Victims' belongings linked to defendant [Wichita Massacre Day 5]

The Wichita Eagle ^ | 10/12/02 | Ron Sylvester

[KS Flyover]

Victims' belongings linked to defendant

Also on Friday, a former WSU baseball player recounts being carjacked a week before the killings.

BY RON SYLVESTER - The Wichita Eagle - Sat, Oct. 12, 2002

Crime scene investigators accustomed to scouring for spots, hairs and fingerprints found a mass of property belonging to the four homicide victims inside the Wichita apartment where police arrested Reginald Carr.

What the investigators searched, wrapped and logged as evidence suggests greed as a motive in the shooting deaths of four people in a snowy soccer field earlier that morning, Dec 15, 2000.

The property, some of which belonged to Andrew Schreiber -- who was carjacked the week before the quadruple homicide --nearly filled the courtroom of Sedgwick County Judge Paul Clark on Friday, where brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr face the death penalty.

Some have questioned whether there was a racial motive in the case, where five people were shot execution style as they knelt naked in the snow. The Carr brothers, charged with a combined 113 crimes, are black. Those crime victims -- as well as two others -- were white.

But no one, including the survivor from the soccer field shootings who testified this week, hinted at any racial motive for the attacks.

Police and prosecutors have always pointed to robbery as the motive, and Friday's evidence reinforced that.

Reginald Carr's lawyers don't dispute that the property was in his possession, along with a truck belonging to victim Jason Befort. Befort's credit card was in Carr's pocket when police arrested him inside apartment No. 819 at 5400 E. 21st Street. But his lawyers say he received everything from his younger brother, Jonathan, and another unidentified man, who are responsible for the killings.

Besides two television sets, including a Sony big screen, Wichita crime scene investigator Scott Pike found several pieces of luggage with signed name tags of Befort, Brad Heyka and Aaron Sander, three of the four homicide victims from the soccer field.

Those bags bulged with lootfrom the triplex where the men lived before being killed. The watch of the other soccer-field victim, Heather Muller, also turned up in Carr's pocket in the apartment.

Pike identified items for the jury most of Friday morning while assistant prosecutor Kim Parker placed heavy bags in front of him on the witness stand, at times out of breath as she questioned him.

Shirts and pants still on the hangers filled several bags; there were two pairs of size 9 ½ dress shoes; two watches; three remote controls; a pocket computer; wireless phone; the surviving woman's credit card and her winter coat, and a men's toiletry kit with cologne, tweezers, nail clippers. There were blankets, electronic cords and cables, computer keyboards, a mouse, mouse pads and speakers.

On the floor with the televisions were VCRs, CD players, a computer monitor. There were drinking glasses and a 120-piece tool set still in the store packages in the days before Christmas.

Pike also found several ATM receipts belonging to the victims, showing money removed earlier that morning. The woman who survived testified this week that the victims were forced to withdraw money at gunpoint.

In the apartment's back bedroom, Pike found a letter addressed to "Reggie Carr." Underneath the envelopes sat a wallet with a driver's license and credit cards that belonged to Heyka.

Also on the dresser sat a Guess watch with a blue face, just like Schreiber had the night he was robbed.

Police think Schreiber was the first victim in a series of three crimes. Authorities also have charged the Carrs in the death of Ann Walenta.

Schreiber, a former Wichita State University baseball player, left his home between 10 and 10:30 the night of Dec. 7 to run to the convenience store and pick up a couple of tins of chewing tobacco. The store was crowded, so he had to park away from the door by a Dumpster.

Returning to his 1998 Ford Expedition, Schreiber started the engine. Before he put it in gear, he looked out the window and saw a man -- whom he would identify Friday as Reginald Carr -- coming toward him fast with a gun pointed at him.

"He told me to move over," Schreiber testified Friday. He moved to the other seat, as he felt the man hit him with the butt of the black automatic pistol.

Within minutes, the man pulled into a vacant parking lot, ordered Schreiber to hand over his wallet with $50 inside. Another man, also armed with a gun, appeared on the passenger side window and ordered Schreiber in the back. He felt the other man hit him with what felt like a gun.

The abductors then started driving him to automated teller machines on Wichita's east side, the two carjackers in the front seats. They pointed a gun at his temple and told him to look out of the window.

As they drove to one ATM, Schreiber said they passed his house. He thought of his roommate and a woman friend who was supposed to visit him.

"At that point, I would've rather died than take them to my house where I know those two people were," Schreiber said.

The men drove Schreiber to ATMs, making him draw out $300 until they drained his savings account.

Schreiber said he began to fear the worst, as the men drove north to Kechi, then east looking for a deserted road. He said a silent prayer with two requests.

"The first request I made was that if this is my time to go, please make it quick," he said. "The second request I made in my prayer that the people close in my life knew how much I loved them."

Then District Attorney Nola Foulston asked: Why didn't he fight back? He's 225 pounds. These guys were smaller. Why didn't he try to get away?

