David Temple, the beloved high school coach who was accused of gunning down his wife, Belinda Temple, in their Harris County home almost two decades ago, will be spotlighted in a new episode of 48 Hours on CBS.
48 Hours has been following the case of Belinda and David Temple for the past eight years. Saturday’s episode, “Playing By The Rules,” will provide an update from a previous 48 Hours episode titled “The Guessing Game.” Since that episode first aired, the former Harris County prosecutor in the case, Kelly Siegler, has come under fire for allegedly railroading an innocent man. Although still serving a life sentence in a Texas correctional facility, Temple has a new lawyer who believes that his case was not properly handled. The Temple story was documented in Kathryn Casey’s book Shattered .
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CBS’ 48 Hours will show how 30-year-old Belinda Tracie Temple was found face down in her closet with a gunshot wound to the head. She was found by her husband, David Temple, who had been out running errands with the couple’s 3-year-old son. After returning home, he found broken glass and discovered his pregnant wife lying in a pool of blood. When detectives arrived, they found that the victim had a gunshot wound to the back of the head. The unborn child had also died, according to court records .
“Belinda’s body was found upstairs, laying face down in the master bedroom’s closet. She had been shot in the back of the head, and the front of her face and brain were blown away. Detective Holtke testified that it appeared that Belinda had been kneeling when she was shot.() Belinda was fully clothed and still wearing her shoes. She was also wearing a watch, a bracelet, a necklace, and rings on both hands. Her glasses were found broken on the ground near her. A cordless telephone was in or near Belinda’s hand.”
From the beginning, police didn’t believe that David Temple’s story made sense. The crime scene seemed staged, judging by all of the gold jewelry and electronic items found at the scene. However, the police really had nothing to go on. There was no murder weapon or anything that seemed to tie David Temple directly to the murder. The case eventually went cold.
People who remember David and Belinda Temple tell 48 Hours that they were a wonderful couple and excellent parents to their child. With this new pregnancy, it seemed that David and Belinda were continuing to carve out a good life for their family. And that’s what makes her murder all that much more unacceptable. Who could have done this to such a devoted teacher and mother? Kelly Siegler believes that she knew the identity of the killer: David Temple. In building her case, she discovered that the same man who claimed that Belinda was the love of his life was the same man who had lied to his wife one New Year’s Eve about a hunting trip with the boys. Instead, Siegler found out that David Temple was out having sex with a fellow teacher named Heather.
David says he knew it was wrong, but he did love Belinda. He also stated that he would have never done anything to harm her. However, by the time Kelly Siegler got through presenting the case to the jury, they were sure that David Temple had shot and killed his wife, staged the scene to look like a robbery, and allowed himself to be captured running senseless errands on videotape so that he could establish an alibi and make a life with the woman he really loved, Heather.
Shortly after the case went cold, David Temple married Heather, leaving Belinda Temple’s family in deep sorrow as they tried to cope with the loss. Temple’s stroke of good luck changed when he was finally charged with his former wife’s murder in 2004. The case was compared to the Laci and Scott Peterson death case. David Temple was found guilty in 2007.
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Tune in to CBS 48 Hours this Saturday, March 12 at 10 p.m. to see the latest developments in the case and decide if you believe that David Temple is an innocent man or a killer. In a previous 48 Hours article, the Inquisitr covered the case of Anita Smithey .
[Image via Kathryn Casey/ Facebook ]