Posted on 11/08/2002 8:24:47 AM PST by Lassiter
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.
As a part time gardner I'd like to probe his mind with a shovel.....
Stay Safe Lassiter !
When yer right yer right !
Stay Safe !
Big Deal.
I went to kindergarten and first grade in "School A".
Second grade and part of third grade were in "School B".
Third grade also included "School C" and "School D".
Fourth grade was schools "E" and "F".
"School F" also served for fifth and sixth grades, and "School G" handled seventh and eighth.
I've never robbed, raped, or killed anyone.
An interesting profile into a training for crime, which leaves unanswered the extent in which they inherited a proclivity from their low life relatives, as opposed to just the training aspect. But regardless, in no sense is it any sort of an excuse. People need to keep focused on what is really being said here.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site.
Not that I expect that from you.
I have seen no wailing for the victims of this horrible crime, not like those for that guy from Wyoming (I forgot his name). The brave woman who survived -- they say through a miracle -- deserves our support.
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