Posted on 11/05/2002 4:37:02 AM PST by KS Flyover
Today, Jonathan and Reginald Carr begin fighting for their lives.A jury Monday found the brothers guilty of killing four Wichita residents on Dec. 15, 2000.
Now, the jury must decide whether to sentence the brothers to death. Judge Paul Clark ordered the penalty phase of the trial to begin this morning.
"Justice has been served -- and it is long awaited," Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker said.
Jurors found Reginald Carr, 24, guilty of all 50 crimes charged against him, including the capital murders of Dec. 15, the first-degree murder of Ann Walenta four days earlier and the Dec. 7 carjacking and robbery of Andrew Schreiber.
Earlier in the day, Clark denied a request by jurors to consider lesser charges than first-degree felony murder in the death of Walenta, a cellist with the Wichita Symphony who died Jan 2, 2001, from her wounds. The jury convicted both of the Carrs on the original charge.
The jury also found Jonathan Carr, 22, guilty of the four capital murders and 39 other crimes. But jurors found him not guilty of four crimes related to the carjacking of Schreiber. The former Wichita State University baseball player could not identify Jonathan Carr as one of his attackers.
"This obviously was a thinking person's jury," District Attorney Nola Foulston said afterward. "They gave grave consideration to the responsibility they have."
Tears fell throughout the courtroom as the verdicts were read, but not from the Carrs.
As he left the courtroom after the verdict, Reginald Carr appeared to smile and wink at family members of victims.
Jonathan Carr didn't look at the victims' families, staring straight ahead as guards escorted him back to the Sedgwick County Jail.
The guilty verdicts included convictions on multiple counts of rape, aggravated sodomy and robbery, crimes that prosecutors say were part of a three-hour ordeal that five friends endured before they were driven to a soccer field near K-96 and Greenwich Road.
Jason Befort, Aaron Sander, Heather Muller, Brad Heyka and another woman were forced to kneel in the snow before being shot in the back of the head.
The first four were killed, but the woman survived because a plastic hair clip diverted the bullet. Bleeding from her wounds, she ran a mile to the nearest house to call for help. She provided the most damaging testimony of the trial.
The jury -- which deliberated for about 12 hours over three days -- found the Carrs guilty of not only raping the survivor and another woman but also of rapes against the three male victims. That was based on the men being forced at gunpoint to have sex with the women.
Monday, emotions began simmering when it became clear the jury found the two men guilty of capital murder.
By the time court adjourned, family members of the five who were killed -- along with the two survivors -- hugged police detectives and prosecutors.
"The reaction of the family was as we expected, one of relief," Foulston said, saying the family members themselves wished to decline comment.
Parker shed tears as she received hugs from relatives of victims and officers.
"I've waited on a lot of juries before, and you never know what a jury will do," Parker said. "But this case did have overwhelming evidence.... This has been a very long process."
The eight-week trial included more than 800 exhibits, including DNA linking both brothers to the scene andmassive amounts of property belonging to all the victims that was found in the brothers' possession when they were arrested.
After the verdict, Foulston praised the community, which provided valuable tips to help police make quick arrests and catch the Carrs still holding evidence from the crime.
"This showed a true community policing effort," Foulston said.
Said Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams: "I've been here 28 years, and this is probably the most significant case as far as having a rippling effect on the community. It was a case that the community can feel good about because it was a community effort involving everything, including citizens stepping forward."
The courtroom was well-guarded during the reading of the verdict. It was filled with members of the Police Department's homicide division and gang unit, as well as at least 10 Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies.
Defense lawyers had little to say.
"The trial is not over," said Val Wachtel, lawyer for Reginald Carr.
The defense will begin presenting witnesses today from the Carrs' family, as well as mental health professionals, to show why the jury should return a sentence of less than death.
Foulston said she has known from the beginning what the punishment should be.
"Without equivocation, without hesitation," she said, "I decided to seek the death penalty against both Jonathan and Reginald Carr."
Contributing: Hurst Laviana of The Eagle; Associated Press.
No comment.
Have you no compassion for these poor, obviously deprived boys?
They should be treated humanely!
How about something simple,
like squatting them over blenders set on puree...
Interestingly, they do not have an article today about the jury's verdict. However, their ongoing articles about this trial, written by an "AP Writer" will absolve the AP when or if it is ever accused of not covering the trial.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/4445523.htmExperts, community aren't surprised by verdicts
BY TIM POTTER AND LORI O'TOOLE BUSELT
The Wichita Eagle - Tue, Nov. 05, 2002When a jury convicted Reginald and Jonathan Carr of capital murder Monday, it did not surprise legal experts or community leaders.
