Posted on 11/13/2002 6:29:38 AM PST by KS Flyover
WICHITA -- A clinical psychologist testified that Jonathan Carr told him Tuesday that he had smoked the hallucinogenic drug PCP in the hour before a home invasion that ended with four murders.The comments to psychologist Mark Cunningham came just as testimony resumed in the penalty phase of Carr's capital murder trial in Sedgwick County District Court.
Carr and his brother Reginald Carr were convicted last week on murder, robbery and sex crimes charges stemming from a nine-day rampage in December 2000. A total of five people were killed. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Cunningham said Carr also told him that he and his brother started drinking cognac at noon the day of the quadruple killing and had smoked four to five "blunts" -- cigars filled with marijuana -- in the 24 hours before they broke into the house.
The psychologist, who was testifying on behalf of Jonathan Carr, told jurors he couldn't confirm what Jonathan Carr told him Tuesday but said the reported drug use on the day of the crimes was consistent with longstanding alcohol and drug abuse by Jonathan Carr that began at age 8.
Cunningham had interviewed Jonathan Carr at least twice since the crimes, and Carr at the time admitted general PCP use. However, Carr didn't mention the drug use on the day of the crimes until Tuesday, Cunningham said.
Jonathan Carr told Cunningham earlier that an uncle first gave him alcohol when he was 8, and that he got so drunk, he passed out. Jonathan Carr said he continued to drink heavily and regularly with the uncle and his brother after that incident. By age 13, Jonathan Carr, who lived in Dodge City, was smoking marijuana with his brother.
On cross examination, Cunningham acknowledged he had read reports from social workers that showed urinalysis drug tests for Jonathan Carr -- taken regularly between the ages of 15 and 17 -- were never positive for drug use. He said those tests wouldn't have shown alcohol use, however.
Cunningham said Jonathan Carr has a genetic predisposition to substance dependence and his mother, father, brother and maternal uncles all were alcoholics.
Studies have shown that people who have a close relative who is an alcoholic are four to five times more likely to become alcoholics themselves, even if they are adopted at birth and raised by people that don't drink, Cunningham said.
He also testified that Jonathan Carr has a genetic predisposition to mental illness, citing mental problems suffered by his maternal grandmother and an uncle.
Jonathan Carr also shows evidence of longstanding psychological disturbance, Cunningham said. He noted that Jonathan Carr told him he tried to hang himself at age 7 and that when he was 17, Carr again tried to kill himself by drinking antifreeze.
"He was quite emotionally disturbed from early childhood," Cunningham said.
Jonathan Carr screamed and cried almost continually from the time he awakened until he went to sleep, even as a toddler, Cunningham said. That earned him the childhood nickname of "Screaming Man."
Cunningham, citing his interviews with Carr and other family members, also testified that Jonathan Carr began having sexual intercourse with a neighborhood girl when he was age 7. When he was 10 or 11 years old, he was also having sex with a 19-year-old woman.
Carr also told him he had seen sexually explicit photographs and videos of his mother and her husband, Cunningham said.
Family members of the brothers and other psychologists testified last week that Reginald Carr also had a troubled childhood. They said Reginald Carr took it particularly hard when his father abandoned the family. Testimony also indicated Reginald Carr started having sexual interaction with girls at age 6.
Jurors returned capital murder verdicts against the brothers in the Dec. 15, 2000, deaths of Aaron Sander, 29, Brad Heyka, 27, Jason Befort, 26; and Heather Muller, 25. All four were shot execution style in the back of the head as the knelt side-by-side in a snow-covered soccer field.
The brothers were also convicted of attempted first-degree murder of Befort's girlfriend, then a 25-year-old teacher, who also was shot in the head but survived to testify.
The brothers also were convicted of forcing the five friends to engage in sex acts with each other and repeatedly raping the women. The Carrs also were convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting of another woman, Ann Walenta, four days before the quadruple murder. She later died.
Cunningham described a childhood in which the Carrs grew up with an emotionally distant mother that often left the children for days at a time. He described unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse. He told jurors the children were beaten by their mother while their siblings held them down naked, and that their mother used food restrictions as punishment.
"Jonathan had what I call the five H's of attachment damage: hopeless, helpless, homeless, hungry and hugless. He had all five of them," Cunningham said.
Also on Tuesday, Barbara Harding testified she started having sexual intercourse with her cousin, Reginald Carr, when she was 6 or 7 years old, and that the sexual contact continued until she was 12 or 13 years old. She also said she had sexual intercourse with Jonathan Carr.
"When you are doing it all your life, you don't think about what your doing," Harding said. "I was used to doing it. It was just my life until I got old enough to realize and finally it stopped."
Jonathan Carr's expert cites abusive childhood
By Ron Sylvester - The Wichita Eagle - Wed, Nov. 13, 2002Jonathan Carr shows signs of being morally depraved, cold-hearted and ruthless, a forensic psychologist testified Tuesday.
"The fundamental issue here is how two young men could be so void of empathy and attachment to other humans that they could do this to other young people," Mark Cunningham said of the kidnapping, rapes and robberies that led to a quadruple murder on Dec. 15, 2000.
Jonathan and Reginald Carr face the death penalty for those crimes.
Cunningham was the latest in a battery of psychologists called by the Dodge City brothers' defense teams to explain to the jury the psychological drives behind what he called a "horrifically disturbed event."