Schreiber struggled for an answer. They had guns, he said.

"Did the guns increase their size and strength?" Foulston asked.

"Yes," Schreiber said.

He said as they picked up another car, the passenger got out. They drove him to a desolate road, not far from the soccer field where four people would die just a week later.

It was after midnight, Dec 8, when they left him by his vehicle with a tire shot out and his keys in the middle of the road.

But he was alive.

A week later, as police led Reginald Carr out of the apartment filled, TV stations taped the arrest. Schreiber saw the report and called police.

That's the guy who attacked him, he told police.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.

[KS Flyover]

"Wichita Massacre" Posts:

Killing Suspect Just Out of Jail - 01/01/2001
Scott McConnell: "Unfit to Print" - 01/10/2001
THE WICHITA HORROR - 01/13/2001
DA, Public Interest Clash Over Records (Wichita multiple murder) - 01/13/2001
Court seals case files in Wichita quadruple homicides - 01/14/2001
Lawyer asks to close pretrial proceedings (Update on The Wichita Horror) - 01/17/2001
Lawyers brawl over records (Wichita Horror/Quadruple Homicide) - 01/27/2001
BLOODY KANSAS: HATE CRIMES IN WICHITA? - 02/12/2001
Hate Crimes: A One-Way Street? - 03/05/2001
Carrs (Wichita Horror) to have joint preliminary hearing - 04/14/2001
The Wichita Massacre - 07/16/2002 - [Details about the murders]
BLACK RACISM: THE HATE CRIME THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME - 07/16/2002
'Wichita Horror' trial to begin - 09/09/2002
Court TV to air 'Wichita horror' - 09/18/2002
Wichita Massacre Trial Media Blackout - 09/27/2002

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

[KS Flyover]

"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List".

Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.

[jonno]

Please add me to your ping list.

Thanks

[jpthomas]

Uh Oh. The case against the Carr brothers looks irrefutable. I do believe it's time to quickly play the race/activist card, a la Mumia Abu-Jamal. Change the brothers' names to something Muslim, and proclaim themselves to be black activists being framed by the white oppressors. Hey, it got Mumia's death sentence reduced to life, didn't it?

[EllaMinnow]

On, please.

[KS Flyover]

Gotcha added to the list.

WHO'S ON THE CARR JURY?

The jury that will hear evidence in the capital murder trial of brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr includes seven men and five women from Wichita and its suburbs. A person can serve on a jury even if they presume guilt, as long as they say they can decide the case from the evidence. Here is a summary of the panel:

Juror No. 1 is a 23-year-old white male carpenter who neither favors nor opposes the death penalty.

Juror No. 2 is a 59-year old black male executive who strongly favors the death penalty.

Juror No. 3 is a 49-year-old black male who works at Boeing and favors the death penalty in certain cases.

Juror No. 4 is a 34-year-old white male Cessna machinist who strongly favors the death penalty and presumes the Carrs are guilty.

Juror No. 5 is 68-year-old retired white male civil aviation administrator who favors the death penalty in certain cases and presumes the Carrs guilty.

Juror No. 6 is a 23-year-old unemployed white female who neither favors nor opposes the death penalty and presumes the Carrs guilty.

Juror No. 7 is a 23-year-old white female accountant who neither favors nor opposes the death penalty.

Juror No. 8 is a 51-year-old white male Koch Materials employee who strongly favors the death penalty and presumes the Carrs are guilty.

Juror No. 9 is a 63-year-old white female nurse who strongly favors the death penalty.

Juror No. 10 is a 38-year-old white female department store worker who neither favors nor opposes the death penalty.

Juror No. 11 is a 30-year-old white male Boeing employee who neither favors nor opposes the death penalty.

Juror No. 12 is a 27-year-old white female who works in advertising who favors the death penalty in certain cases.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/special_packages/carr_trial/4192271.htm

[wastoute]

I haven't posted anything in several years, but this case has got me thinkin'. I was discussin' things with the wife and she is telling me about her history of drug laws (bear with me, she is gettin her master's in counseling and is studying this stuff). She says the folks that pushed to get cocaine made illegal beck in the '20s did so by claiming blacks were getting high on the stuff and raping white women. The thought so aggravated congresscritters of the day they hastily voted to make the stuff illegal.

This started me thinking about the reading I had done about lynchin' and what a terrible thing it was (up to 300 a year back 100 years ago, it is maintained). The thing about lynchin' was that, as I recall it was to control blacks from rapin' white women. Now I have never heard our esteemed brothers in the media point out this connection. I am certainly NOT advocating a return to (as Mark Twain put it "THe United States of Lyncherdom") any sort of vigilante action. But it occurred to me to do a little research. This is what I found.

