Last July, Clara, 45, discovered that her husband was having an affair with his receptionist. When she confronted him, he vowed to break it off–but not without noting, according to Clara’s testimony, that she was “too big” and “pessimistic” compared with his mistress, a “good conversationalist” with a “perfect body.” Clara joined a fitness club, hit the tanning salon and signed up for plastic surgery. She also hired a detective, who several days later tipped her off that David was with the mistress again–at the same hotel where she and David were married. Joined by David’s daughter from a previous marriage, Clara drove to the hotel and confronted the two as they exited. Later, in the parking lot, Clara eyed David from her Mercedes, according to her stepdaughter’s testimony, and, announcing that “I’m going to hit him,” floored the accelerator and ran over him three times.
The jury of nine women and three men apparently didn’t buy Clara’s story that she only meant to hit the mistress’s SUV. Nor did their sentence show much leniency for a woman betrayed; though even David’s parents had pleaded for probation, it will be 10 years be-fore she’s eligible for parole. Sobbing in a holding cell after her sentencing, Clara asked her attorney about her 4-year-old twin sons: “I’m never going to see my boys again, am I? I’m never getting out of jail.” She will, but not before they’re at least teenagers.
