3rd man charged in 1998 Riverside County slaying of woman who worked in San Juan Capistrano

A third man was charged with murder on Tuesday for the 1998 death of his stepmom in a homicide case filed after a judge last year found that the woman’s boyfriend had wrongfully spent 20 years behind bars for the strangulation.

Googie Rene Harris Jr., of Menifee, entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday, Dec. 17, through an attorney. He will return to Riverside County Superior Court on Feb. 21.

He was arrested at work Friday in Palm Desert, according to John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. Harris remained in custody in lieu of posting bond on $1 million bail.

Prosecutors say DNA evidence ties him the murder.

Harris Jr. is the son of Googie Rene Harris Sr., who was charged along with Joaquin Lateee Leal in October 2018 for the slaying of Terry Cheek, the elder Harris’ estranged wife. Leal was Cheek’s nephew by marriage.

Families for both Cheek and Harris were present for the arraignment. Outside court, both families declined comment.

The elder Harris and Leal were charged after Horace Roberts, convicted of Cheek’s murder after his third trial in 1999, was found factually innocent of the slaying last year after a 15-year investigation and campaign to exonerate him by the California Innocence Project.

Roberts had been convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life. Googie Harris Sr. had shown up at parole hearings for Roberts to insist he remain behind bars.

“It is rare” for prosecutors to follow up an exoneration with charging new suspects said Michael Semanchik, managing attorney for the California Innocence Project.

He said the project “has had other cases where we have found who we believe to be the true perpetrators,” but prosecutors did not follow their recommendations.

In April 1998, Cheek’s body was found near Corona Lake along Temescal Canyon Road,  in a county area between Corona and Lake Elsinore. The mother of two had been in a romantic relationship with Roberts, a co-worker at a San Juan Capistrano medical lab.

California Innocence Project attorneys have said Cheek was slain because of her husband’s jealousy and their contentious divorce, and said Harris had fabricated evidence against Roberts.

The DNA evidence linking Harris Jr. to the case was lifted from a watch found where Cheek’s body was discovered, Hall said.

“It is believed that the watch was knocked off Harris Jr.’s arm when the victim’s body was left at the scene,” he said in a statement.

The California Innocence Project first conducted DNA testing on crime-scene evidence in 2007, including the watch, and found two male profiles.

In 2013-14 it argued that one of those profiles belonged to Googie Harris Jr. , and was told the evidence had not yet met the burden of overturning the case, but Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Gunn said additional DNA evidence might meet the standard.

More sophisticated tests in 2017 resulted in the two 2018 arrests and exoneration of Roberts. Leal, a convicted sex offender was linked to DNA found under Cheek’s left-hand fingernails. Harris Sr. also was linked to the case by DNA and other evidence, Hall said.

Hall said Tuesday the charge against Harris Jr. was brought after additional DNA testing in the past year.

The prosecutor’s office said it believes all three of the charged men were involved in the plan to kill Cheek. Leal and Harris Sr. were scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, but it seemed likely to be continued after Harris Jr. was charged.

California Innocence Project attorney Semanchik said he has been in touch with Roberts, who now lives in South Carolina, about the latest developments in the case.

Roberts is “looking for this to come to and end and get some closure to this chapter of his life,” Semanchik said.

Roberts has already received from the state Legislator compensation of $1,044,820, or $140 per day for the 7,463 days he was wrongfully imprisoned. The amount was assessed by the state Victim Compensation Board,  Semanchik said Tuesday.

In October, Roberts sued Riverside County and several “current and former officers and employees” of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, claiming they had manufactured the case against him.

Among the allegations was that the defendants “created false evidence” that the Lorus watch found at the crime scene belonged to Roberts, even though several witnesses told investigators the watch was not Roberts’.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the litigation when it was filed, and court records show the county defendants have until April 30, 2020, to file a response.