Cellist's passions were traveling and music
January 7, 2001 - The Wichita Eagle
Posted on 10/17/2002 5:24:18 AM PDT by KS Flyover
Testimony on cellist slaying fills Carr trial
By Ron Sylvester - The Wichita Eagle - Thu, Oct. 17, 2002
Anna Kelley said she initially dismissed her teenage daughter's claim that she had heard three gunshots outside their house on a quiet cul-de-sac in east Wichita.
"That's not really the kind of thing that happened around here," Kelley testified Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.
Kelley told of the night her neighbor Ann Walenta suffered gunshot wounds that would later prove fatal.
The Carr brothers are charged with Walenta's death, one of more than 100 charges from what police say was a weeklong crime spree. They also are charged with killing four other people in a soccer field.
It was 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2000, when Kelley heard honking outside. Teenagers, like her 18-year-old daughter, would sometimes honk when they were picking up friends. But the horn persisted. Kelley looked out of the window and saw a vehicle parked in the driveway of the house where Walenta and her husband, Don, were in the process of moving out.
Kelley walked out her front door, and the GMC Yukon flashed its lights.
"Anna, help me," Ann Walenta yelled.
Kelley asked her husband to call for help as she ran out the door. Kelley battled tears as she testified, saying she had spent nearly two years trying not to think about that night before being summoned to Sedgwick County District Court.
But she remembered talking to her neighbor through the open driver's side window:
"I've been shot," Walenta told Kelley.
"Who shot you?" Kelley recalled asking.
"A black guy," Walenta said.
"A black guy?" Kelley said, sounding incredulous as she recounted the conversation.
"A black guy with wiry hair," Walenta told her.
Kelley tried to open the door, and she said Walenta's left leg fell out, like she couldn't control it. Kelley helped put Walenta's leg back in. She closed the door and realized the window wasn't rolled down -- it was gone.
"I'm not going to make it," Walenta said.
"Yes, you will," Kelley told her. "The police will be here very fast."
Walenta was shot three times: twice in the back and once in the left arm. She remained conscious enough to tell police the man had vanished almost as suddenly as he appeared.
Trauma surgeon Scott Porter received a page to Wesley Medical Center's Emergency Department that night. He found Walenta being treated for internal injuries. She said she couldn't feel her legs.
Porter testified that he found the gunshots had pierced her leftlung and severed her spinal cord. The woman, who just a couple of hours before had been rehearsing for a performance the next night as a cellist for the Wichita Symphony, was now paralyzed from the waist down.
Over the next couple of weeks, Walenta would tell the story to several police detectives of how she left symphony rehearsal and went to check on her pets, who hadn't yet made the move from the house on Dublin Court.
On the way, she noticed a light-colored sedan following her after she turned off Central Avenue near Rock Road. The car followed her up Broadmoor Avenue and onto Dublin Street, then to Dublin Court. She passed her house, went around to the end of the cul-de-sac, letting the vehicle pass her, then pulled into her driveway.
That's when the man approached her, as if he needed help. She was about to lower the window when the stranger drew a pistol, holding it sideways, his palm down.
Walenta tried to get away. She turned the key, grinding the motor because it was already running. The man warned her not to drive way. When she tried, he shot her.
Four days later, following a quadruple homicide, police began piecing together similar crimes in the same area of east Wichita. Calls from citizens led to the arrest of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.
Later that same day, Walenta picked Reginald Carr out of a photo lineup for Detective Randy Reynolds. She did not pick out Jonathan Carr's picture.
Lab tests would later link the same handgun to the Dec. 7 car-jacking and robbery of Andrew Schreiber, Walenta's shooting and the quadruple homicide.
Just after New Year's, Kelley went to see the neighbor she helped.
"She was upbeat," Kelley remembered. "She was still going to be able to play the cello."
Porter also found her doing well when he made his rounds at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2001. She had been cleared for transfer to a rehabilitation center, where she would be taught to live without the use of her legs.
An hour later, Porter received a call. Walenta was having trouble breathing. Doctors would later learn that a blood clot traveled into her lungs and blocked her breathing.
She died at 11:50 that morning.
Reach Ron Sylvester at 268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.
For detais about the murders see: The Wichita MassacreWichita 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
Cellist's passions were traveling and music
January 7, 2001 - The Wichita Eagle
"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List".Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.
WHEN IS THIS ON COURT TV????I'm afraid that Court TV has completely backed away from this trial.
Apparently their owner (AOL/Time Warner - who also own CNN) decided that it's not politically correct enough for the masses.
Apparently their owner (AOL/Time Warner - who also own CNN) decided that it's not politically correct enough for the masses.
Thanks. I had really hoped to tape and watch some of it. What a shame and what PC bulls**t. Weren't the Texas dragging deaths on Court TV? White men dragging a black man behind their pickup truck? I will take a look and see.
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