Another wife uses cheating husband as a speed bump

I'm starting to see a nasty trend here.

Wife runs over husband in parking lot, police say
Liberty County incident leaves man hurt, woman in jail

By LUCAS WALL
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

A 46-year-old woman ran her husband down with a Ford Taurus outside a Hardin convenience store Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

A witness said the woman had accused the man of cheating on her.

The victim, 31-year-old Mark Reents, was taken to Liberty-Dayton Hospital with minor injuries. He was expected to be released Sunday night. His wife, Renee Fowler-Reents, was taken to Liberty County Jail after fleeing the scene. She was charged with misdemeanor family-violence assault, according to the Liberty County Sheriff's Department, and will be arraigned today.

The incident occurred 10 days after a Harris County jury found Friendswood dentist Clara Harris guilty of murder in the July 24 automobile attack on her adulterous husband, David, at a Nassau Bay hotel. That case attracted national media attention. Clara Harris is now serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Events leading up to Sunday's assault apparently began at a youth basketball league awards ceremony at Hardin High School. The school is a couple of blocks from the Chubbys store in Hardin, a Liberty County town of 755 about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

After the couple got into an argument, Reents walked to Chubbys to buy a pack of cigarettes, said Cathey Wishert, who was less than an hour into her cashier shift at the time.

"There was some trouble at the school," Wishert said she found out later. "He was trying to ignore her, but she seemed to be high-strung."

As Reents paid for his Camel Lites about 3 p.m., his wife drove up in the Taurus. Wishert said she and two other employees watched her come into the store and start yelling at her husband.

"Look at this man!" Wishert recalled Fowler-Reents yelling. "Take a good look at this man. I've been married to him two years, and I caught him cheating!"

Her husband appeared embarrassed, picked up his cigarettes, didn't say anything and left the store. Wishert said she watched as the woman walked to her Taurus and got behind the wheel. The woman quickly reversed and Wishert saw trouble, telling a co-worker, "Oh my God, she's going to run over him!"

Wishert, 53, said she ran out the door, screaming, "Don't do it! Don't do it!" But she watched as the Taurus struck Reents, sending him into a field of mud south of the store's parking lot. The woman pulled the car onto FM 834 and turned around to head back for the lot, Wishert said.

"I ran over there to make sure he was OK," Wishert said. "I yelled, `Call the ambulance!' He reached for me to pull him up, but I looked up and she was coming back toward us. I screamed, `Don't do it!' She swerved, jumped out of the car and starting cussing us. She said something about how he deserved to die.

"I told her, `Not by you. You better get out of here, get out of here now.' "

The woman got back in the Taurus, which she had stopped about 10 feet from her husband and Wishert, and fled southbound on Texas 146, Wishert said. The Sheriff's Department caught up with Fowler-Reents later and arrested her.

Wishert helped Reents crawl out of the mud and waited about eight minutes for help to arrive. He had injuries to his legs and an arm, Wishert said, and he didn't say anything except to ask for a cigarette and a glass of water.

Chubbys became the center of attention Sunday evening in Hardin as word of the assault spread around town and TV news crews arrived. The store was much busier than normal, Wishert said in a telephone interview Sunday evening as she rang up purchase after purchase. There was lots of chatter about the incident heard in the background, including comparisons to Clara and David Harris.

"She's been watching too much news," Wishert said of Fowler-Reents.

She added that it was fortunate the Taurus was only going 10 to 15 mph when Reents was hit. Wishert, aware that David Harris was struck by his wife's Mercedes-Benz multiple times, said she blocked the Taurus in hopes of saving Reents' life.

Craig Ringer, Hardin Independent School District superintendent, said he was aware of the incident but didn't know details of what happened at the high school because the event was held by a private group. The youth basketball league serves elementary schoolchildren, he said.