Posted on 11/07/2002 4:33:26 AM PST by KS Flyover
Reginald Carr's wife tells jurors about his children
Last Modified: 12:51 a.m. 11/7/2002
By Roxana Hegeman - The Associated Press
WICHITA -- Mandy Carr told jurors deciding whether her husband should live or die for killing five people that she keeps the couple's children away from news reports of their father's crimes.
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Reginald CarrThe Dodge City woman also testified Wednesday that she would like her children to have contact with their father, Reginald Carr, as they grow up.
Reginald Carr and his brother Jonathan Carr were convicted Monday on murder, robbery and sex crimes charges stemming from a nine-day rampage in December 2000.
Mandy Carr said she was already pregnant with the couple's son, Anthony, when Reginald Carr went to prison in 1996 on drug charges. She married him in 1997, while he was still serving time. Reginald Carr was released from prison on March 28, 2000, and that summer she became pregnant with their daughter, Regina.
Mandy Carr tearfully told jurors her husband has never held his infant daughter, who was born four months after his arrest for the killings.
Anthony began wetting the bed shortly after his father was arrested again, but he knows nothing about the specifics of the crime spree, Mandy Carr said.
"He understands his dad is in jail," she said. "He understands his dad is in trouble for not doing the right things."
Jurors returned capital murder verdicts in the Dec. 15, 2000, deaths of Aaron Sander, 29, Brad Heyka, 27, Jason Befort, 26; and Heather Muller, 25. All four were shot execution style in the back of the head as they knelt side-by-side in a snow-covered soccer field.
The brothers also were convicted of attempted first-degree murder of Befort's girlfriend, then a 25-year-old teacher, who also was shot in the head but survived to testify.
The brothers also were convicted of forcing the five friends to engage in sex acts with each other and repeatedly raping the women. The Carrs also were convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting of another woman, Ann Walenta, four days before the quadruple murder. She later died.
Reginald Carr also has a 7-year-old son, Devon, from a previous relationship with another woman. Rachelle Cossman, Devon's mother, testified Wednesday that her son has watched television news reports of the crimes his father has committed.
"Regardless of the things he has done, Devon sees no evil. He sees his dad," Cossman said.
Between sobs she read a letter the boy wrote to his father: "I love you. Why do you have to go to jail? I am being a good boy like you said. ... Sometimes I cry because I miss you. I am never going to do stuff like that because I am good," the later stated.
Reginald Carr looked down as Cossman read the letter.
Under cross-examination, Cossman said she wasn't concerned about her son being with Reginald Carr.
"I think there is a boundary with the way he acts with his children and the way he acts with other people," she said.
Defense attorneys introduced into evidence Wednesday the poetry that Reginald Carr has written to his wife since he has been jailed, and the drawings of Sylvester the Cat and Daffy Duck he has sent his son.
Mandy Carr said her son can't understand why he isn't allowed to be in the same room as his father when he visits him in jail now and doesn't like going to the jail. She said when Reginald Carr had been imprisoned earlier, the inmates were allowed to play with their children when they came to visit.
She said she has explained to the boy that his father is never going to get out of jail again and told her son she would mail for him any drawings he would like to send him.
"I try to explain to him my spiritual belief people have souls," Mandy Carr said. "And even when we do something that is horrible we still have a soul and God provides us with the grace to let that soul be saved. That is a hard thing for a five year old to understand. I don't know if he understands to be worried about a soul at this point. He worries more about what (his father) eats and where he sleeps."
Earlier Wednesday, David Preston, a retired doctor and former professor from the University of Kansas Medical Center, testified that brain scans performed on the Carrs showed a deficit in the metabolism in the part of the brain that handles short term memory and assigns risk to events and situations.
But he acknowledged under cross-examination that such deficits aren't uncommon, and that the scans aren't medically acceptable to predict or explain criminal behavior.
Reginald Carr also was convicted in a Dec. 7, 2000, robbery in which the victim was left unharmed. Jonathan Carr was found innocent in that case.
Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.
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
State rests; Carrs begin their side [Wichita Massacre Day 15] - 10/26/2002
DNA lets the dead speak in Carr trial [Wichita Massacre] - 10/27/2002
Carr jurors get break as deliberation rules ironed out [Wichita Massacre] - 10/28/2002
Multiple-killings suspect unlikely to testify [Wichita Massacre] - 10/29/2002
Survivor's police interview rattles Carr trial jurors [Wichita Massacre Day 16] - 10/30/2002
Carrs' defense rests; jury deliberation near [Wichita Massacre Day 17] - 10/31/2002
Deliberations begin in Carr trial - Closing arguments move juror to tears [Wichita Massacre Day 18] - 11/01/2002
Carr jury recesses for weekend [Wichita Massacre] - 11/02/2002
Behind the scenes during the Carr trial [Wichita Massacre] - 11/03/2002
Carr Brothers Guilty! - Carr Brothers GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY! - Carr Brothers Found Guilty of Capital Murder - 11/04/2002
GUILTY - Now jury decides if they will live or die [Wichita Massacre] - 11/05/2002
Defense Seeks Mercy in Kan. Murders [Wichita Horror] - 11/05/2002
Carrs' mother testifies [Wichita Massacre] - 11/06/2002
TODAY: Scheduled to testify are several Wichita police lab investigators as well as relatives of some of the victims.
Maybe we can get them included in the witness list for his execution?
Talk about a diversionary program.
Sorry, I could not defend my family member or friend on this one. They would not call me as a defense witness, that is for sure.
"Has that affected your relationship?"
"No," Mandy Carr said.
Find yourself a good co-dependent, you can do whatever you want, including rape, torture, and murder. Sheesh.
Maybe somebody should inform Junior and the other kids that Daddy shot a poor little defenseless doggy in cold blood. Perhaps that will get through to them...
Ladies and Gentlemen, see the O.J. Juror mentality in action.
(Memo to Martin Luther King: Exactly when is that "Judge us by the content of our character" thing supposed to begin?)
I can already see this kid in therapy years from now. "My mother, the person who gave me life and whom I expected to protect me, chose a drug dealing adulterer to be my father. then told me that in return for cartoons and poetry, I was to offer my unthinking and unquestioning loyalty, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of my fathers viciousness and complete lack of remorse, pity and humanity. I remember going to the jail..."
Does she think that second graders are so protected that their classmates haven't already filled his ears with why his father is in jail? I'll bet that she has a license plate that says, "Only God can judge me." on her car. May God have mercy on this innocent child, spawn of an idiot and a demon.
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