We have a "Black Poet Lariat" of New Jersy who has written a poem encouraging black men to rape white women. While Blacks are 13% of the population, they are half of rapists (Dept. of Justice Statistics). While white women are about 80% of population they are 85% of rape victims. When one considers that only 30% of rapes are "stranger rapes" but about 90% of "acquantiance rapes" are same race the numbers begin to look even more disturbing. So what it is beginning to look like is that of some 400,000 rapes each year in the U.S. about 125,000 are "stranger rapes". Assuming there is NO difference in proportion (which may actually diminish bias) and assuming each rape is a unique criime, not serial crime, which may also diminish bias) something like 60,000 of these crimes are black men raping white women. Maybe up to 100,000 if one assumes many of these may be "stranger rapes", as a racial hate crime would be. I have to make these estimates because the Dept. of Justice doesn't publish the statistics (for whatever reason). It seems to me that this is a whole lotta racially motivated crime the media is IGNORING. Please someone tell me where I have erred in my thinking here, 'cuz I really don't fancy myself a racist, but this is some seriously disturbing stuff. Even if I am slightly wrong in these estimates (which wouldn't have to be estimates if the Dept. of Justice would actually publish the figures) we have somewhere on the order of 60,000 "hate crimes" a year going on here while the Dept. of Justice maintains that there are only about 3,000 hate crimes a year. Seems to me we will never be able to "all just get along" when we some of use refuse to see "the elephant in the living room", so to speak.

[Rightly Biased]

Police and prosecutors have always pointed to robbery as the motive, and Friday's evidence reinforced that.

Then what were the rapes all about you can rob from some one without raping them or abusing them.Can't you?
I think you may be on to something wastoute but I'd want to research some on my own

[wastoute]

It just occurs to me that were the "shoe on the other foot" and I were an angry black male in 1870 or 1890 or 1920 or even 2002 one way to "get even" would be to do this kind of crime. Apparrently it was and is being done. I am not saying "all black men are animals". I am saying there may be many who are listening to our Black Poet's advice (Baraka I believe is his name). I would think our media would be at least somewhat interested in this if it was truly anywhere near unbiased. Fact is we all know our media is WAY biased and this is just another instance of just how bad it is. Three white racists drag one black guy down the highway and we hear about it for years, two gay bashers kill Matthew Shepherd and we hear about it for years. Crimes like the one above apparently happen to the tune of HUNDREDS EVERY DAY and not one peep from Peter Jennings. Our Dept. of Justice isn't interested in making the facts easy to get either. Check their website, you can find out the average income of rape victims, the population density of rape victim's counties, all kind of stuff, but you can't find any data on "percentage of 'stranger rape' that is interracial". They have to know but they just don't say. Curious.

[Guenevere]

Just wondering (I don't see it listed here) if anyone has read and/or posted Stephen Webster's detailed report of this horrendous crime from American Renaissance

I found this on Google.

It's quite detailed & horrific.

[KS Flyover]

It's posted here: The Wichita Massacre

[blam]

Low IQ 'hunter-gatherers?'

[Guenevere]

#11...OK, good!

And thanks for keeping us updated!!!

[KS Flyover]

You're welcome and I put you on the ping list.

[Guenevere]

Thanks!

I am beyond words after reading this....

...am not hearing ONE WORD of coverage on TV .......

...maybe I'm on the wrong channels... ~sarcasm

[republicman]

What the investigators searched, wrapped and logged as evidence suggests greed as a motive in the shooting deaths of four people in a snowy soccer field earlier that morning, Dec 15, 2000

Some have questioned whether there was a racial motive in the case...

But no one, including the survivor from the soccer field shootings who testified this week, hinted at any racial motive for the attacks.

Police and prosecutors have always pointed to robbery as the motive, and Friday's evidence reinforced that.

Sounds like this journalist (editorialist?) is very concerned that no one get the "wrong impression" about what motivated this crime.

Why not just say:

Attention! Attention! You people this crime was not, no matter what anyone says, I repeat, was not, in any way motivated by racial hatred!!!

[republicman]

One question: If its so obvious, why is there the need to say it?

[jmax]

There's no way this could be a hate crime......it's black-on-white !!!!!

: )

[cynicom]

The author is either biased, or totally without a clue as to the sub culture in which the Carr brothers lived.

All of their victims were white, their "greed" directs them to whites for two reasons. One, they hate all whites, two, the whites have what they want but will not work for and will take by force.

The author evidently has never been in any association with this sub-culture, to understand or know what hatred is.

Are we to understand that greed for material things extends to sexual needs also???? Only a person totally biased or ignorant of that culture would ever believe that the hours of sexual conduct, was in any way "normal", to satisfy their needs. That was a perfect example of their pure hatred of whites.

Then to cap it all off, to run over them with a truck, certainly had nothing to do with greed. It was pure unadulterated hate. People are already dead and they need to demonstrate that hate by running over the dead. What animals.

[Rightly Biased]

Why are these atrocities being ignored and the DA is strictly focusing on the robbery?
The DA must be right there is no way this could be a hate crime or at all racilly motivated, its all about greed.and we are all wrong man I see the light.
~sarcasm off~