STATE SAYS JUDGE'S FINDINGS IN DAVID TEMPLE CASE STRAY FROM THE FACTSBy Craig Malisow | Houston Press | September 10, 2015Harris County prosecutors have filed an objection that calls into question a judge's findings of suppressed evidence and witness tampering in the 2007 conviction of high school football coach David Temple for the brutal shotgun slaying of his pregnant wife Belinda in 1999.
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Filed Tuesday, the State's response to Gist's findings is the latest volley in the contentious criminal proceedings that started virtually from the moment on January 11, 1999, that Temple called police to say that he discovered his wife's body in the couple's master bathroom closet. Much of her skull had been blown away by what investigators say was a shotgun pressed to the back of her head while she was on her knees. She was seven and a half months pregnant. The baby's name was Erin.
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When Gist's recommendation was filed with the Harris County District Clerk, it contained 36 findings of fact. Nearly two months later, when it was filed in Austin, for review by the Court of Criminal Appeals, it contained 37 findings.
Schneider told the Press that the additional finding was just a remnant from a list of suggested findings that he and Gotro added when putting together an amended copy of Gist's findings that contained citations to help with the Court's review. After Gist notified both sides that he would not agree to additional findings, Schneider and Gotro deleted them — or at least they thought they did; they accidentally left one in, according to Schneider. That was submitted to Gist for his signature before Schneider and Gotro caught the error.
The State caught the error right away and notified Gist, who then wrote the Court of Criminal Appeals' clerk Sept. 8, stating that the document "was tendered to me as being identical to my original findings with the addition of citations. That representation was not correct." He also stated, "I never made finding No. 37 and do not make such a finding now."
We sought elaboration from Gist, who told us via his secretary that his letter to the clerk speaks for itself. Of course, the letter doesn't state who "tendered" the document. It doesn't state how Gist himself missed the extra finding. It doesn't state anything explanatory.
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