Wichita Case of Black Racist Crime Survivor's testimony horrifies courtroom

The Wichita Eagle ^ | Wed, Oct. 09, 2002 | RON SYLVESTER

[GaryMontana]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 09, 2002

Survivor's testimony horrifies courtroom The woman who survived the quadruple homicide in 2000 takes the stand in the second day of testimony in the Carr brothers trial.

More photos Dave Williams/The Wichita Eagle Crime Scene Investigator Kevin Brasser displays the keys her collected from a victims car during day two of the Jonathan and Reginald Carr trial in Sedgwick County District Court.

Gruesome crime scene photos and chilling testimony Tuesday from the lone survivor of a quadruple homicide nearly two years ago created a disturbing second day of state's testimony in the capital murder trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.

Jurors left the courtroom of Judge Paul Clark staring at the floor as family and friends of the victims waited silently to be dismissed.

Reginald Carr, one of two brothers facing the death penalty if convicted, looked at faces glaring back at him as court guards marched him back to jail. Jonathan, his younger brother, looked straight ahead.

Prosecutors had spent the first day and a half reconstructing events surrounding the shooting of five people, and the killing of four, in a snow-covered soccer field on Dec. 15, 2000.

Seats that had been full during the first day of testimony emptied at midmorning Tuesday as Wichita police crime scene investigator Kevin Brasser took the stand.

Brasser worked alone in the dark that morning collecting evidence and taking pictures at 29th Street North and Greenwich Road, where the bodies were found. The jury sat expressionless as they looked at Brasser's graphic photos, displayed under repeated defense objections.

But Clark's small court filled again after lunch, when the sole survivor of the attack, a one-time schoolteacher, retold her story. The only vacant seats were the ones next to Jonathan and Reginald Carr's mother.

The state's eyewitness, who testified 18 months ago at a preliminary hearing, once again calmly recounted her nightmare.

She told of two black men armed with guns breaking into the home of her boyfriend, Jason Befort, of then being raped and sodomized and of watching her friends beaten.

She said all the men wanted to know when they burst in around 11 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2000 was: Who has money?

"None of us had any cash on us," she said.

Have any ATM cards?

"We all raised our hands."

How much money do you have in the bank? the attackers asked, she said.

Each had between $200 and $1,500, she recollected. "They were not irrational, they were just shouting and very demanding," she said.

District Attorney Nola Foulston asked what she thought would have happened if they didn't comply with those demands.

"We were under the impression they'd probably shoot us," said the woman.

Since the day of the crime, she has not been identified because of an Eagle policy of not printing the names of sexual assault victims.

She told of assaults and sodomy in detail, as everyone -- including the Carrs -- kept their eyes on the witness stand. The jury watched her intently, looking down to occasionally take notes.

Family members and friends of Befort, Aaron Sander, Heather Muller and Brad Heyka sniffled and tried to hold back tears.

"Oh, God, no," one person whispered as the woman told of one horrific sexual attack on another man that had her fearing for her boyfriend's life.

She said the attackers kept some of them in a bedroom closet while taking one or two out at a time to assault them or give orders at gunpoint.

Just before midnight, the stockier of the two men began taking each of them in Befort's Dodge Dakota to automatic teller machines, forcing them to withdraw money, she said. When it was her turn to drive, she said the man kept fiddling with the radio, trying to find a music station he liked.

"Oh, Christ," someone from the gallery sighed in disbelief.

But en route to and from a Commerce ATM at 21st Street and Webb Road, she said the man told her he wouldn't shoot anyone.

"I said, 'Do you promise?' " she remembered.

"He said, 'Yeah, I'm not gonna shoot you.' "

She said she later told her friends.

"As I got back in the closet I said, 'I think we're gonna be OK.' I said, 'He said he's not going to shoot us.' "

During the hours of agony, the woman learned that Befort had bought an engagement ring for her. One of the intruders found the ring in a popcorn tin.

"Is this the only one?" she remembered the intruder asking, wanting to know if there was any more jewelry.

That's all, Befort told him. She said the bigger man then said something that made her think he had taken back his earlier promise.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to shoot you yet," she remembered him saying before he raped her. It was the second time she had been raped that night.

"Were you able to see or look at this individual?" Foulston asked.

"I did," the witness answered.

During the preliminary hearing, the woman positively identified Jonathan Carr, but not Reginald Carr.

On Tuesday, she said she saw both men, but was not asked to identify them.

She saw the second man in the bathroom, as he attacked one of her friends.

"And were you able to get a good look at him?" Foulston asked.

"Yes," she said, "I was."

Her testimony continues this morning.

