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The motive, the son mentioned, was his dad feared that she was having an affair and going to file for divorce and take his “dream home” in Jurupa Valley.
“He needed to do away with her … to kill her,” Harris Jr., 45, testified in Riverside County Superior Court. “And he needed me to assist him.”
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Harris Jr. testified that his cousin, Joaquin Latee Leal III — Googie Rene Harris Sr.’s nephew — was to be in on the plot to kill 32-year-old Terry Cheek, a plan that included framing Cheek’s lover, Horace Roberts of Temecula, for the homicide.
That’s precisely what occurred on April 13, 1998, prosecutors assert:
As Cheek left for work in San Juan Capistrano from the Glen Avon neighborhood of what would develop into Jurupa Valley, they mentioned, Harris Sr. guided Cheek into the storage, the place he and Leal strangled her as Harris Jr. appeared away. Harris Jr. and Leal then drove Cheek’s physique to Lee Lake close to Corona and dumped it on rocks, they mentioned, with them utilizing Roberts’ Nissan truck, which Cheek generally drove, and leaving it close by.
Cheek’s physique was discovered 5 days later.
Roberts was convicted of second-degree homicide and served 20 years in jail till DNA proof exonerated him in 2018 and, officers mentioned, pointed authorities towards the Harrises and Leal.
“I felt I didn’t wish to, however I used to be serving to my dad,” Harris Jr. testified, telling Managing Deputy District Attorney Will Robinson that he felt obligated to assist his father. “He needed to maintain the home, as a result of it was his dream home.”
Harris Jr., wiping away tears, added: “It ought to by no means be requested of a son to do something like that.”
Harris Sr., 67, and Leal, 58, confirmed no seen response to the testimony. They each wore darkish fits. Harris Jr. wore darkish slacks, a white shirt and a blue tie. All three have tightly sure ponytails.
Roberts, paid $11 million by the county for his obvious wrongful conviction, has a aircraft to catch this week and so in a little bit of scheduling gymnastics he’s scheduled to testify on Tuesday and Wednesday. The case takes a break subsequent week, with Harris Jr. scheduled to be cross-examined beginning Aug. 5.
Harris Jr., initially charged with homicide within the death-penalty case, agreed to testify for the District Attorney’s Office in a deal that allowed him to plead responsible to accent after the actual fact, which carries a possible sentence of 1 yr in jail.
Leal and Harris Sr. have pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide.
Defense attorneys advised in opening statements that Harris Jr. — or maybe even Roberts — was the true killer, and that Harris Jr. is weaving a tall story.
Harris Jr. testified that he twice inappropriately touched one in every of his youthful sisters, as soon as whereas in junior excessive and as soon as in highschool: The second time each have been bare of their dwelling when Cheek walked in on them and ordered Harris Jr. to his room.
That apparently was the extent of the punishment, besides that, he testified, Cheek stopped speaking to him for some time afterward.
“I felt I used to be nervous however as I acquired older I felt actually unhealthy,” Harris Jr. mentioned.
He added that he felt guilt about assaulting his sister — he was by no means charged — and held no animosity towards Cheek.
The protection was relying on a Harris Jr. sister to testify to what she apparently had beforehand advised investigators: She noticed Cheek drive away to her work at Quest Diagnostics in her white Volkswagen the evening she vanished.
But Tynisha Weaver mentioned she was about 13 years outdated on the time. That day, she mentioned, Harris Sr. was dwelling apart from a couple of minutes when he went to a Circle Ok to purchase sweet for his youngsters. At about 10:30 p.m., Weaver testified, she noticed a automobile drive away, seeing solely its headlights. She advised prosecutor Robinson that 26 years later, she was now not assured in her authentic account.
Weaver advised Robinson that she assumed on the time that she noticed Cheek drive the VW away as a result of she had seen Cheek arrive in that automobile earlier that day.
“As a baby, perhaps you see belongings you didn’t see,” Weaver mentioned. “Now as an grownup you see the world for what it’s and folks as they are surely.”
She didn’t again away, nevertheless, from her assertion that the day of Cheek’s disappearance, her mother had her black purse that {the teenager} had unintentionally damaged a zipper on. That purse, she mentioned, was amongst her mom’s possessions that members of the family recovered from Roberts’ dwelling after Cheek’s demise. Sometimes Roberts and Cheek rode in to work collectively.
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