Googie Rene Harris Sr., who could be sentenced to death in January for killing his wife in 1998, said in a jailhouse interview that he wants to fire his attorneys and receive a new trial.
“I’ll beat this,” Harris, 68, vowed in a Monday, Dec. 9, intercom hookup while separated from a reporter by plexiglass in Housing Unit G at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley.
At a hearing on Friday, Dec. 6, in Superior Court in Riverside Harris, 68, and nephew Joaquin Latee Leal III, 58, were scheduled to be sentenced for their murder convictions in the slaying of 32-year-old Terry Cheek of Jurupa Valley. But the sentencings were postponed to Jan. 10. Jurors have recommended that Harris be put to death and Leal serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judge Bernard J. Schwartz will decide whether to accept the recommendations or impose his own sentences.
At Friday’s hearing, Harris pulled out a handwritten letter he wanted to read to Schwartz. But one of his attorneys, Darryl Exum, talked him out of reading it at the time.
Harris left several phone messages for a reporter; he wanted to talk.
Harris revealed the contents in the Monday interview: He wants to replace Exum and his co-counsel, John Dorr, and seek a new trial.
Exum said he and Dorr plan to meet with Harris.
“Mr. Dorr and Mr. Exum worked tirelessly to represent him to the best of their ability,” Exum said.
Harris and Leal were convicted of murder in August. The jury also found true a special-circumstances sentencing enhancement of murder for financial gain levied against Harris that made him eligible for the death penalty.
Harris, Leal and Harris’ son Googie Harris Jr. were arrested in 2018, 20 years after they let Cheeks’ lover and co-worker, Horace Roberts Jr., take the fall for killing Cheek. Roberts was freed from prison and declared innocent after improved DNA technology pointed investigators toward the three new defendants.
Monday, Harris Sr. looked askance at the reporter when asked if he killed his wife.
“They set me up like they set (Roberts) up,” Harris said, claiming that the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office planted and misrepresented evidence in Harris’ case. “I know what he’s going through. I know how he feels.”
But Harris did help make sure Roberts stayed in prison by testifying against him at his parole hearings. Harris on Monday said he wasn’t sure in his mind who killed Cheek until Roberts was convicted. That’s why, he said, he spoke at the parole hearings. Harris said Monday he’s now unsure who killed his wife.
Harris Sr. and Leal were convicted partially based on the testimony of Harris Jr., 45. The younger Harris testified that he was present when his father and Leal strangled his stepmother outside their Jurupa Valley home, but that his role was only to assist Leal with dumping Cheek’s body at Lee Lake near Corona.
In exchange for Harris Jr.’s testimony, the District Attorney’s Office dropped a murder charge, and Harris Jr. pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact. He was sentenced to one year in jail.
His father said Monday that he believes his son testified against him to avoid being charged with sexual assault after decades earlier, as a teen, inappropriately touching a relative as Cheek walked in on them. The son said in court he later “felt really bad.”
The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Harris Sr.’s statements.
