Posted on 08/28/2006 4:12:56 PM PDT by sonsofliberty2000
John Mark Karr will not be charged with the death of JonBenet Ramsey, but will be held in the Boulder County jail awaiting extradition to California, where he will face charges of possessing child pornography, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said this afternoon.
"California wanted him," Pelle said.
Prosecutors decided against charging Karr in the killing of the child beauty queen because his DNA does not match the DNA found in the girl's underwear.
Authorities notified Karr earlier today that he might not be charged in Boulder, but he didn’t get the official word until he was transferred to the Boulder County justice center this afternoon.
The Sonoma County District Attorney’s office sent a warrant for Karr’s arrest to authorities in Boulder at 3 p.m.
The school teacher has been wanted there since skipping the country in 2001 and failing to appear at a court hearing that December on charges he had a computer containing images of child pornography.
Karr was returned to the jail at 4:15 this afternoon, riding in the front seat of a white Sheriff’s SUV. Wearing a blue polo shirt, Karr stared straight ahead through flashing news media cameras as he arrived.
Investigators arrested Karr in Thailand before they had much of a case against him because they needed to obtain an uncontaminated DNA swab and feared he'd flee if he learned they were on to him, according to court papers filed this afternoon.
Also, Karr had described in e-mails a fascination with young girls he was teaching that made authorities concerned that other children might be in danger.
District Attorney Mary Lacy defended her office's decision to arrest Karr today in a motion to quash Karr's arrest warrant and in a statement announcing she'd dropped the case against Karr.
"As I said last week, our role in the investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's murder has been to follow up on all legitimate leads that we have received from law enforcement and concerned citizens," her statement read. "This case is not closed, and we will continue to investigate leads and pursue justice."
In her statement, Lacy also acknowledged "circumstantial evidence" provided by Karr's family that he spent Christmas 1996 with them in Atlanta.
unbelievable.
They flew this guy home from that cess pool to do this? And business class at that.
Was it neccessary to give the sheriff's color?
LOL! Now I'm going to have that stuck in my head the rest of the evening.
welcome to the OF club...
Welcome to FR. This was even moved from News to Chat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.