Murder Case Proceeds Against Defendants Accused of Framing Temecula Man

Jury selection is underway for the trial of a man and his nephew accused of killing the man’s estranged wife, then framing her boyfriend for murder.

The innocent man, Horace Roberts, 66, of Temecula spent nearly two decades in prison following the April 1998 strangulation of Terry Cheek, 33, until a group of San Diego attorneys proved he was wrongfully convicted.

Googie Rene Harris Sr., 67, and Joaquin L. Leal, 58, are charged with first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and committing murder for financial gain in Cheek’s death.

Harris’ son, Googie Rene Harris Jr., 45, of Palm Desert pleaded guilty four years ago to being an accessory to murder. He’s free on bond and is expected to testify for the prosecution.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is seeking capital punishment for Harris Sr. As a result, the jury screening process, which began earlier this month at the Riverside Hall of Justice, is taking longer.

Harris and Leal are each being held on $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in RIverside.

According to a trial brief filed by the prosecution, Harris Sr. and Cheek were embroiled in a divorce at the time of her death. The proceedings had dragged on for months, delayed as a result of failed negotiations related to disposition of the house they had purchased together in Jurupa Valley.

The defendant and victim had a son together. Cheek also had two young daughters from a prior marriage and Harris had his adult son.

After separating from Harris Sr., Cheek became romantically involved with a coworker, Roberts, at Quest Labs in San Juan Capistrano.

Roberts resided in a Temecula apartment, and initially the victim stayed with him but found it less costly to return to the home she and her estranged husband had shared, so she began sleeping in a separate room with her daughters there, prosecutors said.

Harris Sr. referred to the property as his “dream home,” and said he didn’t want to lose it in the divorce, court papers alleged.

The defendant began confiding in Leal, visiting the younger man at his girlfriend’s Pomona home and remarking that Cheek was “trying to take everything” and how he wanted “her out of the picture,” the brief stated.

Leal, who had a felony record for sexual assault, was sympathetic, according to the prosecution.

Harris Sr. began formulating deadly plans, eventually drawing both Leal and Harris Jr. into the alleged plot, prosecutors said.

Harris Sr. selected the night of April 14, 1998, to perpetrate the killing, arranging for Leal to join him in restraining and strangling Cheek as she left for work, court papers alleged.

After the victim said goodbye to her son and daughters, she walked into the hallway connecting the garage and house to take Roberts’ pickup to her workplace, since her own vehicle had developed mechanical problems, according to the brief.

As she stepped into the dark garage, Leal grabbed her from behind, at which point Harris Sr. rushed in and joined him in strangling Cheek, who was able to scratch and bite her estranged husband, the brief alleged.

Harris Jr., standing in the driveway, witnessed the struggle initially, but turned around because he didn’t want “to see his stepmother killed,” according to the brief. Cheek fought for several minutes before the men succeeded in strangling her, court papers alleged.

Harris Jr. drove Roberts’ pickup with his dead stepmother next to him southbound on Interstate 15 into Temescal Valley, where he became extremely unsettled looking at the body and took an exit toward Lake Corona, with Leal following behind in his vehicle, according to prosecutors.

The men allegedly dragged the body from the pickup and dumped it amid rocks near the lake, then left in Leal’s car, leaving Roberts’ pickup on the shoulder of the freeway.

The remains were found three days later, along with the pickup, and sheriff’s investigators immediately questioned Harris Sr., who told them “Terry was driving her own car and was planning to meet Horace to carpool to work that night,” according to the brief.

Detectives turned their attention to Roberts and became fixed on the theory that he had gotten into an altercation with Cheek and killed her, despite his repeated denials and alibis.

Two criminal trials resulted in hung juries, but another panel convicted him of the homicide in 1999. Harris Sr. testified for the prosecution in all three trials.

Leal is alleged to have admitted his culpability to his girlfriend’s family within weeks of the slaying, but no one ever informed law enforcement that an innocent man had been targeted, according to the brief.

San Diego-based attorneys from the California Innocence Project took on Roberts’ appeals in 2004.

The process of re-examining DNA evidence collected from Cheek’s body stretched on for years. However, by 2018, a successful re-analysis of her fingernail clippings and stains on her jeans proved the DNA wasn’t Roberts’.

The findings concluded there was an exceedingly remote possibility – 1 in 38 trillion – that someone other than Harris Sr. had left the DNA found in the investigative samples.

Roberts was released from prison on Oct. 15, 2018.

Charges were immediately filed against Harris Sr. and Leal. Harris Jr. was charged a year later, only after confirmation that a wrist watch found near the spot where Cheek’s body had been dumped belonged to him. Neither he nor his father have prior felony convictions.

Roberts received an $11 million settlement from the county in 2021 after suing over his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

– City News Service