Look What You Made Me Do

​A mistress isn’t just a term used for a woman having an extramarital affair, it is also a term that describes a woman in a position of control. David Harris had two women in his life, a mistress and a wife. The question was, which one had more control over David. His answer would cost him his life. 

​Clara Suarez was born in Colombia. Her father was an electrical engineer determined to shield her from the poverty that surrounded them. Unfortunately, he died when she was only five. Her mother was a seamstress and tried her best to provide for them. Clara was a diligent student and worked hard to get through dental school. She knew her father would have been proud. She legally moved to the US in the late 1980s. She completed her residency at The University of Texas School of Dentistry in Houston. She was also crowned “Miss Colombia Houston” at a beauty pageant. 

​In the summer of 1991, she got a job at a dental office. It was there that she met orthodontist David Harris. He was divorced with a young daughter. David and Clara instantly felt a connection. The two started dating and by February 14, 1992, they were married. They had a Valentine’s Day wedding fit for royalty at the Nassau Bay Hilton Hotel. The two were a power couple. They quickly opened their own practice, which did extremely well. So well, that they opened more than one office. They bought expensive cars and built a home in a neighborhood with a private air strip. Clara got along great with Lindsey, David’s daughter, and wanted more children. Clara had a difficult time getting pregnant but after undergoing fertility treatments, she gave birth to twin boys in 1998, Brian and Bradley. Their life seemed to be proof that hard work pays off and dreams do come true. 

​So how did this fairy tale romance turn in to a horror movie? And when we say a horror movie, David’s murder was actually caught on film. Yes, David loved Clara, but it really depends on who you ask just how much. Some of David’s friends said that he didn’t even look at other women. He didn’t even want to hang out with the guys. But some of Clara’s friends gave a different description. They said David was a ladies’ man. That he flirted with other women openly, quite often in front of Clara. That he even kept notes that waitresses would leave him.Maybe David enjoyed the attention of other women but was loyal to his wife, after all, she had helped him achieve his goals. Or maybe it would just take the right woman to make him question his loyalty. 

​David split his time between their offices, working two days a week in the office at Lake Jackson with Clara, and the other three days at the Clear Lake office. In 2001, he needed to hire a receptionist for the office where he spent most of his time. He hired a women name Gail Bridges. She was divorced and had three children. It wasn’t long before the other women in the office started questioning Gail’s intentions. Everybody likes to be noticed for doing a good job, but she was making sure she was getting noticed by constantly flirting. Everyone in the office seemed to see what was happening, except for Clara. 

​David and Gail started going to lunch together and fondling each other in corners of the office. David starting spending late nights at work and missing events. With all the time he was spending away from home and the all the money he was spending on lunches, gifts and hotel rooms, it seems like Clara would have started to question things. But she was busy working, managing their house and taking care of the kids.

​The week of July 4th in 2002, the Harris family went to Jamaica. The ladies in the office thought this would be the trip that brought David back into reality. But they were wrong. When he returned, his relationship with Gail seemed as lively as ever. Knowing it was putting her job on the line, a coworker confronted David about his blatantly open actions with the receptionist. David realized his little secret was not really a secret at all. And it was just a matter of time until Clara found out. 

​The morning of July 17th, David confessed to Clara that he had been having an affair. 

Clara was devastated, especially when he told her they had been going to the very hotel where he and Clara had exchanged their wedding vows. She asked David if he wanted a divorce and he quickly answered no. He wanted to work on their marriage and would end the relationship with his mistress. When he revealed that the other woman was his receptionist, Clara went to the office and fired her. 

​Clara asked David what was wrong with her. And he didn’t hold back. He didn’t even reassure her that it wasn’t her fault. He gave her a list as long as the receipts from CVS. He said while he appreciated how driven she was in her career, that it often took her attention off of him. Add the kids to the mix and he felt neglected. Many men probably share a similar sentiment, but what he said next shocked Clara. She was too fat and her body had changed. Clara had been a beauty queen and her husband was telling her she was no longer attractive.  He went on to add that he loved Gail’s breast implants, how thin she was and that she made time to show him affection. Dare we say a lot of women would have just walked away right there. But not Clara. 

