HOUSTON — She had a front-row seat to David Temple's life, and on Monday, she took the stand in his murder trial's sentencing phase.
Heather Scott was having an affair with Temple when he killed his wife. They later got married. And then, divorced.
On the stand Monday, Scott told the jury that she and Temple never talked about Belinda Temple's murder despite being married for 18 years.
"This is her third time testifying, so this is not something new," Temple family spokesman Andy Kahan said.
Scott might know more about Temple than anyone, but on the stand, she couldn't remember key dates and said she was nervous.
"Well, whether she saw him or not, the bottom line is she did remember receiving a bouquet of roses and that was on Valentine's Day and that was 33 days after Belinda was murdered," Kahan said.
David Temple has twice been convicted of murdering Belinda, who was pregnant at the time, in 1999 inside their Katy home. He's back in court because a jury wasn't able to agree on a sentence after his second murder conviction.
"Because you have to go back to when the crime was committed in 1999, he's eligible for probation all the way up to life (in prison)," Kahan said.
The defense's strategy this time around is to convince the jury that Temple has changed. On Monday, they called Rebecca Temple to the stand. She is married to David's brother.
At the time of the crime, she said she was friends with Belinda and angry about the affair. But on Monday, she said she supports her brother-in-law. She even called him an "amazing father" who worked to rebuild a relationship with his adult son.
It's not known if Temple's son will take the stand to support his father but Kahan said it's going to be interesting to see what the jury thinks at the end of all of the testimony.
"It's hard to get 12 people to agree on what you want for lunch. To have 12 people actually agree on a sentence ... it's going to be interesting to see what they come up with," Kahan said.
Both sides still have more people to call to the stand but the fate of David Temple could be in the hands of the jury by the end of the week.
Temple's crime
Belinda was eight months pregnant when she was shot and killed in the couple's Katy home in 1999. She died from a shotgun blast to the back of her head.
Prosecutors said Temple, who was 30 at the time, wanted his wife dead because he was having an affair.
Less than two years after his wife's murder, Temple married his mistress, Scott. Scott filed for divorce after Temple's second murder trial began.
Temple was originally convicted of murder in 2007 and served nine years in prison before a judge tossed out his conviction in 2016. The judge said prosecutor Kelly Siegler withheld favorable evidence from the defense.
Temple was never charged with the death of his unborn daughter who had already been named Erin. Laws regarding such charges have since changed.