Prosecution testimony got underway Wednesday in the trial of a Jurupa Valley man and his nephew accused of killing the man’s estranged wife, then framing her boyfriend for the murder, causing him to spend nearly two decades in prison.
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 the 1998 slaying of 33-year-old Terry Cheek.
Harris’ son, Googie Rene Harris Jr., 45, of Palm Desert pleaded guilty in February 2020 to being an accessory to murder. He’s free on bond and has been named a prosecution witness.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is seeking capital punishment for Googie Harris Sr. if he’s convicted.
Harris and Leal are each being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
On Tuesday, a jury was seated for the trial, and the prosecution and defense made opening statements. Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz ordered the panel back to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Wednesday for prosecution testimony.
According to a trial brief filed by the DA’s office, 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 over disposition of the house they had purchased together on Lindsey Street in Jurupa Valley.
The defendant and victim had a son together, and Cheek had two young daughters from a prior marriage, while Harris had his adult son.
After separating from Harris Sr., Cheek became romantically involved with a coworker, Horace Roberts, at Quest Labs in San Juan Capistrano. Roberts resided in a Temecula apartment, and initially the victim stayed with him but found it more economical to return to the home she and her estranged husband previously shared, so she began sleeping in a separate room, prosecutors said.
Harris Sr. referred to the property as his “dream home,” and 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. allegedly began formulating deadly plans, eventually drawing both Leal and Googie Harris Jr. into the alleged murder plot, settling on the night of April 14, 1998, to carry it out, prosecutors said.
After the victim said goodbye to her son and daughters to head to work, she walked into the hallway connecting the garage and house to drive Roberts’ pickup, which he had allowed her to borrow when her own car broke down, according to the brief.
As she stepped into the dark garage, Leal allegedly grabbed her from behind, at which point Harris Sr. rushed in and joined him in strangling Cheek, who was able to scratch and bite the defendant, the brief alleged. Harris Jr. was standing in the driveway and witnessed the struggle, but turned around, “not wanting to see his stepmother killed,” according to the brief. Cheek fought for several minutes before the men finally strangled the life out of 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 and took an exit toward Lake Corona, with Leal following behind in his vehicle, according to the narrative.
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 embraced the theory that he had gotten into an altercation with Cheek and killed her, despite his repeated denials and alibis. There were two criminal trials that resulted in hung juries. A panel convicted him, wrongfully, of the homicide in 1999. Harris Sr. testified for the prosecution in all three trials.
Attorneys for the San Diego-based 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, there was a successful re-analysis of her fingernail clippings and stains on her jeans, which proved Roberts was not the donor of the DNA. The findings concluded there was a 1 in 38 trillion possibility that someone other than Harris Sr. was the contributor of the skin and stain samples.
Roberts was released from prison on Oct. 15, 2018, and charges were immediately filed against Harris Sr. and Leal. Harris Jr. was charged a year later after a watch found near the spot where Cheek’s body had been dumped was ultimately confirmed to be his. He soon confessed.
Neither he or his father have prior felony convictions.
Roberts, now 66, received an $11 million settlement from the county in 2021 after suing over his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.