​She took that list and started checking the boxes to give David the woman that he wanted. She canceled all her appointments at work for that week. She hired a personal trainer, dyed her hair blonde, immediately started losing weight, joined a tanning salon and scheduled surgery for a breast augmentation and liposuction. She was completely reinventing herself for David. 

​So when David said he felt like he owed Gail an explanation, Clara said okay. David told her that he was going to meet Gail for dinner and let her know it was over for good. Although the more Clara started to think about it, the more she started to feel uneasy about the whole idea. She went to the Blue Moon Private Detective Agency and asked them to watch her husband. On July 24th, David was supposed to meet Gail for dinner. Clara had a friend go to the restaurant where he told her they would be, and they were not there. The longer she waited the more she worried her suspicions would be confirmed. Finally she called the agency and asked for an update. One of their provisions on the contract was that the client could not interfere with the investigation. So when they told Clara that their PI was sitting outside a hotel where David and Gail’s cars were located, they had no idea that she knew exactly which hotel they were at. That turned out to be a deadly mistake. 

​Clara told her step daughter, Lindsey, to get in the car and they drove to the Nassau Bay Hilton. Gail’s Lincoln Navigator had a heart shaped hitch so it was easy to find it in the parking garage. Clara broke the windshield wipers and keyed the car before marching into the lobby. She couldn’t find out what room her husband was in, so Lindsey called her dad and told him one of the boys was sick and they needed him home. A little while later the elevator doors opened, and the couple stepped out hand in hand. Far from a relationship that had just ended. Clara lunged for Gail. Grabbed her hair and started punching her. Lindsey started hitting her dad with her purse screaming, I hate you. Guests and hotel staff stepped in and pulled the women apart. 

​But there, in that moment, David could have tried to salvage what was left of his family. Instead, he grabbed Gail’s hand, and left the lobby with her. His decision was clear. Heartbroken, Clara got in her car. Then she pressed the accelerator as she headed towards them. Clara’s Mercedes Benz sedan made contact with David’s body and he landed 30 feet away. Clara whipped her car around driving over medians, and went at him again, and then she did it again. Clara got out of her car and cradled David’s head, which was practically missing his ears and losing teeth. She sobbed why saying “Look what you made me do”. At 9:48pm, he was pronounced dead. 

​A few minutes before, when the PI saw David and Gail walking out of the hotel, she started recording so that Clara would have the video to use in divorce proceedings. Instead it was used in the trial when Clara was charged with murder. The PI caught the entire chain of events on film. 

​The story made national news. People quickly picked a side. Some thought Clara was a cold blooded killer, others thought David signed his death certificate when he walked out of the hotel with Gail, leaving his wife and daughter in complete hysteria and embarrassment. 

​Clara’s trial started in February 2003. Lindsey testified against Clara. She said that she begged her to stop. That she was traumatized by the sight of her father getting run over. The PI’s video was shown and the jury could hear the eerie sound of the tires screeching. Although David’s body was not clear in the video, you could see Clara circling three times. The prosecution stated that Clara used her $70,000 vehicle as a 4,000 pound murder weapon. The defense argued that it was a horrific crime of passion brought on by David’s ultimate betrayal. 

The question wasn’t whether or not Clara did it, the question was what was her intent at the time. The jury was 9 women and 3 men. If Clara would have filed for divorce, she would have had such sympathy she would have walked away with so much in her life. And even though many women could empathize with Clara’s emotional state, they could not justify her killing David. She was found guilty of murder during a crime of sudden passion on February 14, 2003. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the day that would have been her wedding anniversary, for killing her husband at the very hotel where they celebrated their vows. 

In a wedding, when traditional vows are exchanged, it ends with “Till death do us part”. Clara took that last part to heart. She was not willing to let David leave her for another woman. Their marriage could have ended with divorce, they could have still raised their kids. But instead, the kids grew up with a deceased dad and an incarcerated mom. What’s that old saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.