Posted on 10/19/2002 8:12:36 AM PDT by KS Flyover
Carr trial to focus on guns and DNA
Prosecutors spend Friday laying the foundation to tie the Carr brothers to a handgun and five deaths.By Ron Sylvester - The Wichita Eagle - Sat, Oct. 19, 2002
The jury in the murder trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr should hear lab tests about guns and DNA when testimony resumes Monday.
Prosecutors spent most of Friday laying legal foundation for those reports, which are expected to tie a gun to three incidents committed in December 2000 that left five people dead.
DNA evidence, prosecutors hope, will prove the presence of one or both of the Carr brothers inside a triplex on East Birchwood Drive where five people were terrorized for three hours before being taken to a soccer field and shot. Four of them died Dec 15, 2000.
Friday, prosecutors presented the jury with the story of how the murder weapon turned up months later just blocks away from the killings.
Inmate Darrell Washington, from the Winfield minimum security prison, was picking up debris along the highway in March when he found a .380 handgun by the west guardrail of K-96 near Greenwich Road.
"'Look what I found,' " Sgt. Robert Dickerson said Washington told him. Washington held up the gun between his thumb and forefinger, barrel down, as Dickerson sat in the Kansas Department of Corrections van, supervising the detail.
Dickerson summoned state troopers and police. Authorities had been looking for such a gun since the quadruple homicide at a nearby soccer field.
Gary Miller, a weapons expert with the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center, is expected to present lab results of his ballistics tests. Miller is expected to link the gun to the quadruple homicide, the carjacking of Andrew Schreiber on Dec 7, 2000, and the fatal shooting of Ann Walenta on Dec 11, 2000.
Jonathan and Reginald Carr are charged with a combined 113 crimes in connection with those three incidents.
Jurors, who have been studious and have shown little emotion throughout the trial, spent most of the two weeks keeping their eyes on witnesses and taking notes. But by Friday, several jurors were writing less frequently and giving longer looks to the defendants.
Kim Parker, chief deputy Sedgwick County district attorney, also tried Friday to use DNA evidence to prevent the defense from pointing at an unknown third suspect.
Val Wachtel, one of Reginald Carr's lawyers, said in opening arguments that crime scene investigators recovered the unidentifiable hair of a black male at the Birchwood residence. Wachtel insinuated that hair might shift blame away from Reginald Carr.
But Terry Melton, a DNA expert from Pennsylvania, said Friday that at least one unidentified hair belonged to a white person. Another tested as not being human, possibly that of a dog.
Otherwise, those DNA tests -- which cost the state $13,200 -- didn't point to any individual. That testing showed two other hairs found at the residence likely belonged to at least one of the Carr brothers.
But the testing used in this method, Melton said, only would point to people who had the same maternal lineage. Melton pointed out under cross-examination by Wachtel that the Carrs' mother and sister would test the same way.
More specific identification comes from nuclear DNA testing, performed at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab in Topeka. The substance tested under those conditions comes from the nucleus of the cell and contains more information about the material that makes people individuals.
Sindey Schueler, DNA expert for the KBI, is expected to testify next week.
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
ATM photos shown in Carr trial [Wichita Massacre Day 7] - 10/16/2002
Testimony on cellist slaying fills Carr trial [Wichita Massacre Day 8] - 10/17/2002
Survivor says she caught STD [Wichita Massacre Day 9] - 10/18/2002
"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List".Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.
We have GOT to get Tim elected.Amen to that! Shallenburger is the only hope for straightening out the mess caused by the spineless moderates and liberals.
I wonder what Kathleen would do if these two got the death penalty?Just the thought of Sebelius being our Gov. makes my stomach turn. A flaming liberal like her might just stay execution of these
Please put me on your list.
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