[Skywalk]

Water is on point. I am revolted by this crime, but am appalled that the people did not fight when it became apparent they were not just being robbed. In all honesty, I would not have even withdrawn money from the ATM, because while you refuse to, you have something on the criminal.

Even ICE CUBE, of all people, pointed out the danger of going along with people who are robbing you. You want my money, get the jump on me, and take it on the street. If you loiter, I know you're going to kill, possibly torture me and mine. I will not let that happen without a fight.

I've been in dangerous situations before, and you know what? My pulse has stayed relatively even, I was able to head off the trouble or evade it. I am confident that if my life is on the line I will put holes in the animals or at least claw his eyes out.

I care deeply for my girlfriend. I would rather die than see these types of criminals degrade or hurt her, and my rage would probably carry the day. I've been talking to her a lot about being aware of her surroundings and carrying at least a stun gun so she can guard her safety and dignity. She also would fight when it became apparent she had no choice.

Contrast that with the man who let his fiance be raped and humiliated and ultimately shot. For what? Why would you lay down or get on your knees, knowing you would die?!!!

[Skywalk]

OOPs!! I apologize everyone!

My Internet goes out sometimes and my post never processed, or so I believed. Now I find out it gets deleted, multiple times! Sorry!

Not trying to be a jerk, I swear!

[AnnaZ]

Let us pray for this woman everytime this case comes to mind.

Agreed. (She's still alive for a reason...)

[ImphClinton]

Sorry still see no evidence of prejudice.

One had a white girlfriend. Whites have more money. That is why they chose these people to rob/kill.

Like GW Bush said how can you punnish a person greater than the death penalty. These two will get death. They will burn in hell for their crimes. That is justice.

I do not believe Shepard in Wyoming was a hate crime either. Never saw any evidence it was. Just inuendo. When we convict people on suppositions something is wrong. But one wrong does not make another wrong right.

[GaryMontana]

My wife and I moved from the mess of Seattle to Montana.

I am going to teach my kids to hunt, track, fish, and be self sufficent. My daughter who is three wants to learn how to fish. When she grows up she will know how to properly use a GUN!

Yes, we are becoming a nation of WIMPS!

[GaryMontana]

Exactly

Better to die on my feet that exist on my knees!

[AnnaZ]

My leading you to my earlier post was less about "proving" a "hate crime" than it was about bringing you up to speed on the horrific nature of the crime, and the utter disregard for news reporting of the mainstream media.

 

(I don't find any vicious rapes, robberies or murders to be acts of love.)

[ImphClinton]

Yes but all crimes are hate related. "Hate Crimes" are racially related hate. Like the KKK going out and hanging black men.

No indication this was the case here. Just an indication that they wanted no witnesses to their theft, rapes and murders. Evil were these men but the victims could have been black. If they had a rich black area in town.

[f.Christian]

When Gary Grahm got executed the summer prior to the election...late summer---

Bush hit the media/election lotto and the race mongerers/liberals---media crashed...went mad!

They bet the farm on that monster!

Couldn't believe it.

Bush was on CNN for 45 seconds and it was pure genius--intellect--common sense--facts/Law...

classs too!

This is on court tv too!

[Bogolyubski]

Your point is well taken about the failure (or paralyzing fear) of the victims, especially the men. Please keep in mind that these were all white kids in their 20s who have been indoctrinated from the time of kindergarten about how blacks have been opressed and how THEY are somehow guilty simply because they happened to be white. This propaganda has been going on in government schools for decades now. The victims probably all believed in the PC-Multicultural dream, in St. Martin Luther King, etc., etc. There is a deliberate campaign to destroy any sense of culture and nationhood among whites in the entire western world. One of the core beliefs of this doctrine is that whites are the only ones capable of racism. Of course, wealthy elite white leftists are the main source of this poison (which ultimately poisons ALL races, BTW), since they see the main threat to continued hegemony as coming from the white middle class (the bourgeoise).

[Skywalk]

I disagree entirely. Can I ask you a question?

Where are you from and where were you raised? Was it in an urban area with a heavy black population? Rural? Suburban?

The reason I ask, is that I was raised in DC and Philly. I'm mixed, but appear very light and when I was a kid basically looked white. In my time in Philly(AND in DC) the only violent racism I saw and experienced was from blacks. On a regular basis, I got to hear the news reports of Asian or white storeowners or clerks being gunned down.

Only someone who hasn't lived it can actually say that there isn't a strong racist element to many(not all of course) of these crimes. A cursory look at the breakdown of black male rape of white women further illustrates that this is about something more than "who has the money." It's about exerting power over a hated "Other," a symbol of your "oppression."

