there was glass splattered across the carpeting. As he went upstairs and went into the master bedroom and went into the closet, Belinda was sprawled out there. Her body was just kind of hunched up at that point, and she was face down against the rug. It was just horrific. There was blood everywhere. There was brain matter everywhere. It was just a horrendous scene. Joining me, forensics expert and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan.

Joe Scott, I'm very curious about your analysis of the scene so far as we know it. Yeah, obviously going back to this door, I think this is a key piece of evidence in this case. And the idea that you have this glass that is kind of strewn about on the floor relative to the position that the door is in, and that's key because you have to understand if someone, let's just say, for instance, someone is trying to gain access to a home where they've punched out the glass, okay, and then stuck their hand in and, you know, open the door with a doorknob, the glass will fall in that position. That's not what they're seeing at the scene here. The door is literally ajar, and then past that area where the door is ajar, glass is strewn all about the floor as if something else has happened here other than simply a forced entry. Nancy, this is a nine-pane glass door. That means there's nine individual brackets or panes of glass.

Did you know that every single one of these panes is fractured with radial fractures? That means that this takes a tremendous amount of force. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow it down, Mustang Sally. What do you mean radial fractures? Well, we've got these little fracture lines that kind of go out from one central spot to the other. The glass is kind of fractured in place. Not all of it has fallen out, but every single pane is fractured. It's not just the one that has actually strewn where the glass has been strewn from. That means that

when this door was manipulated, it was a tremendous strike that occurred because all of these things fractured at one time. If we were just talking about a common burglary, that's knocking one pane out, sticking your hand in and opening the doorknob. that's not what happened in this case. To Catherine Casey, author of Shattered on Amazon. Catherine, I'm curious about the door, the closet door, where she is balled up in a ball but now face down. When you walk into their bedroom, is the bedroom upstairs? Is it downstairs? Do you have to walk through the bedroom to get to that closet door?

Is that one of those closets where you walk through the bedroom, then you walk through the bathroom and it's on the other side? Tell me about that closet. I'm very, very curious as to the burglar that would go all the way through the home and find that closet. The bedroom's on the second floor, Nancy. You walked up the stairs, walked into a hallway, and then walked into the master bedroom. The bed was straight ahead. There was a window to the left, and when you turned, a window to the right, and when you turned to the left, you walked into the master bathroom. Right off to the left of the master bath is the closet where Belinda's body was. The door opened right and her legs would have been visible as they walked as he walked in. Interesting. Brandi Ciancini, Kennedy Times owner, I thought that she had barricaded herself in the in the closet and

was hiding in there. Wouldn't the door have been closed? Depends. It's very possible that the person that shot her opened the closet door and pulled the trigger. But you would not think so. So, Joe Scott Morgan, you do this for a living, analyzing death scenes. What about it? You know, I look at that closet, Nancy, from the perspective of trying to corral somebody, of trying to get them into a tiny, tiny area where they're going to be confined. And I think another part to this is that when you get them in this area and you've got all of this clothing that's in there, this has the potential

to muffle sound. You can't hear, many times you can't hear screaming, arguing, glass breaking. You can't hear furniture breaking. And maybe, maybe you can't hear a gunshot. The police investigation immediately begins. Listen. Police respond to the urgent call. Just moments later, they arrive at the Temple house.

But they have difficulty getting past the family's protective dog, Shaka. Shaka was this brown dog that David had had since college. And it had a reputation going back to college as being a vicious animal. People in Haiti were afraid of that dog. Shaka charged the fence at the gate. They wanted to get in the house.

They didn't know what was going on. They had a report of a woman in distress upstairs. They needed to get in there. The only option they had at one point was to consider shooting the dog. But the dog heals once David walks out of the house. Police make their way to the bedroom and find Belinda. They quickly determine that she'd been shot once in the back of the head. Both Belinda and her baby girl

are pronounced dead at the scene. There's no way with a shooting in the back of the head that this could have been a suicide or an accident since she was at home alone at the time of the death. But long story short, it wasn't just the dog that presented a question. The investigation into the tragedy begins immediately. The house appears to have been ransacked, suggesting to police that Belinda could have been the victim of a robbery gone wrong. A cordless phone was found alongside Belinda's body, suggesting she grabbed the phone and hid in the closet

and wanted to call for help. But there are some details that don't quite make sense. Inside the house, you saw some drawers a little open in the dining room area with things kind of peeked out of them a little bit. Nothing really rifled through in much depth. But in the entire house, they didn't take anything. They didn't take a VCR, a TV, no jewelry, no money, no dishes. They took nothing at all out from the house.

