Riverside County jurors began hearing testimony on Tuesday, July 16, in a death penalty murder case in which they will have to sort through testimony from a murderer, a man convicted of accessory after the fact in the case and a woman who one attorney described as his client’s “drug addict freak meth-filled, drug-selling, drug-using girlfriend” who was “completely tweaked out” when she reportedly heard the confession of her boyfriend, Joaquin Leal III.
Jurors will also have to choose between wildly differing accounts of the last moments of Terry Cheek’s life as she left her home in Jurupa Valley for the night shift at work in San Juan Capistrano.
And it’s a case in which the man with whom Cheeck was having an affair — Horace Roberts — served 20 years in prison for killing her, a murder that a judge ruled he did not commit. Roberts, who was paid $11 million by Riverside County after his apparent wrongful conviction, is due to testify next week.
And maybe, suggested John Dorr, co-attorney for 67-year-old defendant Googie Rene Harris Sr., prosecutors might have had the right man in Roberts all along.
“Talk about your all-time classic whodunit,” Dorr said during opening statements at the Riverside County Hall of Justice. “Was it Horace Roberts? Was it Googie Harris Sr.? Was it Googie Harris Jr.? Was it Joaquin Leal? Was it a combination of two or more of these men? Was it somebody else?
“At the end of this case, you’re going to be left with those questions. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Harris Sr. and Leal III have each pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder in Cheek’s death. District Attorney Mike Hestrin will seek the death penalty if they are convicted as charged. Hestrin has alleged a special circumstance of murder for financial gain that makes them eligible for capital punishment.
Cheek, 32, was last seen in April 1998 after she left for work at Quest Diagnostics.
Roberts was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after the first two of his three trials resulted in hung juries. Harris Sr. is accused of framing Roberts and even appearing at his parole hearings to ensure his continued incarceration.
Roberts’ Nissan truck was found about 2 miles from Cheek’s body, which was placed on rocks at Lee Lake near Corona after she was strangled to death. Her purse was found in Roberts’ apartment, a watch similar to one he owned was found near Cheek’s body and he made inconsistent statements to prosecutors, including denying the affair to avoid running afoul of workplace dating rules, it was said Tuesday.
The elder Harris and Leal were charged after DNA evidence exonerated Roberts, who was assisted by the California Innocence Project. The defendants’ DNA was found on Cheek, Managing Deputy District Attorney Emily Hanks said.
Hanks told jurors Tuesday that Cheek and her husband, Googie Harris Sr., were estranged. She moved in with Quest co-worker Roberts in his Temecula apartment. She later moved back in with Harris Sr. at the house in the Glen Avon neighborhood of what would become Jurupa Valley.
Harris Sr. was determined to end Cheek’s affair with Roberts, Hanks said.
On April 13, 1998, Hanks said, Harris Sr. walked Cheek to the garage as she left for work. Inside the garage, Leal — Cheek’s nephew by marriage — was waiting. Harris Jr. had brought Roberts’ truck, which Cheek sometimes drove, to the house. Harris Jr. turned away as Leal and Harris Sr. strangled Cheek, Hanks said. They then placed her body in the passenger seat of Roberts’ truck. Harris Jr. and Leal then dumped the body, Hanks said.
Leal, now 58, confessed to his girlfriend, Nancy Doud, that he helped kill Cheek, Hanks said.
But Leal’s co-attorney, Joseph Galasso, who impugned the integrity of Doud as a meth addict, said Harris Jr. — and not his client — killed Cheek. Harris Jr. is awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact, which Galasso said carries about a one-year sentence. Galasso said a previous murder charge and a 25-to-life prison sentence is still hanging over the head of Harris Jr. and could be reinstated if the District Attorney’s Office is dissatisfied with his testimony, which is expected on Wednesday.
“(Harris Jr. and his attorney) crafted a story that Googie (Jr.) then presented to the Riverside District Attorney’s Office, telling them exactly what they wanted to hear, and of course distancing himself from that murder,” Galasso told jurors. He said Leal was responsible only for helping dump Cheek’s body and that he had no motive to kill.
Harris Jr., on the other hand, Galasso claimed, had been caught by Cheek molesting one of her daughters, a crime for which Harris Jr. has not been charged. He also hoped to inherit the house.
“He had every reason to want her dead,” Galasso said. “They’re counting on his word and his word alone for you to believe that my client is the one who killed.”
Galasso said a convicted murderer, Anthony Salcedo, will testify that Harris Sr. told Salcedo in prison that Harris Jr. — and not Leal –killed Cheek.
Dorr told jurors that Roberts’ truck was never brought to the Jurupa Valley home. Instead, he said, Cheek got in her white Volkswagen and safely drove away the night she disappeared. Her daughter will testify that Cheek had a distinctive black purse with her that night, a purse that was found at Roberts’ home several days after Cheek’s death.
“Horace Roberts could not explain how or why that purse was in his apartment in Temecula if he had nothing to do with this murder,” Dorr said.
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