Psychologist details Carr's troubled childhood [Wichita Massacre]

AP / Topeka Capital-Journal ^ | 11/08/02 | Roxana Hegeman

[KS Flyover]

WICHITA -- A forensic psychologist testified Thursday that Reginald Carr began having sexual interaction with girls at age 6 and that he was devastated when his father abandoned the family.

"Father abandonment, any parent abandonment, is a major risk factor across every study and textbook you wanted to read," psychologist Thomas Reidy said. "In this instance, Mr. Carr had a strong positive feeling about his father."

Reidy's testimony came on the third day of the penalty phase of Reginald and Jonathan Carr's capital murder trial. The brothers were convicted Monday on murder, robbery and sex crimes charges stemming from a nine-day rampage in December 2000. A total of five people were killed. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The psychologist, who was testifying on Reginald Carr's behalf, told jurors that when Carr was 6 years old he began fondling girls his mother babysat at their home. By age 7, Carr said he had frequent sexual intercourse with a female cousin. Reidy said there also were allegations Carr and his siblings were sexually abused, but he couldn't verify those allegations.

Reidy, who acknowledged Reginald Carr knew what he was doing was wrong, said he based his testimony on interviews with Reginald Carr and other family members during the past two months. He also cited studies showing risk factors -- such as a dysfunctional family, abuse, violence and drugs -- will increase the probabilities a child will develop problems later in life.

He said Reginald Carr's moral development was stunted, and testified that children exposed to early sexual activity often have impaired sexual control and are aroused by deviant sexual behavior.

"We know deviance begins at home," Reidy said.

Drug use and violence also were prevalent in the Carr family, including marijuana and cocaine use by Reginald and Jonathan's mother, Reidy said. He said he was told the mother obtained some of her drugs from Reginald. By age 11, Reginald Carr was holding drugs for drug dealers and by age 13 he was selling them himself. At age 16, he was using alcohol heavily, Reidy said.

Violence also was prevalent in the family. As a punishment, the Carr children were made to strip naked for whippings by their mother while their siblings held them down, he said.

Reginald Carr was often in fights in elementary school, and beat up a teacher in ninth grade. He was suspended for sexually harassing a teacher in eighth grade, Reidy said. By age 13, Reginald Carr became a gang member.

In one incident Reidy recounted, the Carr brothers shot BB guns at each other when they couldn't find animals to shoot. He said Reginald Carr still has a BB lodged in his head.

The brothers' aunt, Phyllis Harding, also took the stand Thursday and testified about her observations of her sister's family. She said Jonathan Carr lived with her for a year in Brownsville, Texas, when he was about 7 years old, and later her sister and her family moved to Dodge City.

Harding, who is a pediatrician in Dodge City, testified she never saw any evidence of physical or sexual abuse of the Carr children.

"They never told me about any abuse, they never looked neglected," Harding said, adding the children looked healthy, nourished and wore decent clothes.

But Harding acknowledged later she wasn't always around the family and said she was shocked by some of the testimony offered during the trial.

She also told defense attorneys that Reginald Carr may have something mentally wrong with him -- and may have fabricated some of the abuse allegations.

At that point, defense attorney Jay Greeno told her Reginald Carr told the psychologist he had seen pornographic photos of his mother. Greeno offered to show them to Harding if she doubted Reginald Carr was telling the truth.

"I don't want to see naked pictures of my sister," Harding told him.

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 the knelt side-by-side in a snow-covered soccer field.

The brothers were also 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.

[KS Flyover]

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/4471016.htm

Psychologist: Abuse made Carr violent

By Ron Sylvester - The Wichita Eagle - Fri, Nov. 08, 2002

A forensic psychologist probing the mind of Reginald Carr said Thursday that he found it filled with memories of incest, clouded by drug abuse, and haunted by anger and aggression.

What Thomas Reidy said he recently learned about Reginald Carr and his family fits profiles of violent behavior developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the surgeon general.

Testifying during the penalty phase of Reginald and Jonathan Carr's capital murder trial, Reidy said that of the list of risks that may lead to criminal behavior, the Carr family experienced nearly all of them.

Prosecutors spent hours of contentious cross-examination trying to dismiss Reidy's findings. It will be up to a jury to decide whether the Carr brothers receive the death penalty for a quadruple homicide Dec 15, 2000.

But for a community searching for answers to a heinous crime that left five people shot execution-style at a snowy soccer complex, Reidy's study proved startling in the number of problems it found in Reginald Carr's upbringing.

"These aren't meant to excuse behavior, but just to explain why people become violent," Reidy told Reginald Carr's lawyer, Jay Greeno.

While Reidy examined only Reginald Carr, another psychologist is expected early next week to testify about Jonathan Carr.

Reidy's interviews with Reginald Carr, 24, and his relatives offered a glimpse into the brothers' lives leading up to their weeklong crime spree that left five people dead.

Reidy admitted on cross-examination by Kevin O'Connor, chief litigator for the Sedgwick County District Attorney, that people often overcome a harsh childhood to become productive members of society.

"But the more risk factors there are, the more likely you are to have criminal activity," Reidy said.

It's not just that Reginald Carr grew up in a household where his parents fought violently, he said. And it's not just that Reginald Carr's father disowned him around the age of 6.

Reidy said Reginald Carr's life combined those with other traumas, including:

Incest permeating his immediate and extended family. Introduced to sex around age 6 or 7, Reginald Carr discovered pornographic pictures of his mother and a stepfather, which he kept hidden until recently.

Uncles who gave him liquor at age 11 and recruited him into their drug trade. Some of those uncles built their own criminal records.