Prosecutors, meanwhile, continued to spend hours trying to discredit such testimony, even though each expert agreed that the Carrs knew what they were doing and knew right from wrong in killing Aaron Sander, Heather Muller, Brad Heyka and Jason Befort in a snowy soccer field.
Cunningham's exchanges with Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker became so heated that Judge Paul Clark had to interrupt the cross-examination several times.
Meanwhile, a female cousin of the Carrs took the stand Tuesday to confirm stories about incest and other inappropriate sexual behavior within the family.
Cunningham agreed with previous psychologists that such introduction to sex, as early as grade school, is just one of the many problems that shaped Jonathan Carr into a killer.
"There is evidence of long-standing psychological disturbance," Cunningham said.
Cunningham repeated tales of the Carr brothers' mother taking off for weeks at a time, often shipping her children off to live with relatives. She sometimes made them fend for themselves by scraping up whatever food they could find in the cupboards.
Individually, those situations might not have done much harm, but they piled up into what Cunningham called a "catastrophically cumulative" life.
Jonathan Carr's life revolved around what Cunningham called "the five Hs."
"Hopeless, helpless, homeless, hungry and hug-less," he said.
"You can't just treat children like pets or used cars," Cunningham added. "Neglect is more damaging than abuse."
Such psychological trauma often can lead to criminal violence, said Cunningham, who, like other experts, cited studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Of 26 family and lifestyle problems that the Department of Justice recognizes as contributing to criminal behavior, Cunningham identified 24 in the Carr family. Another forensic psychologist gave similar testimony last week about Reginald Carr.
One of those areas is alcohol and drug abuse. Cunningham said that Jonathan Carr told him he and his brother drank close to 27 ounces of cognac and smoked several "blunts" -- marijuana joints the size of cigars -- the night of the quadruple murder.
On cross-examination, Parker spent most of the afternoon trying to get Cunningham to answer "yes" or "no" to questions the psychologist said needed more explanation. That led to several bouts of bickering.
"If you all want a record made of this, you're going to have to talk one at a time," Judge Clark said at one point.
Parker made her strongest points by emphasizing Cunningham's evaluation that Jonathan Carr knows right from wrong. He just doesn't value human life, the psychologist said.
"There is no question he has awareness of wrongful behavior," Cunningham said on cross-examination.
"He doesn't care," Parker said.
"That's correct," Cunningham answered.
Part of that inability, Cunningham said, came from not being able to carry on any substantive relationships within his household.
The woman cousin who grew up with the Carr brothers testified to the inappropriate relationships fostered within the family, crying as she talked about the sexual abuse she experienced. She said the abuse began when she was 6 and continued until she was 13.
The Eagle is not naming her because she is a victim of sexual assaults.
"When you're doing that all your life, you don't really think about what you're doing being wrong, until you're old enough to realize," she said.
The woman said the experiences still haunt her, even though the abuse stopped years ago.
"It didn't stop at my request," she said. "It just stopped."
For detais about the murders see: The Wichita Massacre
Carr Brothers Guilty! - Carr Brothers GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY! - Carr Brothers Found Guilty of Capital Murder -11/04/02
The Killing Of Matthew Shepard Was A Free Political Commercial - By an amused spectator - 11/04/02
GUILTY - Now jury decides if they will live or die [Wichita Massacre] - 11/05/02
Defense Seeks Mercy in Kan. Murders [Wichita Horror] - 11/05/02
Carrs' mother testifies [Wichita Massacre] - 11/06/02
Hanging Carr effigies offend some in area [Wichita Massacre] - 11/07/02
Carr brothers not monsters, women insist [Wichita Massacre] - 11/07/02
Ugly - Let's avoid offensive racial overtones in Carr trial [Wichita Massacre][BARF ALERT!] - 11/07/02
Winona and the Wichita massacre - By Michelle Malkin - 11/08/02
Psychologist details Carr's troubled childhood [Wichita Massacre] - - 11/08/02
Psychologist: Abuse made Carr violent [Wichita Massacre] - 11/08/02
Police: Display not a hate crime [Wichita Massacre] - 11/09/02
Expert: Carr's brain wired for violence [Wichita Massacre] - 11/09/02
Carrs knew violence and instability as children [Wichita Massacre] - 11/10/02
...and tell ethnic jokes. That would make this a really horrendous crime.
Personally they should put the mother to death with them for raising animals. Didn't she testify and ask the Court not to put her sons to death? A lot of weight that carries in light of the childhood the &itch subjected these children to. Regardless, a lot of people have horrible childhoods and don't grow up to execute naked people in a soccer field.
Okay that enough feeling sorry for him:
STICK THE NEEDLE IN, START THE JUICE, LETS GET MOVING IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR LUNCH.
Its time for some talk about the people who no longer exist because these turds snuffed them out for their own sick entertainment? It's time to talk about the VICTIM'S childhoods, their wants, goals, dreams, their families, the people who will miss them.
and I don't know if its admissable but I'd sure like the jury to see this (an excerpt from another article KS put up)-- "Authorities say (Reginald Carr) harassed prosecutors and threatened courtroom and jail guards. He also has winked and smiled at families of the victims he and his younger brother are convicted of raping, robbing and killing. He has shown no remorse."
These turds need to be flushed, not lamented.
I agree.
Is there a liberal, bleeding heart, do-gooder organization that could print and laminate this tale of woe so we could read it while we wait for his brain to turn to purple mush at his execution?
Heavy-grade laminate please, so we can use it as a fan/flyswatter later at the picnic.
Oh, man...that is SO over the top...
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