Posted on 10/23/2002 5:04:02 AM PDT by KS Flyover
Mary Dudley spoke with a soft bedside manner Tuesday as she gave the jury a clinical view of killing in the capital murder trial of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.
Testimony by Dudley, Sedgwick County's coroner, came with diagrams and color photographs of autopsies to document beatings, rapes and gunshot wounds that left five people dead in December 2000.
Such evidence inevitably becomes part of any murder trial, and it can be difficult to watch. A juror fainted in one Wichita murder trial last year, but the Carrs' jurors maintained the stoic demeanor they have shown throughout the past three weeks.
Prosecutors say the evidence is necessary to prove elements of crimes, including premeditation and the intention to kill. Appellate courts agree. Last summer the Kansas Supreme Court ruled: Gruesome crimes result in gruesome photographs.
The crimes charged in the Carr case are gruesome.
Dudley could tell just by looking at bodies in a soccer field the morning of Dec. 15, 2000, that Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Brad Heyka and Jason Befort died of gunshot wounds to the head. Later that day, Dudley began closer examinations at the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center to study the bullets' paths and how close the shooter was standing to the victims.
The shooter stood closest to Heather Muller and Aaron Sander, the pistol touching their heads as the killer squeezed the trigger. Brad Heyka and Jason Befort, Dudley said, were shot from just slightly farther away.
Mark Manna, Jonathan Carr's lawyer, asked if those distances showed that only one person did the killing.
Dudley said she couldn't say that for certain. She also said she couldn't say exactly what position the victims were in when they died.
But she told District Attorney Nola Foulston that the ballistics were consistent with someone kneeling with heads bowed in front of their attacker.
Other marks left clues, too, and helped support the story of a woman who survived. She testified earlier that two intruders raped the two women and beat the three men before shooting them in the soccer complex at 29th Street North and Greenwich Road.
Dudley found bruises on the bodies of Sander, Heyka and Befort. She said red ridges suggested those injuries came from a golf club -- a driver with a wooden head -- found in the triplex where the men lived.
The post-mortem exam on Muller, Dudley said, showed injuries consistent with a sexual assault.
Another victim, Ann Walenta, was shot three times on Dec. 11, 2000, and died of complications from her injuries on Jan. 2, 2001. Dudley said Walenta died from a blood clot that traveled from her leg to her lungs.
At the request of police, Dudley also performed an autopsy on a pet schnauzer that belonged to the survivor of the Dec. 15 quadruple homicide. Dudley said the dog had been bludgeoned, possibly with the golf club, and then stabbed through the neck with something like an ice pick.
Such evidence frequently brings objections from defense lawyers, as it did in this trial, over the necessity of graphic photographs showing close-ups of wounds. The defense is often willing to concede to cause of death.
But lawyers say proving causes of crimes is an elementary law-school lesson.
For detais about the murders see: The Wichita Massacre
Wichita 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
Testimony on cellist slaying fills Carr trial [Wichita Massacre Day 8] - 10/17/2002
Survivor says she caught STD [Wichita Massacre Day 9] - 10/18/2002
Carr trial to focus on guns and DNA [Wichita Massacre Day 10] - 10/19/2002
Luck, vivid memories helped cops [Wichita Massacre] - 10/20/2002
Wichita Massacre -- The Latest in the Black Racist Hate Crime Trial- Carrs linked to crime scene - Day 11 - 10/22/2002
Hate crime reversed by Armstrong Williams - 10/23/2002
"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List"
The Victims were the wrong skin color for this to be reported.
In my five years on this forum, I've never seen so many people request to be put on a ping list.
This case has a strange attraction. I think it's because most people aren't aware of what evil lurks in the hearts of men or how it manifests itself, as satan is a master of disguise.
Even satan hates these guys because they blew his cover. he's much happier working quietly and having a smiley face masking his deeds.
The list is at 94 and growing daily.
Hope that's not too immoderate for ya ;-)
We need strong voices and strong personalities more than ever now, or we will get steamrolled.
I'm getting off topic so I'll save my "God will empower you to change the world" schpeal for another thread.
You can freep mail it to me. Sounds interesting.
Are you sure? That's the way the Wichita Eagle has it in this article about the two.
Now, when I go to the range to shoot, thinking about real-life horrors like this and the Carrs just makes me more resolute to hit those bulls-eyes head-on.
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