Shattered

I don't know if I am biased, being from Katy, but after having read almost all of Kathryn Casey's true-crime books, this one is still the best. I wish I could find out, though, if the argument was made that in his mind, divorce was not an option because on top of looking bad to his family, he would not get primary custody of the kids (one of which was yet to be born at the time) AND he would owe child support.

Excellent telling of a tale too tragic and pathetically senseless to comprehend. I had to wait awhile to write this review because I was truly too stupefied to comment. David Temple, future football god, was a time bomb ticking away since childhood. Physically powerful and built for football, selfish, egotistical, bull-headed, aggressive to the point of reckless, yet recognizably very talented on the field; David was a rising football star in Katy, Texas who was pampered, coddled, and protected by his parents, most of the local folks, his HS coaches and school administrators to the point that he did what he pleased regardless of how it affected others. A self-serving bully by nature, he seems to change when he falls in love with and marries sweet, kind, beautiful inside-and-out Belinda Lucas in college. Everybody loves her, especially his parents and family who think she's tamed the wild, destructive beast in their pampered son. David and Belinda become respected teachers and move to his hometown so he can coach at a nearby high school. They have a son who is adored by both. However, David starts running around, treating his wife like dirt, and the marriage sours. Despite her fears that her over-bearing husband no longer loves her, Belinda gets pregnant. Thrilled to be having a baby girl, she tries to make the marriage work. David has other plans. By this time he's having an affair with Heather Scott, a sexy, flirty fellow teacher at his school. Heather knows he's married but that didn't seem to make much difference. Three months after the torrid affair begins, Belinda, who is eight months pregnant, is shot in the back of the head execution style with a 12 gauge shotgun. Everyone seems to know David killed his wife but the family rallies around David to once again protect him from reaping the consequences of his own horrific actions. He and Heather continued on with their affair, the rest of the Temples looked the other way, both David and Heather kept their jobs, and life seemed to move along just fine for David for six years. In fact, Heather and David married two years after Belinda's murder. However, the hard working detectives who were assigned to bring Belinda's killer to justice kept plodding along behind the scenes collecting evidence until finally they had enough proof to bring a killer husband to trial. The evidence was circumstantial but highly compelling and prosecutor Kelly Ziegler took it to trial. David's lawyer was high profile Texas defense attorney Dick DeGuerin who made a great, flamboyant show ahead of time of how he was going to trample the prosecution. Throughout the trial he whined, sulked and complained about Seigler who had already beaten him 3 previous times in the courtroom. But IMHO, DeGuerin's behavior in the courtroom was buffoonish and disrespectful. His massive ego was way out of control and his open contempt for the prosecutors and their witnesses was disrespectful and unacceptable in a court of law. That's saying a lot for me because I tend to give defense attorneys more leeway than prosecutors since so much is at stake. But this guy's behavior was and still is embarrassing-- totally out of place in the justice system. He hurt his client by his absurd behavior and totally lost his professional judgement as a lawyer with his overt, vindictive hatred for the prosecutors in this case. It was obvious that he was on a revenge trip -- maybe even more so than just representing his client. I'm shocked that he wasn't held in contempt of court during this trial. He pulled shenanigans that were shockingly out of control. Regardless, Seigler and her fellow prosecutor put on a very compelling case of first degree murder and David Temple was convicted. Heather Scott and the Temple family did their part in getting the guy convicted,too, because their testimonies were so convoluted and obviously false. DeGuerin should never have put those people on the stand. His whole defense was strange and lacking in real substance. But to this very day -- despite endless rejected appeals-- he is still whining and carrying on about how horrible Kelly Ziegler is and how she put his innocent client in jail. The evidence was clear as day. David Temple executed his wife and unborn child because he decided he didn't want to be married to Belinda anymore. A selfish, deplorable act of a sociopath who thought his life and well-being more important than his devoted wife's life. Or his unborn little baby girl's life. Simple as that. Why should Mr. Big Shot have to bother with a divorce? It just wasn't his style. As for the childish Dick DeGuerin, he's still jumping around like Rumpelstiltskin blaming the prosecutor and pointing fingers at shadows. As of December 15, 2014, DeGuerin and Temple were filing away again on another appeal--they were robbed, they say, Temple should have gotten away with murder! So far the state of Texas says NOT! Texas says Belinda Lucas Temple and her unborn child Erin Temple MATTERED.

