Not the first Borden to get away with killing her parents.
Posted on 12/17/2005 4:33:20 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
Kara Borden will not be charged in the death of her parents, a prosecutor said today, despite the fact that she knew her boyfriend was bringing weapons to her Warwick Township home and might use them.
· Two additional charges were being being filed against Ludwig: statutory sexual assault and carrying firearms without a license.
· Three charges are being filed against a friend of Ludwig’s for his role in a “night patrol,” where the friend and Ludwig filmed themselves gathering weapons and going to an unidentified home, where they discussed breaking in and killing the home’s occupants.
Samuel Lohr, 19, will be charged with one count of criminal trespass and two counts of carrying firearms without a license for those acts.
Borden, 14, will not face charges because she never asked, planned with or helped David Ludwig, 18, to kill her parents, based on extensive interviews and a review of evidence in the case, a prosecutor said today.
“There is no smoking gun,” Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro said today at a press conference at the Lancaster County Courthouse.
Ludwig waived his preliminary hearing today.
After charging Ludwig with murder and reckless endangerment in the deaths of Michael and Cathryn Borden, prosecutors interviewed more than 100 people and examined thousands of pages of evidence seized from Kara Borden’s and Ludwig’s computers, to determine if others also should be charged, Totaro said.
That investigation is what led to additional charges against Ludwig, as well as Lohr.
Totaro also said today he will seek the death penalty against Ludwig in the case.
Totaro also formally withdrew kidnapping charges against Ludwig, which he said he was going to do.
More evidence emerged about what happened on the morning of the two shooting deaths, but it did not lead to charges against Borden, Totaro said.
On the morning of Nov. 13, Borden’s parents caught Borden as she returned home after spending the night with Ludwig.
They asked her to call Ludwig and tell him to come to their home.
During that phone call, Ludwig asked Borden if her father had a gun. She told him he did not.
Ludwig told Borden he would be coming to her home with weapons, and that he might use them to get her away from her parents.
However, Borden never agreed to “any option that included violence,” Totaro said Ludwig told prosecutors.
“That was not condoned by her,” Ludwig told police. “I had mentioned it to her as a possibility to get away; she did not give me a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether she thought it was a good idea. That was all my doing, that was not anything on her at all.”
When Ludwig showed up, he had a gun and a knife wrapped in a blanket. Michael Borden asked him to leave them outside, which he did.
Borden’s father knew about a previous incident involving Ludwig, a girl and a gun, and was “alerted and concerned” about the young man being armed, Totaro said.
But at that point, the Bordens and their daughter all believed that Ludwig was not armed. However, Ludwig had concealed a gun in the waistband of his pants, Totaro said.
After a 45-minute conversation, the Bordens told Ludwig he could no longer see their daughter. They also told him to tell his parents about his relationship with Borden, Totaro said.
Ludwig told police he sat for five to 10 minutes, staring into space, and “thinking in his own mind what he should do.”
He looked at Borden for confirmation of what he should do, but did not get any. At that point, Ludwig told police he made up his mind and stood up and shot Michael Borden.
Borden’s 15-year-old sister, Katelyn, who was nearby, fled into a bathroom, and Borden ran out the back door, across her backyard and onto Owl Hill Road.
Ludwig then killed Cathryn Borden.
Around that time, a witness saw a girl running across Owl Hill Road, looking “very scared. It appeared as if she had just seen a ghost,” Totaro said.
Ludwig met up with Borden a few minutes later on Owl Hill Road. She got into the car with him and the couple fled.
The couple later was arrested in Indiana.
According to interviews with those who knew the couple, there were no plans for Ludwig to harm Borden’s parents.
The only plan the couple had was that if they were caught in their relationship, they would run away from their Warwick Township homes, Totaro said.
Before the press conference, Ludwig waived his preliminary hearing today, in a courtroom packed with more than 20 reporters and 40 other spectators.
Dressed in a blue shirt and gray, pin-striped suit, Ludwig looked pale and nervous as he was brought into the Lancaster County courtroom.
His eyes darted around the courtroom but he did not hold the gaze of the two young men and a middle-aged couple sitting in the front row, who courthouse personnel indicated were Borden family members.
One of the young men, who had red hair cut in a military style, leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, staring intently at Ludwig throughout the proceeding.
