Update: August 8, 2014, 3:00 p.m.
Attorney General Derick Schmidt will ask the Kansas Supreme Court to reinstate death sentences for the Carr Brothers of Wichita. KMUW's Aileen LeBlanc reports...
Jonathan and Reginald Carr were convicted of four capital murder charges each and given death sentences for crimes they committed in December of 2000. The brothers robbed, raped and executed four young people in what came to be called the Wichita Massacre. They were sentenced in 2002.
Twelve years later their appeal was heard by the Kansas Supreme Court and on July 25th the court overturned 3 of the 4 death penalties for each brother. The court heard evidence that the brothers should have been tried separately, that the jury selection was flawed and that the instructions by the judge were questionable. The cases returned to Sedgwick County.
Now the attorney general says he will ask the court the review their decision, questioning their application of federal constitutional law.
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Last Friday the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death penalty sentences in the Carr Brothers case. The Carr Brothers committed five murders and were convicted of capital crimes in what is referred to as the Wichita Massacre.
KMUW's Aileen LeBlanc reports . . .
The First of Seven
The first victim was Andy, who had stopped at a convenience store in Wichita. It was December 9, 2000. Andy was kidnapped in his car, forced to withdraw money. His two assailants released him in a field and shot out the tires on his car. Later the casing of one of those bullets would be linked to five murders and a horrible snowy night.
“I was there! I watched all this, and I saw the victims in the field laying dead and I saw the blood at the house. The total lack of dignity with which these people were subjected to and killed.
Nola Foulston was the District Attorney in December of 2000. Andy’s case came to her attention as did the next victim, Ann, who played cello with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and was a librarian for them. She drove home after rehearsal on Dec. 11. Then a man came up to the car and said, "I need help," and "Don't move the car.”
She did anyway. Then a bullet blasted through the car and her body, she blew the horn of her car and neighbor called 911. Ann lived long enough to identify her attacker.
The Night of Horror
Then there was the Birchwood Drive condo on Dec. 14.
The Christmas tree was up. It was about 11 o'clock at night.
Three young men in their twenties shared the condo. Jason, a high school science teacher, Brad, who worked for Koch Industries and Aaron who planned to study for the priesthood. Two young women were there that night - Heather a friend of Aaron's who was a grad student at WSU and "H.G" the girlfriend of Jason.
There was a knock - the porch light came on.
The night of horror began . . .
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State v. Reginald Carr
Read the court decision here.
State v. Jonathan Carr
Read the court decision here.
