"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List"
Posted on 10/26/2002 8:32:56 AM PDT by KS Flyover
After finishing what appeared to be an overwhelming case Friday morning, prosecutors began dismantling the defense of Reginald Carr.District Attorney Nola Foulston and Chief Deputy Kim Parker turned around the testimony of two defense witnesses on cross-examination and kept another from testifying, sending the jury in the capital murder trial home before lunch.
Reginald Carr's defense continues Tuesday, with the scheduled arrival of a DNA expert.
Jonathan Carr, Reginald's younger brother and co-defendant, plans on calling no witnesses, his lawyers told Judge Paul Clark.
So strong was the state's evidence -- marked by 849 exhibits -- a routine defense motion Friday seemed hollow.
It comes in every trial, after the state rests. Mark Manna, Jonathan Carr's lawyer, had to stand up and ask Clark for a judgment of acquittal, based on "insufficient evidence."
In anticipation of the awkward moment, co-counsel Ron Evans asked Clark if Manna could make the request outside the presence of the jury. Clark complied before overruling the motion.
Such a move is a legal step required to preserve a defendant's right of appeal.
The rest of the morning didn't go any better for Reginald Carr, either.
Janis Danders, a friend of Ann Walenta, testified that the Wichita Symphony cellist described the man who shot her Dec 11, 2000, as "a black gentleman" with "long black hair who also looked like he had blond hair." Walenta later died from her wounds.
The defense said in opening statements three weeks ago that description of blond hair would divert guilt from Reginald Carr.
But prosecutors put on witnesses who had seen Reginald Carr wearing a camouflaged winter hat. During cross-examination, Parker put the hat on a Styrofoam wig head.
"How would you characterize the light color in that hat?" Parker asked Danders.
"It looks blond," Danders said.
Parker left the model and the hat on the table in front of her the rest of the morning.
Richard Ernest, a ballistics and weapons expert from Fort Worth, then disputed testing in Sedgwick County that pointed to a Lorcin .380 handgun as the weapon that killed Walenta and four other people. An inmate working a highway cleanup crew found the gun near K-96 and Greenwich Road three months after the quadruple homicide.
Ernest said by the time he received the gun last spring, it was in such rusty condition he couldn't tell if bullets and casings found at three crime scenes came from the weapon.
But Ernest did say that all the bullets used in the crimes matched and obviously came from the same gun. Foulston asked if Ernest had seen the bullets used by Sedgwick County firearms examiner Gary Miller a year earlier to test the Lorcin. Miller said he had not, and added that had they been available, he might have reached the same conclusion as Miller.
The defense then asked to work out a problem with a witness.
With the jury out of the room, Rodney Brown was called to tell the court what his testimony would be. Brown's girlfriend lived across the street from the Carr brothers' sister. Brown owned a Lorcin .380, which he suspected Jonathan Carr of stealing.
Parker asked Brown about a shell casing he provided, which he said had been fired from his gun. Miller tested it and found it didn't come from the gun recovered at K-96 and Greenwich.
"Do you still think it's your gun?" Parker asked.
"No," Brown said.
"Well," said Jay Greeno, a lawyer for Reginald Carr, "if he's going to say it's not his gun, I'm not going to put him on the stand."
Clark nodded from the bench: "That's just what I was getting ready to ask."
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
Evidence in Carr trial gruesome, unavoidable [Wichita Massacre Day 12] - 10/23/2002
Jurors view Wichita crime scenes / DNA ties Carrs to victims [Wichita Massacre day 13] - 10/24/2002
State to rest case against the Carrs [Wichita Massacre Day 14] - 10/25/2002
"Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List"
"Well, first they were white.
They had it coming................"
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/102602/kan_carr.shtml
Defense for Reginald Carr begins its case
By Roxana Hegeman - The Associated Press - 10/26/2002WICHITA -- Tests on a rusty .380-caliber automatic handgun found beside a highway three months after a nine-day crime spree can't be conclusively tied to bullets and shell casings recovered from the crime scenes, a ballistics expert testified Friday. Richard Ernest, a forensic consultant from Texas hired by the defense, said the cheap handgun was too rusted by the time he tested it earlier this year to make a definitive match to the evidence bullets.
But Ernest backed the prosecution's ballistics expert's earlier testimony that the bullets and shell casings recovered from the three crime scenes all came from the same gun.
The testimony came as defense attorneys for Reginald Carr began their case Friday. Reginald and Jonathan Carr are on trial for capital murder and dozens of other charges stemming from crimes in December 2000 that left five people dead.
Ernest acknowledged under cross examination that he didn't clean the gun before he conducted his own test firings. Prosecutors showed Ernest pictures of test bullets fired by their ballistics expert shortly after the gun was found and cleaned. Ernest acknowledged that if his own test bullets had been that clear, his conclusions may have been different.
Jurors were dismissed until Tuesday when the next witness, a DNA expert for the defense of Reginald Carr, is expected to testify. His defense attorney, Jay Greeno, told the judge he also plans to put Reginald Carr's estranged wife on the stand.
Mark Manna, defense attorney for Jonathan Carr, told District Judge Paul Clark that he didn't plan to present any witnesses and would only introduce a document.
Closing arguments in the case could begin as early as Tuesday, depending on when testimony ends. The prosecution and both defense teams have two hours each for closing arguments.
Prosecutors rested their case Friday, after putting on more than 90 witnesses and 800 pieces of evidence over the past three weeks.
The Carr brothers are being tried on 113 charges, including capital murder. Most of the charges the brothers face stem from the events of Dec. 14 to 15, 2000, when five friends were abducted from a Wichita home, forced to engage in sexual acts and to withdraw money from automatic teller machines before they all were shot. The two women had also been raped. Aaron Sander, 29; Brad Heyka, 27; Jason Befort, 26; and Heather Muller, 25, died. Befort's girlfriend, then a 25-year-old teacher, survived a head wound, running naked about a mile to find help.
The brothers also are being tried in the Dec. 11 attempted robbery and shooting of Ann Walenta, 55, who died and the Dec. 7, 2000, robbery in which Andrew Schreiber was abducted and forced to withdraw cash from ATMs.
Nope. Lethal injection is the sole method of judicial execution used in Kansas.
That probably would work if they only shot white people.
They screwed up when they diversified.
Hopefully their punishment will be rapid and certain!
The gun was found by a road maintenance crew some three months after the crime, in a highway ditch. That's why it was in such bad condition. FWIW, that kind of exposure to the elements would also ruin any ballistic "fingerprinting" done previously...
the infowarrior
Seems a little strange, I wonder where he got the money from to pay an expert witness?
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