Jury recommends death for California man who framed estranged wife’s boyfriend in her 1998 slaying
The estranged husband of 32-year-old Terry Cheek faces the death penalty while his nephew confronts life without the possibility of parole in connection with her 1998 death after a jury recommended the sentences in Riverside Superior Court Wednesday, Sept. 4.
Googie Rene Harris Sr., 68, will return to court Dec. 6 to start sentencing proceedings, court records show, while Joaquin Latee Leal III, 58, will return Oct. 18, when he is expected to receive his sentence.
A judge will decided whether to accept the jury’s sentencing recommendations.
The two men framed a lover of Cheek’s who was sent to prison for 20 years before advanced DNA technology exonerated him and led authorities to the two men and Cheek’s stepson, Googie Harris Jr.
Harris Sr. and Leal were convicted by jury of first-degree murder on Aug. 22 and found to have been lying in wait, with Harris Sr. killing Cheek for financial gain.
Harris Jr. testified that his father killed Cheek because he feared he’d lose his “dream house” in a divorce.
The prosecution’s case hinged on the jury believing Harris Jr.’s testimony in a mostly circumstantial case. Harris Jr. testified that on April 14, 1998, his father and Leal grabbed Cheek as she was leaving her Glen Avon — now Jurupa Valley — home and strangled her.
Leal and Harris Jr. then put her body into a pickup truck belonging to Horace Roberts Jr., the man who Cheek was having an affair with and who was wrongly convicted for the crime. Cheek had borrowed Roberts’ truck that day.
The two men drove her to Lee Lake near Corona and dumped her body onto rocks, Harris Jr. testified, then left the truck about a mile away along the 15 Freeway. One trailed the other in another vehicle so the men could drive away.
Harris Sr. claimed it was his son and Leal who committed the killing, while Leal testified he didn’t kill Cheek, but arrived at the home to find Cheek already dead and helped Harris Jr. move the body. Attorneys representing both men put the slaying on Harris Jr.
Leal’s co-counsel, Peter Morreale, said he was happy with the jury’s decision for his client and said his heart goes out to Cheek and Roberts and their families.
“It’s a victory, given the notoriety of the case and the moving pieces in it,” Morreale said. “The way (the jury) came about it and deliberated was appropriate.
“Googie (Sr.) was the puppet master and that seems to have carried through with the jury, too,” he continued. “They thought he was a manipulator.”
Harris Sr.’s co-counsel, Darryl Exum, declined comment on the jury’s recommendations.
Cheek and Roberts worked together at Quest Diagnostics in San Juan Capistrano. Roberts lied to investigators about the affair and his whereabouts that night in order to avoid breaking workplace rules, he testified during trial. When family members collected her belongings from Roberts’ Temecula apartment, they found a black purse that Cheek had with her the day she disappeared.
A watch belonging to Harris Jr. and a piece of rope found at the lake were also initially linked to Roberts.
Harris Sr., in covering his tracks, testified against Roberts during his trial and spoke in favor of keeping him in prison at his parole hearings.
Following Roberts’ release in 2018, current Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, who was not in office at the time of Roberts’ three trials, issued an apology; Roberts was convicted in the third trial after the first two juries deadlocked.
Roberts sued the county and was paid $11 million in a settlement.
Harris Jr. took a plea deal in exchange for his testimony. He pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and is expected to receive one year in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 26, court records show.