They predicted the verdicts partly because the crimes were so heinous -- one of the worst killing sprees in the history of Kansas, said former Sedgwick County District Attorney Vern Miller.
They also expected the verdicts because the prosecution presented overwhelming proof of guilt.
"There would have been no way for a jury to listen to the evidence... and not come up with capital murder," said Miller, also a former Sedgwick County sheriff and Kansas attorney general.
But the verdicts might not have occurred, he said, if a woman had not survived an execution-style shooting in a snowy field that left four of her friends dead after they had suffered a night of rape and robbery.
Because she managed to run -- bleeding in the freezing cold -- for help, she immediately put police onto the trail of the killers. As a result, Miller said, police gathered a remarkable amount of physical evidence against the Carrs. Then she testified against them.
"She's got to be one of the strongest persons," Miller said.
Prosecutors expertly pieced the evidence together, said Jackie Williams, a former U.S. attorney.
"They caught the jury's attention," Williams said. "They made you feel you were there," with grisly photographs, with blood-stained clothing, with a tour of the crime scenes.
The evidence in the case should put to rest assertions by some that the Carrs, who are black, were motivated by race because the victims were white, Williams said. The evidence, he said, clearly shows the spree was motivated by robbery.
With evidence so strong and crimes so horrible, the race of the defendants should not have mattered to the jury anyway, said the Rev. Lincoln Montgomery, senior pastor at predominantly black Tabernacle Baptist Church.
In the days after the crime spree and another quadruple killing that preceded it, the church hosted a citywide prayer vigil to remember all of the victims.
Although Montgomery saw clear proof of the Carrs' guilt, he said he remains opposed to the death penalty because it has been disproportionately used against the poor and minorities.
In Augusta, where one of the victims, Jason Befort, had been a popular high school science teacher and coach, the verdict brought relief to some.
Augusta High School junior Laura Garcia remembered when Befort was her middle school basketball coach. She said he was funny and a good coach.
Sammy Paul, another junior who had Befort as a coach, recalled the quiet day following his murder.
Stunned students huddled in hushed, tearful clusters. High school officials canceled weekend athletic activities, and 38 counselors made themselves available to students.
At the Augusta school district office Monday, employees listened to the verdict on the radio.
"This is a trying time for us all," Augusta superintendent Jim Markos said.
Contributing: Stan Finger of The Eagle
More than one person was killed.
Check
The killing was done for financial gain .
Check
The murders took place to eliminate witnesses and avoid prosecution.
Check
The killings were carried out in an atrocious manner.
Check
I think the choice is clear.
Wachtel and the entire defense team should be shunned by all decent society. They should be forced to change their names and move to some other state or -- better yet -- country.
Such lawyers are almost as evil as the perpetrators; they are accessories after the fact.
Thanks. Good archive source of the AP posts on this trial.
The Topeka Capital-Journal runs the AP stories by the same writer, Roxana Hegeman, and I've posted a few of them.
I have been using GOOGLE NEWS BETA to find the latest stories and to see what news outlets are covering the trial. It's an excellent resource for finding articles.
"Wachtel and the entire defense team should be shunned by all decent society. They should be forced to change their names and move to some other state or -- better yet -- country."
Val Watchel, attorney for Reginald Carr, leaves the Sedgwick
County Courthouse Monday after his client was found guilty
of four counts of captial murder.
Where was the profit in humiliating the victims for three hours prior to their execution? No, hate was most definitely involved.
Not that it should make a difference in the sentencing, but it irritates me that they just can't bring themselves to admit that this crime involved SIGNIFICANT hatred.
Hate crimes laws are a farce.
As vile as these two pukes are, they are according to our constitution, entitled to a defense. A lawyer somewhere would have to defend them no matter what. The lawyers did their job, maybe not even to the best of their ability because they were so outraged by the crime. Now a jury has found them guilty and for that they should die. Hopefully there won't be a bleeding heart on the jury. If found guilty I would like to see them dipped in boiling oil for a few weeks before they BEGGED for death.
What evidence is that? DEMOCRAT Nola Foulston admittedly refused to investigate such a motive. Refused to forward an investigation to federal authorities. And sealed police interview records that are not normally sealed in such cases, something which many openly suspected revealed the Carr's animus toward whites (will she open tham back up now that the trial is over? I bet not)
Strange isn't it? After all we all know how the DEMOCRATIC party, Ms. Foulston's party, feels about the importance of hate as a possible motive in criminal conduct. Yet in this case she seems utterly unconcerned, even to the point of obstructing any investugation into the matter. I wonder why?
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