Proceedings underway for men accused of killing woman, framing another man

Jury selection is slated to conclude next month for 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 the innocent man 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 is expected to testify for the prosecution.

The Riverside County District Attorney's Office is seeking capital punishment for Googie Harris Sr., if he's convicted and 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 Jail.

The man Harris allegedly framed, now-66-year-old Horace Roberts of Temecula, received an $11 million settlement from the county in 2021 after suing over his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

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 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, 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 previously 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 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 Googie Harris Jr. into the alleged murder 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 the 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 drive Roberts' pickup to her workplace, after her own vehicle had developed mechanical problems, and he allowed her to borrow his for the week, 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 the defendant, the brief alleged.

Harris Jr. was standing in the driveway and witnessed the struggle initially, but turned around for "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 looking at the body 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, prosecutors said. 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. 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.   

Leal admitted his culpability to his girlfriend's family within weeks of the slaying, but they never turned the information over to law enforcement, according to the brief.

The San Diego-based Innocence Project's attorneys 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, only after confirmation that a wrist watch found near the spot where Cheek's body had been dumped belonged to him. He soon confessed his role.

Neither he nor his father have prior felony convictions.