Posted on 10/16/2002 4:54:08 AM PDT by KS Flyover
ATM photos shown in Carr trial
By Roxana Hegeman - The Associated Press - 10/16/2002
WICHITA -- Family members cried and held hands in court Tuesday as prosecutors showed jurors surveillance photos from automated teller machines where their loved ones were forced to make withdrawals before they were killed. Detective Jimmie Merrick, a financial crimes investigator with the Wichita Police Department, outlined for jurors the numerous withdrawals and attempted withdrawals from the accounts of Aaron Sander, Brad Heyka, Jason Befort and a woman who survived the shootings.
Merrick testified that a total of $1,830 was taken from the four. Police found $2,156.15 on brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr when they were arrested just hours after the withdrawals and killings.
The Carrs are being tried in Sedgwick County District Court on a total of 113 charges, most of which stem from the events of Dec. 14-15, 2000, when five friends were abducted from a Wichita home, forced to engage in sexual acts and to withdraw money from ATMs before they all were shot. Four of them -- Sander, 29; Heyka, 27; Befort, 26; and Heather Muller, 25, died. Befort's girlfriend, then a 25-year-old teacher, survived a head wound, running naked about a mile to find help.
The brothers also are being tried in the Dec. 11, 2000, shooting of Ann Walenta, 55, who later died, and the Dec. 7, 2000, robbery in which Andrew Schreiber was abducted and forced to withdraw cash from ATMs.
Jurors viewed ATM surveillance photos of Heyka and Befort withdrawing money from the machines. None of those photos showed anyone else in the car at the time. Prosecutors planned to show the rest of the surveillance photos when the trial resumes today.
In testimony earlier Tuesday, a female friend of Jonathan Carr testified he became upset and started crying when she confronted him after she saw a television report of his brother being arrested for the four killings.
Tronda Adams, 22, said she immediately recognized Jonathan's brother, Reginald, from the news reports as the man who had been at her house with Carr a night earlier -- and then realized Jonathan was the second man police were looking for.
She already had heard reports that police were looking for a man with an orange and black sweater with the word "FUBU" across the front. Jonathan was wearing a sweater that morning that matched the description when he came to her house, she said.
Adams also testified she had earlier told Jonathan Carr that four people got killed after they were forced to go to ATMs to get cash. Jonathan wanted to know how police knew that, and she told him one person survived.
But it wasn't until after she saw news reports of his brother's arrest that she confronted him about what he had been doing.
"I said: 'What's going on? Did you see that?' " Adams testified.
Jonathan Carr then told her he had missed his train and had spent the night at his home drinking, she said.
"That is not going to work," she said she told him, adding that police were looking for him.
Adams said her mother, Toni Greene, then called her to another room. They left for a neighbor's house, where Greene called police.
In other testimony Tuesday, Adams connected the gun allegedly used in the killings to the Carr brothers.
She said Jonathan Carr gave her a silver handgun after a problem she had with a former boyfriend. He later traded her a black semiautomatic for the silver handgun before taking both weapons back before the quadruple killings, she said.
Adams identified in court Tuesday the black gun as the one she had been given -- giving jurors their first glimpse at the purported murder weapon.
Also on Tuesday, Adams testified she initially knew the brothers only by their nicknames: Jonathan was called "Pit" and Reginald was called "Smoke."
What jurors never heard, however, was her testimony earlier in which she described a phone call Jonathan made to his sister after hearing news of the quadruple murder on the television.
"What has Smoke got me into," she testified she overheard Jonathan tell his sister on the phone.
District Judge Paul Clark allowed that testimony while the jury was out of the courtroom for the record, in the event of an appeal.
Coleen Jensen, a crime scene investigator for the Wichita Police Department, also took the stand to identify property that was recovered from the house where Jonathan Carr had gone when police got the call from Adams' mother.
Among the items Jensen identified was a diamond engagement ring that was found in the coat pocket of a jacket prosecutors contend belonged to Jonathan Carr -- the ring that prosecutors contend Befort planned to give to his girlfriend.
For detais about the murders see: The Wichita Massacre
Wichita Massacre Trial Threads:
Wichita to revisit brutal slayings as testimony begins - 10/07/2002
Deputy recalls moment of discovering bodies [Wichita Murders] Day 1 - 10/07/2002
WICHITA MASSACRE TRIAL UNDERWAY Day 1 - 10/08/2002
Legal wrangling opens Carr trial [Wichita Murders] Day 1 - 10/08/2002
Carr trial: Survivor describes sexual attacks by armed intruders [Wichita Massacre] Day 2 - 10/09/2002
Witchita Case of Black Racist Crime Survivor's testimony horrifies courtroom Day 2 - 10/10/2002
Woman testifies that Carrs killed her friends in a soccer field [Wichita Massacre Day 3] - 10/10/2002
Prosecutors Downplay Racial Element in Kansas Murder Trial - 10/11/2002
Reginald Carr had $996, victims' credit card, watch [Wichita Massacre Day 4] - 10/11/2002
Wichita Massacre Audio of 911 Call by Female Survivor with Court Room Video Footage From Day 1- 10/11/2002
Victims' belongings linked to defendant [Wichita Massacre Day 5] - 10/12/2002
Trial opens window into night of fear - 10/13/2002
Media Ignore Kansas Interracial Mass Murder - 10/14/2002
AP Finally Reports Wichita Trial... But Mentions "White Supremacist" Support - 10/14/2002
Nosey mom tips off cops (Wichita Massacre) Day 6 - 10/15/2002
'I was afraid,' witness says [Wichita Massacre Day 6] - 10/15/2002
"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List".Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.
Another victim. Boo f***ing whoo. fsf
It is not unusual, when there is a dispute over admissability and evidence is excluded, for the attorney who had urged the admissability of the evidence to make an "offer of proof" for the record. This says, in effect, "If I was allowed to present this evidence, this is what it would be and this is what I think it would prove." That allows the appellate court to determine the relevance and materiality of the evidence if it concludes that the trial judge should have allowed it in.
Typically, the offer of proof is made at a sidebar conference or in the judge's chambers so that it is out of the hearing of the jury. I am assuming that if this was done in open court, it must mean that the jury is sequestered. Unless there is some gag order in effect (which is unusual) the press in the US are free to print anything that transpires in the courtroom. If the jury was not sequestered, the judge would have to assume this evidence would get back to them in some fashion.
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