I probably would never have considered reading true crime if I hadn't been caught up in the Scott/Laci Peterson ordeal. However, I didn't read any of the books available on that case until very recently. But in a slight, new-found interest in true crime stories, I stumbled across Kathryn Casey's works and, as a Texan, was immediately drawn to those, specifically. It also helps that she is a particularly good writer. She knows how to combine the emotional and the factual elements of a story so that one doesn't overpower the other, though a few reviewers on this book in particular seemed a bit exasperated at the in-depth focus on football and its importance in Texas in general and Katy, TX in particular. Again, as a Texan, I understand why those elements would matter so much in this particular story. Football heroes are revered here far more than they should be, particularly in small communities, where the stars of the high school football team can be put on a ridiculously high pedestal. They are coddled, protected and their sense of their own infallibility is consistently reinforced.That said, after reading this, IMO David Temple makes Scott Peterson look like a teddy bear. When Laci Peterson disappeared, Laci's family stuck by Scott for at least a month before they finally began to admit to themselves that he just wasn't "acting right." None of her friends or family initially doubted his love for Laci and their unborn child. At least he put on a much better act. He actually pretended to feel excited -- most of the time -- about his unborn son, working on the nursery and whatnot. In poor Belinda's case, when friends and family first found out about her murder, the immediate reaction from nearly all of them was that David had done it. Initially, even his own mother had some doubts about her son's innocence. At one point she couldn't keep from expressing out loud in a police interview that just maybe he was capable of doing something like that.David made no attempt to hide his flirtations with other women and humiliated Belinda at his high school reunion by openly flirting with other women right in front of her. He certainly didn't bother to hide his contempt and complete disrespect for her, even jeering at her and speaking hatefully to her in front her own family. He was a bully; he was openly narcissistic and controlling with a hair-trigger temper that he made no attempt to control. Even his mistress-turned-wife cannot be compared favorably to Amber Frey. Frey was almost as much a victim (though a luckier one) as Laci Peterson had been. On the other hand, Heather Scott KNEW Temple was married, KNEW his wife was pregnant, and carried on the affair in spite of that knowledge. She did turn out to be lucky, though. She didn't live with David long enough for him to come to hate her, too, and possibly send her out of this world in the same way he sent Belinda. In a bizarre twist, she is now raising Belinda's orphan (who looks exactly like his father.)I did have to snicker when I read the Author's Note where DeGuerin claimed that everything the Harlans had said about their former "friend" was "Lies; absolute lies." I always think it's funny in these cases where the defense loses and then the defense team insists that every, single one of the prosecution witnesses lied their butts off. All of them. Regardless of the fact that there may have been as many as 20 to 30 prosecution witnesses, they all somehow got together secretly, all decided what their story was going to be in order to make sure an innocent man went to prison. It never occurred to DeGuerin that the Harlans had also been Belinda's friends, and knew first hand what misery their "friend" David had put their friend Belinda through on a daily basis.In the end, David's family turned out to be no better than the Peterson clan. They knew he'd done it, but they were willing to lie to everyone both in and out of court to keep him from getting the punishment he deserved. It would be interesting to know how each family felt about the others' son in their cases. Would the Peterson clan insist that, of course, David was guilty? Would the Temples insist that Scott Peterson certainly was guilty of murder? How the Temples can all live with themselves is beyond me, but at least they don't have a website soliciting money for their efforts to appeal his case.

