Free Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder by Kathryn Casey Page B

their games ended, in March of 1991, Belinda and David were on a basketball court together, playing in a coed intramural game. David later told Moore that a player on the opposing team, Erick Buck, had cursed in front of Belinda. Buck would describe it differently.
    It began, he says, when a referee called a foul against David.
    “Good call,” Buck said to the ref, as he walked toward the foul line. Seconds later, from out of nowhere, someone clubbed him on the head, knocking Buck out. At 160 pounds, Buck was 60 pounds lighter than the man who hit him, David Temple.
    An ambulance was called to transport Buck to the emergency room. After he woke up, a university policeman dropped in to see him, to ask if he wanted to press charges. It was then that Buck learned his assailant was one of the university’s top football players. The officer suggested that if Buck let it slide, David would pay all Buck’s medical expenses.
    More worried about finances than getting even, Buck, who had a cut under one eye from the attack, agreed, and no charges were ever filed.
    That summer, David circulated to some of the pro camps to try out for an NFL team. He wasn’t chosen. Again, his coach, Lynn Graves, would say, “David just wasn’t tall enough for the NFL.”
    The following fall, 1991, David was featured in the Lumberjack television commercials, touting ticket sales. The team again would not have a good year, but David won an honorable mention as an All-American linebacker.
    Meanwhile, the more Tom and Carol saw David, the better they felt about him. He was polite with them, saying, “Yes, sir,” and, “Yes, ma’am.” Brenda was still less certain. When she saw the Temples, “they always acted as if everyone else was below them. And Belinda was spending more time with them, so I had to see them to see my sister.”
    Her family and friends had no doubt that Belinda was taken with David and the whole Temple family. “Belinda always did everything one hundred percent, and she loved the same way,” says Rios. Of course, she had to admit that David couldn’t have been more engaging with Belinda, or sweeter. He’d call her late at night, sometimes just to hang on the phone for hours and talk. That he was a celebrity on campus must have made Belinda feel special. “People would say, ‘Oh, you’re dating that football player?’ They were impressed. In Nacogdoches, people fawned over David, and David was good-looking. He could have had almost any girl, and he chose Belinda.”
    Rios continued to express concern when Belinda mentioned David’s temper. Yet Belinda shrugged it off. “I can handle him,” she said. “I know when to back off.”
    That’s what Belinda did with Tony Luna, when they happened upon each other at a shopping mall. Three years younger than she, Tony, the kid brother of Belinda’s good friend Angie, had a crush on Belinda. Yet the closest they’d ever come to a date was Belinda’s senior year at Nacogdoches High, when she needed an escort for homecoming. Angie asked Tony to escort Belinda. He agreed and on that night brought Belinda a white flower corsage. “I only got to dance with her twice, and then she danced the rest of the night with a football player,” he’d say. “She looked beautiful.”
    That day, years later, their paths crossed at the Beall’s Department Store in the mall, when Tony was home on leave from the navy. Belinda ran up to him, giving him a big hug. She seemed delighted to see him, but they talked for only a few minutes before she became fidgety. “I need to go,” she said. “My boyfriend is here somewhere, and he’s the jealous type.”
    Saying nothing more, Belinda hurriedly turned and walked away.
    If David was already attempting to control Belinda, she didn’t reveal any concerns to her parents or Brenda, or confide in her friends. That November, David went to the hardware store where Carol worked, now that her children were grown, and said he had something he wanted