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.
I believe that the D.A, did not charge her because if he did charge her, by the time her lawyer got though, the jury and citizens of the County would have been ready to lynch the D.A.
Her choices may well be up to her alone from now on. Who's going to care enough to ground her or stop her from seeing a bad guy? If she doesn't cooperate until she's 18, she could end up being estranged from her family.
The question that came to my mind was why Kara's dad didn't immediately contact and meet with David's parents. Their son spent the night with an underage girl and asking to meet with them may have been the way to go.
Really, I cannot imagine any of my daughters' boyfriends showing up with weapons. That I would attempt to reason with this loony kid for ANY length of time?...wouldn't happen.
If someone in the house besides the dad knew David brought weapons and could call 911 without the kid's knowledge, this tragedy may not have taken place.
We don't know the whole scenario but it seems like it could have been avoided. Very sad for all involved.
The whole situation does seem strange. As Dr. Scarpetta posted, the father must've been a very gentle person. He obviously believed that talking to Ludwig would solve the problem.
Me... I would've been sounding the alarm if I had a daughter whose boyfriend showed up armed. It's hard for me to understand the parents' reaction, too.
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