Trial begins for duo accused of killing one woman and framing another

Jury deliberations began today in the trial of a Jurupa Valley man and his nephew. Both are accused of killing the man's estranged wife and then framing her friend for the murder, which sent him to prison for nearly two decades.

Googie Rene Harris Sr., 67, and Joaquin L. Leal, 58, are charged with first-degree murder and lying in wait and committing murder for financial gain in connection with the 1998 killing of 33-year-old Terry Cheek.

The prosecution and defense concluded their closing arguments Wednesday afternoon, and Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz ordered jurors to return to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Thursday to begin hearing evidence in the month-long trial.

Harris' son, Googie Rene Harris Jr., 45, of Palm Desert, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting murder in February 2020. He is free on bail and testified before prosecutors. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 26.

If convicted, prosecutors are demanding the death penalty for Harris Sr.

Harris and Leal are each being held at the Robert Presley Jail on $1 million bail.

According to a trial report filed by the prosecution, Harris Sr. and
Cheek were going through a divorce, and the proceedings had dragged on for months because negotiations over the sale of the house they had bought together on Lindsey Street in Jurupa Valley had broken down.

The defendant and the victim had a son together, and Cheek had two young daughters from a previous marriage, while Harris had his adult son.

After separating from Harris Sr., Cheek began a romantic relationship with a co-worker, Horace Roberts, at Quest Labs in San Juan Capistrano. Roberts resided in Temecula, and the victim spent time with him there, but continued to live in the home she and her estranged husband had purchased together, sleeping in a separate room.

According to court documents, Harris Sr. called the property his “dream home” and did not want to lose it in the divorce.

The defendant began to confide in Leal, noting that Cheek was “trying to take everything away from her” and that he wanted her “out of the way,” the summary states.

According to the prosecution, Leal, who had a previous conviction for sexual assault, showed understanding.

Harris Sr. began to scheme and eventually implicated Leal and Googie Harris Jr. in the alleged murder plot, and on the night of April 14, 1998, they agreed to put the plan into action, prosecutors said.

After the victim said goodbye to her son and daughters to go to work, she went into the hallway that connects the garage and the house to drive off in Roberts' pickup truck, which he had lent her when her own car broke down, the summary states.

As she entered the dark room, Leal grabbed her from behind, and Harris Sr. rushed over and joined him in strangling Cheek, who was able to scratch and bite the defendant, the complaint states. Harris Jr. was standing in the driveway but turned around because he “did not want to watch his stepmother get killed,” the complaint states.

Harris Jr. drove Roberts' pickup truck, with his dead stepmother next to him, south on Interstate 15 into the Temescal Valley, where he became agitated and took an exit toward Lake Corona. Leal followed in his vehicle, according to the story.

The men allegedly dragged the body from the pickup truck and dumped it near the lake. They then drove away in Leal's car, leaving Robert's pickup on the side of the highway. The remains were found three days later along with the pickup truck, and sheriff's investigators interviewed Harris Sr., who told them, “Terry was driving her own car and was planning to meet Horace to carpool to work that evening,” the filing states.

Investigators turned their attention to Roberts, suspecting that, despite repeated denials and alibis, he had gotten into an argument with Cheek and killed her. There were two criminal trials in which the jury could not reach a consensus. A panel wrongfully convicted him of murder in 1999. Harris Sr. testified for the prosecution in all three trials.

Attorneys from the San Diego-based Innocence Project took over Roberts' appeals in 2004. The process of re-examining the DNA evidence taken from Cheeks' body dragged on for years. In 2018, a successful re-analysis of her fingernails and stains on her jeans proved that Roberts was not the DNA donor.

The results concluded that the chance that the skin and patch samples came from someone other than Harris Sr. is 1 in 38 trillion.

Roberts was released from prison on October 15, 2018, and charges were immediately filed against Harris Sr. and Leal. Harris Jr. was charged a year later and soon confessed.

Neither he nor his father have ever been convicted of a crime.

Roberts, now 66, received $11 million in compensation from the county in 2021 after suing over his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.