January 11, 1999. It was a Monday in Katy, Texas. Belinda Temple, a 30-year-old special education teacher who was eight months pregnant, walked into her home after work. She never made it out. Someone put a shotgun to the back of her head and pulled the trigger while she was in her master bedroom closet.
Kinda sounds like a horror movie, right? But for the people in the Houston area, this wasn't fiction. It was the start of a 25-year legal marathon that basically tore a family apart and turned a high school football coach into one of the most polarizing figures in Texas true crime history. Honestly, if you look at the Belinda Temple and David Temple case today, it’s not just about a murder anymore. It’s about a messy affair, a "staged" burglary, and a legal system that spent two decades trying to decide if they had the right guy.
The Crime Scene That Didn't Add Up
When David Temple called 911 that evening, he sounded frantic. He told the dispatcher he’d just gotten home with their three-year-old son, Evan, and found the back door smashed. He claimed a burglary had gone wrong. But here’s the thing: when investigators showed up, they noticed some weird stuff almost immediately.
The glass from the back door window was scattered on the floor. Normal, right? Not really. It looked like the glass had been broken while the door was already open. Then there were the "stolen" items. Or rather, the lack of them. A TV was sitting on the floor, but it was still plugged in. Jewelry was left out in plain sight. Most tellingly, the family’s dog—a protective Chow named Shaka—hadn't barked. Neighbors said that dog would lose its mind if a stranger even looked at the backyard.
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Yet, on the afternoon of the murder, Shaka was silent.
The Heather Scott Factor
You can’t talk about Belinda Temple and David Temple without talking about the affair. Prosecutors eventually discovered that David, a coach at Alief Hastings High School, was seeing another teacher named Heather Scott.
They weren't just flirting. They were deep in it.
David had actually lied to Belinda about going on a hunting trip over New Year’s Eve just so he could spend the weekend with Heather. Just three days before the murder, David told Heather he loved her. She said it back. Fast forward to 2001, and David and Heather actually got married. For a lot of people, that was the smoking gun of motive. Why deal with a messy divorce and a new baby when you could just... start over?
Two Decades of Legal Tug-of-War
David Temple wasn't even arrested until 2004. It took five years for the police to feel they had enough to move. When he finally went to trial in 2007, led by the legendary (and controversial) prosecutor Kelly Siegler, he was found guilty and sentenced to life.
But that wasn't the end. Not even close.
In 2016, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out that conviction. Why? Because it turned out the prosecution had withheld a massive amount of evidence—roughly 36 items—that might have helped the defense. This included information about an "alternate suspect," a teenage neighbor named Riley Joe Sanders who supposedly had a grudge against Belinda.
Temple was released from prison. He was a free man for a while. Then came the retrial in 2019.
A new jury looked at the same evidence. They heard about the dog that didn't bark. They heard about the grocery store surveillance video that David used as an alibi (prosecutors argued he just timed his errands perfectly to create a "window"). They found him guilty. Again.
However, that 2019 jury couldn't agree on a sentence. They were deadlocked. It took another four years and a whole separate sentencing trial in 2023 for a third jury to finally hand down another life sentence. As of early 2026, David Temple is still behind bars, having recently lost his final rounds of appeals.
What Most People Get Wrong
People love to argue about the "alternate suspect." The defense leaned hard into the idea that Riley Joe Sanders, the teenager next door, was the real killer. They even found a friend of his who claimed he’d heard a confession.
But investigators found that the timeline for the teen didn't work. Plus, the shotgun evidence never quite clicked for anyone but David. The case against David was almost entirely circumstantial—no DNA, no murder weapon—but the sheer weight of the "staged" scene and the affair was enough for two different juries to put him away.
Key Evidence That Kept Him in Prison:
- The Timeline: Prosecutors proved David had enough time to kill Belinda, go to Brookshire Bros. and Home Depot to be seen on camera, and then "discover" the body.
- The Staged Burglary: The way the glass fell and the fact that nothing valuable was taken pointed toward an inside job.
- The Lack of a Barking Dog: This is often cited by jurors as the most convincing detail. A stranger couldn't have entered that yard without Shaka alerting the whole block.
Where Things Stand Now
Heather Scott filed for divorce from David in 2019, right in the middle of his second trial. She’s moved on. Their son, Evan, who is now an adult, has actually stood by his father for years, even testifying that David was his role model. It’s a messy, tragic dynamic that shows how these cases never really "end" for the people involved.
David is currently serving his time at the Alfred D. Hughes Unit in Gatesville. According to the latest records, he won’t even be eligible for parole until 2044. By then, he’ll be in his late 70s.
Staying Informed on the Case
If you're following the Belinda Temple and David Temple saga, the best way to get the full picture is to look at the trial transcripts rather than just the headlines. The 2016 reversal is a fascinating study in "Brady violations" (when the state hides evidence), and the 2023 sentencing shows just how much weight victim impact statements still hold in the Texas justice system.
To dig deeper, you should look into the "48 Hours" specials on the case, which provide the most detailed visual evidence of the crime scene layout and the grocery store alibi footage. Understanding the geography of their Katy neighborhood is key to seeing why the prosecution's timeline eventually won out over the defense's "burglary gone wrong" theory.