A distant and detached mother who often left him with relatives, disappearing for days and weeks. By her own admission, she would spank them with belts. Jonathan's oldest sister said she and the brothers would sometimes take the beatings on their bare bodies. If the belts weren't around, an electric cord would do.

Seeking belonging through gangs and experiencing the loss of a cousin in Cleveland who was shot in the back of the head.

There was no stability, even at school.

Reidy found that Reginald Carr attended eight schools from kindergarten through eighth grade. By then, he had sexually harassed a teacher on one of the days he bothered showing up. He was absent 32 days that year.

During his freshman year in high school at Dodge City, Reginald Carr earned 21 detentions and suspensions. After beating up a student, he dropped out of ninth grade, Reidy testified, before the school could kick him out.

Reginald Carr earned his GED but ended up on criminal probation at age 16 and was in prison by 18.

Phyllis Harding, an aunt in Dodge City, testified Thursday that she spent most of Reginald Carr's life away from her family, attending college and pursuing a career as a pediatrician. But she remembered Reginald as full of rage and unable to hold a job for more than a few months.

Reidy uncovered details of Carr's troubled past through extensive interview processes designed by psychologists to extract painful information. Prosecutors tried to portray the stories as being invented by the Carr family to save the two brothers.

But Reidy said no one, not even Reginald Carr, volunteered the information, and some relatives denied what others said. He put together his profile, for the most part, by combining common details relayed by several separate sources.

"It was like pulling teeth," Reidy said.

Reidy added, however, that Reginald Carr was capable of making choices and understanding right from wrong.

But with such distance all his life from stable caretakers and from unconditional love, the psychologist said Reginald Carr might not have hated his victims. He may have just grown to see human relationships as insignificant and lives as disposable.

"You don't get the kind of crime you've got here without someone being damaged," Reidy said.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com

[KS Flyover]

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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
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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
The Killing Of Matthew Shepard Was A Free Political Commercial - By an amused spectator - 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
Hanging Carr effigies offend some in area [Wichita Massacre] - 11/07/2002
Carr brothers not monsters, women insist [Wichita Massacre] - 11/07/2002
Ugly - Let's avoid offensive racial overtones in Carr trial [Wichita Massacre][BARF ALERT!] - 11/07/2002
Winona and the Wichita massacre - By Michelle Malkin - 11/08/2002

[Non-Sequitur]

Gee, since they were abused into such twisted individuals then I guess we're doing them a favor by humanely putting them to sleep aren't we? Putting them out of their misery, so to speak.

[martin_fierro]

All I need to know about the Carrs now are:

1. Where are they located;
2. Where's the nearest lethal injection needle; and
3. How to get the three together as soon as possible.

[Non-Sequitur]

1) I think the Carrs are still in the local jail in Wichita awaiting sentencing.
2) The needle is at the state correctional facility in El Dorado, which is about 20 miles northeast of Wichita.
3) The mating of the Carrs and the needles is yet to be determined. But it will happen.

[conservativemusician]

Lethal injection is too kind for these animals.

[Bikers4Bush]

Sometimes it's best to put wounded animals down. In this case the animals have rabies and should be shot asap.

[ofMagog]

Now, now, we must be compassionate. I suggest merely squatting them over a blender set on puree. Or, out in my part of the country the punishment for rustlers was to wrap them tightly in a fresh hide and place them on the plains at dawn, to let the hide slowly shrink as the sun dried it.

[martin_fierro]

I agree, but apparently that's the only available method in Kansas.

[raisincane]

Who's paying for this psycho study? Tax payers, of course. Don't waste another dime on these animals except for their execution.

[San Jacinto]

"Father abandonment... is a major risk factor across every study and textbook you wanted to read,..."

He could have gone on to say,"Yet, such abandonment is made necessary by government policies invented by liberal Democrats. In order for the welfare checks to arrive on time, the father must be well out of the picture, and we all know crackheads need those welfare checks."

The Carr family history is truly sad. How many other small children are being turned into depraved, soulless killers by being raised with less moral direction than a coyote?

To me,everything the psychologist said is just more argument in favor of execution. These people obviously reached the point of non-redemption long ago. Society will be a better place when they are dead.

[conservativemusician]

We'll take what we can get. Getting rid of these two will strengthen the gene pool.

[Catspaw]

Boo hoo. And may I add, hoo.

They're toast.

[TroutStalker]

Thank you for your extensive coverage of the trial. Even in Kansas City, the paper here barely covers it. As Michelle Malkin noted in her article, this has been off the radar screen, while Winona's trial is breaking news.

Also: What Thomas Reidy said he recently learned about Reginald Carr and his family fits profiles of violent behavior developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the surgeon general.

You know they shouldn't be profiling. < /sarcasm>

[johnny7]

I bet one of them doesn't meet his maker for quite some time.

I heard the defence floated a theory that there was a third perp.

They have DNA and an eye-witness... one of the victims.

How much you wanna bet one won't get the hot needle?

50K says one will just be charged with rape!

[conservativemusician]

Like the blender idea. I'll sacrifice my Hamilton Beach willingly!

[FITZ]

If they aren't convinced that abusive upbringings damage kids then they can study this case before they execute him. It doesn't matter anymore though what screwed him up, he needs to be punished for his crime and removed forever from society.

[conservativemusician]

Michelle's article is excellent. Read it on Townhall this morning. It really points up how twisted the major media is. I mean, who really gives two s@#ts about Winona?

[TroutStalker]

Here is the link to the article:

Winona and the Wichita massacre

[Rightly Biased]

How long will these scum sit on death row before execution??

And since KS has a new GOV opposed to the death penalty, how long before the stay of executiona and pardon come down?

And its never never the perps fault!!!"my dad made me do it",
"its my first grade teachers fault","if my mom would have loved me more",et all

Regards
RB