Posted on 10/25/2002 5:57:52 AM PDT by KS Flyover
State to rest case against the Carrs
It has taken three weeks for prosecutors to present all their evidence in the murder trial.The Sedgwick County District Attorney's office will rest its case this morning against Jonathan and Reginald Carr after providing a mountain of evidence in the capital murder case.
Reginald Carr's defense got a head start Thursday and stalled a bit of the state's momentum with lengthy cross-examination focusing on the weakest DNA link to their client.
But the sheer weight of evidence surrounding the quadruple homicide on Dec. 15, 2000, is imposing. District Attorney Nola Foulston and Chief Deputy Kim Parker ended testimony Thursday by double-checking hundreds of exhibits produced during nearly two years of investigation.
The state is closing its case with DNA evidence that, as expected, may prove more damaging to Jonathan Carr than to his older brother.
Experts testified that Jonathan Carr's semen and hair turned up on the carpet of a triplex at 12727 E. Birchwood Drive, where five people were terrorized before being taken to a soccer field and shot.
A Kansas Bureau of Investigation analyst and an analyst from the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center repeatedly pointed to Jonathan Carr in their identification of biological evidence left behind at the crime scenes.
Sindey Schueler of the KBI also collected evidence of Jonathan Carr's DNA from the two female shooting victims. One died, but the other lived to tell about how they had both been raped before being taken to the soccer field.
A dab of DNA that Schueler determined may have come from Reginald Carr also showed up in tests from a swabbing of the thigh of the survivor. But only one of 13 identification points in a mixed pool of DNA could have belonged to Reginald Carr. His lawyer, Val Wachtel, spent hours cross-examining Schueler on that point. Wachtel may have been setting the stage for testimony by his own DNA expert, expected Tuesday.
But Schueler's most damning evidence against Reginald Carr came a day earlier.
The woman who died, Heather Muller, became perhaps as important a witness as the woman who survived because Muller's blood turned up on the clothing of both brothers.
Jonathan Carr's lawyers declined to cross-examine Schueler.
But DNA stood as only one part of a case that involved more than 90 witnesses and took three weeks to present.
Among the strongest evidence:
The eyewitness: A woman who survived the Dec. 15 attacks identified both brothers as the attackers who invaded the Birchwood triplex.
The surprise evidence: While the survivor identified the brothers before the jury, she had left room for Reginald Carr's defense to question her because she did not recognize him during the preliminary hearing. Late last week, however, Reginald Carr's own defense pointed to a treatable venereal disease he had that was noticed by nurses and police when they collected DNA samples from him. Prosecutors learned for the first time, following that testimony, that the survivor had been treated for the same symptoms. It proved to be one of the strongest connections to Reginald Carr.
All that property: Reginald Carr had filled his girlfriend's apartment full of belongings traced to the Birchwood triplex, including wallets and luggage tagged with the names of homicide victims Aaron Sander, Brad Heyka and Jason Befort. Jonathan Carr, meanwhile, had an engagement ring Befort had purchased for the surviving woman in the pocket of his coat upon his arrest.
The FUBU sweater and leather jackets: Both described by the eyewitness, Jonathan Carr left behind the orange-and-black sweater as he ran from Tronda Adams' house when police showed up to arrest him. Each brother had dark leather jackets described by the survivor.
The crime spree: Andrew Schreiber said he recognized Reginald Carr as one of two men who carjacked him on Dec. 7, 2000, when he saw television footage of Carr's arrest. Reginald Carr's DNA would also show up on the wristwatch Schreiber identified as being stolen from him that night. Ann Walenta identified Reginald Carr as possibly being the man who shot her on Dec. 11. She later died from her wounds.
The ATMs: Receipts and bank records from automated teller machines support the survivor's claim that four of the five were robbed of more than $1,800 that night, a key connection to the crimes against Schreiber and Walenta.
The girlfriends: Two women the brothers hung out with during that week in 2000, Tronda Adams and Stephanie Donley, provided police with times and dates when they were with Jonathan and Reginald Carr. The timeframes they provided gave the Carr brothers the opportunity to have possibly committed the crimes.
The gun: A .380 Lorcin found three months after the quadruple homicide proved in lab tests to be the gun used in all three crimes.
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