Magisterial District Judge Daniel Garrett informed Ludwig of his legal rights, set a date next month for his formal arraignment, and then sent the young man back to Lancaster County Prison, where he is being held without bail.
Defense attorneys James Gratton and Merrill Spahn said little at today’s proceeding other than that they understood the charges and it was their intention to waive a preliminary hearing.
The purpose of a preliminary hearing is solely to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to take the case to trial, not to determine guilt or innocence.
It was not apparent whether any of Ludwig’s family was in the courtroom this morning.
Well Kara Elizabeth Borden looks like she'll get away with murder just like Lizzie Borden did.
Thank you for the ping.
Last Spring Ludwig took off with a teenage girl and went to a cabin. Both sets of parents resolved the problem.
Maybe the older brothers will have to take the kids.
She might not realize that for another 10 years.
I'll tell you quite frankly, if I had other children I would hesitate a long time before I let her in my home. We know that she lies, disobeys, sneaks around, sleeps around, and hasn't got the judgment to recognize a disturbed and evil individual.
thanks for the ping
how in the world was she not charged as an accessory? PA law allows it at 14.
but she did help a murderer flee, dispose of evidence etc. SHE knows.
One brother is in the Army (just got back from Iraq), the other was planning to bring his girlfriend home to meet the parents (apparently in preparation for getting engaged) at Thanksgiving, a few weeks after they were murdered.
I don't see how either of these boys can take on the responsibility of raising these kids, especially one they have to wonder might whack them, too.
Not the first Borden to get away with killing her parents.
Yeah, and what foster family would want to take on such a kid? Her parents seemed to do everything possible to keep her protected and on track and she got them murdered.
Now she's got to deal with that, plus the growing realization that the "love of her life" was a disturbed individual with no conscience (of course, right now, she's probably still in the "it was wrong for him to kill my parents, but just look at how much he loved me!") and that he also may get the death penalty.
She's going to be a mess.
She has 2 older brothers , in their 20's. At the time of her parents funeral, they had custody of her.
Ludwig is insisting "Kara never asked, planned with or helped. There is no smoking gun," Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro said at a press conference at the Lancaster County Courthouse.
Yes, but if you see someone commit at least murder (and know about the second), how is not fleeing with him, throwing out cell phones in an effort to keep him from being tracked by police, not giving aid and comfort in the commission of a crime?
When the guys jump in the car after having robbed the bank, even if the driver did not realize ahead of time that is what they were going to do and he had no role in helping plan or execute the robbery, if he sits by and rides along as they escape, doing nothing at the first opportunity to turn them in, is he not an accessory after the fact?
She knew Ludwig committed murder. She voluntarily jumped in the car and ran away with him. Had she not, he might have hung around longer looking for her, or stayed in the area longer, thus facilitating his capture before his wild and reckless chase in Indiana where he was putting people's lives at risk by running them off the road, etc.
I think this is a purely a "whaaa-she's suffered enough, poor little girl" lame decision.
I agree with you.
The DA I'm sure is reluctant to take on a case this weak. I mean, we're all pretty sure what went down and that she was involved to some degree, but proving that to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt when the kid is wailing and crying on the stand and the bad guy is insisting she had nothing to do with it would be tough.
It would also jeopardize their prosecution of the main offender.
I don't know how they do things in those parts, but my money's on her having made a deal to testify in exchange for non-prosecution of what amounts to a fairly weak case. If so, this will come out when Ludwig's lawyer files a "Reveal the Deal" motion.
Exactly. Even if she had no part in the murders, any parent would have to be concerned about her behavior that led up to this. Even if her parents were still alive, would you want a sexually active, 14 y/o defiant, runaway around your teenagers? Since she's not going to jail, hopefully she will have adults with no or grown children in her life that can help her and give her the guidance she is going to need.
She, and everyone else, knows that she's as responsible for the deaths of her parents as Ludwig is. She didn't hold the physical weapon...she just set into motion the events leading up to, and including, the murders.
Hell would be a paradise, considering what she'll face in Lititz and Lancaster County.
After the trial, she might get moved out of state. Weren't her parents from another state?
Aside from his mind-boggling cold-blooded murder of Kara's parents, he obviously was too immature to realize the price he would pay. What world does he live in?
As to Kara, I find it hard to believe she didn't hear gunshots...my understanding is that she was in the house at the time David shot her father, at least.
It's another stupid waste of human lives...all of them.
Thanks for the ping.
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