Texas wife who ran down her cheating husband is ordered to pay $3.75 million over his death

HOUSTON (AP) _ A woman who killed her cheating husband by mowing him down with her car in a jealous rage was ordered Friday to pay $3.75 million to her in-laws. <br/><br/>A jury awarded the sum in a wrongful-death

Friday, January 19th 2007, 3:31 pm

By: News On 6

HOUSTON (AP) _ A woman who killed her cheating husband by mowing him down with her car in a jealous rage was ordered Friday to pay $3.75 million to her in-laws.

A jury awarded the sum in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought against Clara Harris.

Harris, 48, repeatedly ran over her orthodontist husband, David, 44, with her Mercedes-Benz in 2002 in the parking lot of a suburban hotel after finding him there with his receptionist-turned-mistress. She was convicted of murder in 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Harris took the stand, but repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Defense attorney Dean Blumrosen said he did not want to risk having Harris say anything in the civil trial that might endanger her appeal of the murder conviction.

On the night of the slaying, Harris and the receptionist had a physical confrontation in the hotel's lobby, and guards escorted both women out of the building _ the same place the Harrises were married a decade earlier.

Clara Harris drove her car to the back of the parking lot where her husband's lover was parked. David Harris was struck as he stood near the open driver's side door of his lover's vehicle.