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NDER SUSPICION
From local star to murder suspect
By PEGGY O'HARE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
David Mark Temple, a former Katy high school football player and coach
at Alief High School, was charged with murder in the death of his wife,
Belinda Tracie Temple.
Until recently, the Katy High School Class of 1987's claim to fame was
graduating with Ren=E9e Zellweger, who later skyrocketed from small-town
cheerleader to Oscar-winning movie star.
But the arrest of one of its favored sons - a handsome football hero
charged last month in the death of his pregnant wife - has brought
new notoriety to a graduation class already used to the spotlight.
David Mark Temple had a storybook marriage, or so it seemed in this
clean-cut town 28 miles west of Houston. Known as the "Temple of Doom"
on the football field, he was the star player voted "Most Athletic" his
senior year, a burly warrior who went on to play on a conference
championship-winning team in college and returned home with a lovely
young bride and a promising career in coaching.
His wife, Belinda Tracie Temple, 30, nicknamed the "Sunshine Girl" by
her co-workers, was a buoyant, upbeat Katy High School teacher with a
quick smile who nurtured her special-education students. The couple
made their home in a two-story, red-brick house with three bedrooms and
a pond in back. They were the parents of a 3-year-old son.
All that changed on Jan. 11, 1999, when the Sunshine Girl, eight months
pregnant, was found dead in an upstairs closet at the home, shot in the
back of the head with a shotgun.
The blast shattered her entire cranial cavity and exited on the right
side of her face, creating a 5-inch hole, an autopsy report shows. The
unborn baby girl she was carrying - well developed and weighing 6
pounds - also perished.
Her husband, an Alief high school football coach, was taken in for
questioning that night.
It was a long way from the university football field where he had
proposed marriage to his wife.
For nearly six years, there were suspicions, investigations and pleas
for justice. Last month, David Temple, 36, was charged with murder -
even though previous grand juries declined to hand up an indictment.
He is now suspended with pay from his coaching job at Hastings Ninth
Grade Center in southwest Houston, though the Alief Independent School
District board could take further action against him if he is formally
indicted.
Community reacts
News of his arrest stunned the community of Katy. But some were less
surprised, saying Temple had a short fuse at times, especially in
sports. And then there was the affair Temple was having with a
co-worker in the days before his wife's violent death, detailed in an
affidavit used to secure the arrest.
That co-worker was Hastings Ninth Grade teacher Heather Scott, now
Heather Temple, his wife.
Attorney Dick DeGuerin, who represents David Temple, denies there was
any full-blown, ongoing affair. He says his client was "deeply in love"
with his slain wife and was devastated by her violent death.
The case has long simmered in Katy's consciousness, and the football
hero's public fall from grace has brought the crime back to the
forefront. Many will not comment publicly or allow their names to be
published, citing fears of harassment or retaliation.
And even though some friends say David Temple's first marriage was
significantly strained in the months before the fatal shooting, people
still wonder how a union that appeared so idyllic could have ended so
tragically.
The good years
While any classmate's arrest on murder charges would be a shock,
Temple's troubles have been especially surprising for those who
remember the adulation he received in high school and college.
The muscular 5-foot-11, 225-pound young man is prominently featured
throughout Katy High School's 1987 yearbook, which marked his senior
year. The varsity football team earned the district title after an
undefeated season. Temple was pictured receiving a plaque as an
outstanding member of the "Fighting Tigers" and was shown signing a
four-year football scholarship with his parents beaming in the
background.
Temple is remembered as an unofficial leader of a clique of jocks known
throughout the school as "The Rebels." Their counterparts were a group
of female students nicknamed "The Rebel Women."
"He was probably the perennial athlete of our class," said Katy
classmate Darrell Bacak. "He was, like, Mr. Jock. I knew he was a very
intense guy, athletically."
Another Katy classmate, who asked that her name not be published, had
less fond memories.
"I remember he was just a little s--t. He really was," she said. "The
group he ran with, they thought they were high and mighty."
One event that senior year was not captured in the yearbook: the
February 1987 arrest of Temple and a varsity football teammate on a
charge of burglary of a motor vehicle. Katy police reports show the
pair admitted to being involved in numerous car break-ins over the
previous seven months. Their statements helped police clear seven
cases.
One of the other football players named in the police reports said he
traded some of the stolen items for steroids. But Temple told police
only that radar detectors stolen in the break-ins were sold.
Court papers show Temple gave a written, voluntary statement admitting
to one car burglary. He pleaded guilty to a reduced Class A misdemeanor
charge of attempted burglary of a vehicle, was sentenced to three days
in the Harris County Jail and was ordered to pay a $100 fine.
Temple went on to greater glories as an honorable mention All-American
middle linebacker at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches,
where his picture was plastered around town and he was featured in a
few TV commercials. A 1989 Chronicle article detailed his
aggressiveness on the field.
In the article, Temple said, "I've got a temper, a pretty short fuse.
But you have to have that aggressiveness to play in the middle."
The career high came when the SFA Lumberjacks won the 1989 Southland
Conference title and went on to the national finals. They lost, but
Temple took home a gold conference championship ring.
The relationship
Temple met fellow kinesiology major Belinda Lucas at the university.
Belinda was a hometown girl, having grown up in Nacogdoches with her
twin sister, Brenda. Friends described her as self-assured, outgoing
and sassy. She was supporting herself, working two different jobs while
studying full time. She was inspired to pursue a career in special
education because of her older brother's deafness.
She was well into her college career by the time she met Temple.
"I didn't care for him - he wasn't my type," said Belinda's former
roommate, Staci Rios of Houston. "He was cocky and arrogant." But with
Belinda, Rios added, "he just wasn't that way with her at all. He was
very kind and sweet."
A former roommate and teammate could recall only one incident in which
Temple came to blows off the field, when a fight broke out during an
intramural coed basketball game.
Reno Moore, of Whitehouse, said he did not see the fracas but that
Temple later told him another man would not stop using foul language in
front of Belinda.
"This was in Belinda's defense," Moore said. " ... David kept telling
the guy to shut his mouth. A brawl broke out, and
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