Oh and having a white girlfriend means NADA. A friend of mine knew this guy who would screw a white girl, let her buy him all kinds of stuff and then go on to the next one. Plenty of others have commented on bedding a white girl simply because of the long-held stigma regarding black men and white women. At the same time, many with white girlfriends are also the first to talk about some black power garbage. Take a look at "Dont Be a Menace..." It's a comedy but it captures this paradox quite well. So the girlfriend thing is irrelevant, I believe.

[Bogolyubski]

So, why were they tortured and sexually degraded for three hours if simple robbery is the motive?? The fact that one of the white policemen who arrested Rodney King had a black girlfriend was not sufficient to negate the hate crime/racism charge in that case, why should the reverse be true? Besides, black 'gangtas' like the Carrs see knocking up white girls as a form of 'counting coup' on the 'enemy.' Defiling the enemy's women is a long-standing tactic of genocidal warfare. Ultimately, the most revealing aspect of this case is the total blackout of coverage from the mainstream media. All of the above being said, I still think that "hate crimes" are a terrible idea.

[Lunatic Fringe]

To: oreilly@foxnews.com; cnn@cnn.com; comments@foxnews.com; world@msnbc.com; executive-editor@nytimes.com; feedback@ap.org; nightly@nbc.com

Dear Sirs,

Your refusal to give national coverage to the trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr currently in Wichita is shameful. This is yet another example of the media's double standards when it come to crimes committed by minorities.

In case you are not familiar with this story, these men are on trial for 113 counts of rape, aremed robbery, burglary, assault, murder and attempted murder of 5 white victims over the course of a week. These men are accused of raping not only women, but men as well. They are accused of stripping their victims, lining them up on their knees in the snow, and executing them. They then drove a stolen pickup truck over four of the victims. Fortunately, one of the victims survived to tell her horrible tale.

WHY is this story given so little media attention?! I can take a guess.... The defendents are black, and the victims are white. And to classify ANY crime perpetrated by blacks as a hate crime would bring the anger of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakan to your news desks.

Even FoxNews.com, a news organization I respect for not shying away from these types of stories, gives only a watered down version of the story (Link).

CNN's search page shows nothing on this story. MSNBC's website also has failed to report this story. A search of wire.ap.org reveals no story on Reginald Carr or his brother. This story is apparently not "news fit to print," because yet another search on the NY Times website shows another blatant example of the media ignoring the story of a horrible crime.

These men are accused of 113 felonies! Rape, assault, armed robbery, sodomy, attempted murder, and murder. These are two stone cold killers that have shown no remorse-- a terrible act committed in the heartland of America.

And none of you... not a damn one of you, have the courage or journalistic integrity to report this major story.

Shame on all of you for your cowardice!

Derrick Murray
Coppell, TX

[sadimgnik]

Paradox said ...
I heard, from a fairly credible source (detective type), that this case was NOT a racial crime, but a payback crime for something that happened in prison.


To which Ucansee replied:
Is this person a detective? In Kansas?
I could accept this if I had ever heard anything of the sort about it. That the media hasn't brought it out is on a par with the original story where certain info about the perps was not included either.

---

I took the original post to be referring to the Jasper, Tx case (where James Byrd was dragged behing a pickup).

There appears to be nothing to suggest that the Carr brothers knew any of their victims in the Kansas case ... or that any of the victims had served time (which is what would seems to be the implication if Paradox was talking about this case)

Mind you, my reading of the Texas case is that Byrd was picked up at random, and the murder was the result of a drunken fight.

Oh well ...

Sadim

[bimbo]

Are we raising a generation of wimps, or is this just an aberration?

Now that you mention it, many young men I run across could be described as “wimpy” …. Much like those guys on “Friends” and other TV shows. What is even more noticeable is their complete lack of opinion on controversial subjects – some will not even argue about trivial subjects such as sports. I have always attributed it to the changing attitude of young women who seem now to prefer wimpy guys.

[dennisw]

http://www.vdare.com/francis/unequal_hate.htm

[YankeeReb]

Amazing, if the races were reversed you'd be getting non-stop coverage 24-7. In this case, you barely even hear anything. I would bet a year's salary that this WON'T be considered a hate crime and the defendants will get a reduced sentence for some technicality. I wouldn't mind the lack of coverage half as much if it wasn't for the fact that if the races were reversed, this would be the subject of a national debate, and everybody even politicians knows it.

[Boxsford]

Excellent!!

[Charlie OK]

Whatcha wanna bet the "defense" ends up trying to portray the two thugs as having sub-normal intelligence? Below the magic 70-pt IQ threshold?

Naw, they blew that when they went with the glasses to try to make them look smarter...

[Paradox]

./Gee, Paradox. I really doubt this credible info you have. Which one of the victims was the cause of this payback? Which one during the week-plus killing spree

I was talking about the dragging death of the black man in Texas.