You're hearing our friends at Scorned and Kelly Siegler to Catherine Casey, who has analyzed and dissected Belinda's murder in her bestselling book, Shattered, on Amazon. Catherine Casey, what are your observations about the crime scene? Well, there were just multiple problems. I mean, shock is a big red flag. The fact that the police officers couldn't get in the house, the glasses they walk through, the would that be that way? Then they walked upstairs. They followed the path that Belinda would have taken that day. And they see her car keys laying on one of the steps just drop there. Moms don't leave their car keys on steps when they have toddlers. Toddlers pick them up and they disappear. They continued upstairs and walked through the house.

And in addition to things not being stirred around, they saw jewelry sitting out in the open. They saw money, a little bit of money. David's heavy championship gold ring is sitting on a dish. I mean, there were multiple things and it just kept multiplying. They got into the closet. And this was a horrendous wound that Belinda's had, just a horrendous wound. And they knew that there should have been a lot of brain matter. Somebody had pushed the slacks back in place after they'd shot Belinda. Somebody must have been wanting to hide the evidence of what they had done. Wow. Joseph Scott Morgan, a random killer, does not stage the scene. A random killer breaks in. They try to get what they can carry out. They come upon a person. They either rape them and kill them or just kill them and get the hay out of there. There's no staging the scene. That's not right, Joe Scott. No, no, it's not, Nancy. And that's what we refer to as a

disorganized crime scene where you have someone that literally bursts through a house, they're subduing somebody that presents in their mind, at least as a threat, then they begin to rifle. And when I say rifle, I mean, I'm talking about pulling drawers out, there's stuff strewn everywhere because they are actively hunting for things of value that they can take with them. You see this lots of times, for instance, with drug addicts that break into houses. Their one focus is to try to get things of value. If you happen to get in their way, you're going to get hurt. But you know, that's the weird thing about this, Nancy. When you take a look at, say, that dish that contains, and there's a dish, a great photo of a dish

containing a large championship ring, and this thing is gigantic, and it thing is gigantic and it's gold and it's got diamonds in it and all kinds of stuff there's there's necklaces none of that stuff is gone there's a half-hearted attempt of a of a television that one of the big old tube televisions that's laying on its face that looks like it was just pulled off of a console but beyond that there's nothing to indicate that this is somebody that's actively looking for items of value so that they can sell it or pawn it or do whatever they need to do in order to feed a habit, something that's not right in this crime scene.

Well, maybe the burglar was interrupted mid-burglary based on the time of the incident. Listen to Richard Schlesinger. I heard a loud boom, boom. Growing up, Ed and Herman Roberts lived in the house behind the incident. Listen to Richard Schlesinger. I heard a loud boom, boom. Growing up, Ed and Herman Roberts lived in the house behind the temples. This is Herman Roberts. He's six years old. The police spoke with them shortly after the murder. How many times did you hear that? One. I thought it was a gunshot. I was sure there was a gunshot. But when exactly did the boys hear that bang? Hello. They happened to be watching Dr. Doolittle at the time,

and nine years later, they remember the exact point in the film when they heard the sound. Right there. Right here. Stop it here. That scene is 24 minutes and 50 seconds into the movie. With that information, police could calculate roughly when the boys heard that noise. They were dropped off here at the bus stop at about 3.45. They went home, did about 10 or 15 minutes worth of homework, horsed around a little and started the video. That would mean, if the boys are correct, that the shot was fired at about 4.30. To Brandi Chiancini, owner of the Katie Times,

what do you make of the fact that nothing was taken from the home? And if these neighbors we are hearing are correct, the shooting occurred around 4.30 in the afternoon. Temple would have still been out with baby Evan. Maybe a bad parenting call, but that's what the neighbors say. Well, detectives believe that it was staged. They said it didn't look right. As other people have said, there was nothing missing from the home. Even David Temple said there was nothing missing from the home. So if it was an actual burglary, the supposition is that there would have been much more damage and destruction downstairs. And usually burglars leave as soon as they realize someone else is in the house. That was not the case in this instance.

Yeah, Brandi Chiancini, Katie Times, you're absolutely right. As soon as a burglar senses somebody's there, they normally leave, but almost immediately, someone is in the middle of police crosshairs, someone you wouldn't suspect. The night his wife Belinda was murdered in January 1999, David Temple told police he had no idea who did it. Everybody liked Belinda, didn't matter where she was. But later he wondered about one of her students, the Temple's next door neighbor, Riley Joe Sanders. They had had several battles that I was aware of. At the time, he was 16 and perpetually truant. Belinda had reported him to his parents.

Do you think he killed Belinda? I honestly don't know. Riley Joe Sanders told a reporter he was in school all day, but later admitted to the police he cut out to smoke pot with friends. He was known to use his father's 12-gauge shotguns without permission. His friends had stolen shotguns a few weeks earlier, and Sanders was in the area around the time that other neighbors heard a sudden and startling noise. It's been pointed out over and over that an adulterer does not a killer make. Who murdered pregnant mom Belinda Temple?

Nancy Grace, Killers Amongst Us, signing off. Goodbye, friend.