Really well written book, which, I should have reviewed ages ago when I purchased it. However.... last night I watched a 48hrs where he was all set for a possible re-trial, I think it was filmed maybe 2012?. It's now 2017, and I've just read up on the case, and he actually been set free!It's all down to the prosecution keeping some paperwork secret or something along those lines, and possible misconduct from them. After reading the book, I still think he is VERY guilty and got away with double murder (yes double, his wife was over 8 months pregnant when she was killed), even though he was only charged and found guilty of killing his wife.I suggest you read the book first, THEN watch CBS 48hrs.... there are a couple of episodes, spanning the years since the 1999 murder.Wow.... I can see this carrying on, and would love the author to give us her views on the actual outcome whenever that may actually happen.Whatever happens, we need to remember a lovely lady was murdered, along with her unborn child, leaving another son without his mum.Unfortunately in the US it seems to all become a media circus (look at the OJ trial) with the spotlight being on the prosecutor and defence lawyers... both of whom are very famous in their field for winning!Back to the book...... I was hooked. Alot of these type of "true life murders" are quite boring, but this author kept me gripped. Will be getting another from her later today..

This was just an appalling and sad murder case but certainly not the author's best by any stretch. It had WAY too many mistakes in it along with too much repetition as well for me. I gave her last I read 5 stars then this was only a 3 star for sure.....a pity. I found in hard in places to pick up again as I was getting bogged down with the way she wrote this one.It's rare as the author mentioned that a victim had not one person saying anything bad about them but it appears Belinda truly was loved by everyone she ever knew. She had to have been a special person for sure. Such a terrible waste along with her little girl she already loved so much. For me it was hard to see what anyone saw in David....he didn't appear to have any redeeming qualities I could see. Once again I found myself reading about a kid whose parents totally indulged him and this is what we all ended up with......a spoilt man who believed he could do anything and walk away from it. It was staggering how he and his family rewrote history as it suited and seemed to believe their own brand of tripe ! Yet he wasn't very bright in the way he set up the murder in the first place. He probably thought he would never be caught. It was quite amazing the lies anyone associated with David told the whole time. As for his new wife, the least said about that dumb bitch the better...."All we did was have an affair".....enough said. It's pretty sad Evan ended up with her and doesn't seem right.Belinda had some lovely friends who stood up in court on her behalf-good for them. Also the police personnel who never gave up on her especially Mike Schmidt.It's a truly shocking statistic that homicide is THE most leading cause of death in pregnant women !!The mistakes came thick and fast in this one-apostrophe errors and missed words from sentences then brought used in place of bought...pretty sloppy work.There was a great deal of repetition and I didn't think we needed to know what particular menu each restaurant featured served.I hope Belinda's little boy did alright for himself and that his father rots.

I can't remember the last time I got so wound up reading a true crime tale since reading the sublime 'Fatal Vision' by Joe McGinniss(The best true crime book I've ever read). Like the McGinniss book this is the story of a husband suspected of murdering his wife, however in this case 1) there is no direct physical evidence though plenty of circumstantial evidence and motive and 2) the husband doesn't even bother to put on a pretence of grief, making everyone sure he did but will never be convicted. I really felt for Belinda's family left alone in their grief and often quite indignant at those who were in the husband's camp - especially his family who joined ranks to save him and his mistress who seemed to be able to turn a blind eye to the fact she was in love with a murderer.Casey does a really good job - some true crime novels are exciting reads up to the point where the actual crime happens and then get bogged down in forensic and legal technicalities -I usually skip through court room scenes - but not in this case.It really is good value for money and if you enjoy true crime books I think it's well worth downloading this one.

This is a very sad story about an innocent woman and her unborn child gunned down in cold blood by her evil, calculating husband whom must have believed murder was easier than divorce.This Is the first ;) kathryn Casey book I have read and I will definitely read more of her work.Well written, balanced and very sympathetic, the actual my murder itself being as very small part of the book and the body of it being about the families, friends and affect on their lives.The photos usual in these books also appears in the middle rather than the end as with most others, which furthers draws you into the story as you can visualize things better as the story unfolds.Ann rule fans would approve.

I recently read 'Deadly Little Secrets' by this author and couldn't put it down but I could hardly pick this one up. It's too long winded and boring. Far too much about David Temple's football career and things that have no bearing on the case. I'm struggling to finish it.