Reginald and Jonathan Carr Kansas Death Row

Reginald and Jonathan Carr were sentenced to death by the State of Kansas for five murders. According to court documents Reginald and Jonathan Carr were responsible for what is referred to as the Wichita Massacre where over a week five people were murdered and a series of armed robberies and sexual assaults. On December 8 2000 a man was severely wounded. Three days later Ann Walenta was fatally wounding following a carjacking and would die in hospital three days later. On December 14, 2000, Reginald and Jonathan Carr invaded a home where Brad Heyka, Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort and his girlfriend, a young woman identified as “Holly G were murdered. The house was picked randomly. Reginald and Jonathan Carr would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

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Eight times Thursday, the court bailiff repeated the same sentence for Jonathan and Reginald Carr: death.

For each of the four people who died kneeling before a pistol on Dec. 15, 2000, each brother received one sentence to die.

Jurors wore solemn or pained expressions as bailiff Maria Marquez read their decision, which they returned shortly after 5 p.m., following seven hours of deliberations. One woman in the jury box stiffened her lips and held hands with an alternate juror sitting beside her.

The woman who survived the shooting in the snowy soccer field at K-96 and Greenwich Road, and family members of the three men and one woman who died there, mixed tears and looks of hurt with prayers and anger. A few shook their fists and smiled as the sentences were read.

The sentencing came nearly two years after the crimes were committed, part of a weeklong crime spree by the Carr brothers. The quadruple homicide was among the most brutal crimes in Wichita history. The victims were sexually assaulted numerous times, beaten and forced to withdraw money from ATMs before they were taken to the soccer field and shot.

One woman survived the shooting and provided police with information that led to the Carrs’ arrest just hours after the crime. She also provided key testimony in the trial.

The Carrs also were convicted of killing Ann Walenta, a cellist with the Wichita Symphony. In all, they were convicted on 93 charges, including four counts each of capital murder.

Judge Paul Clark will sentence the brothers on the non-capital counts today. Their death sentence will automatically be appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Reginald Carr lashed out as Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputies hustled him from the courtroom following the sentencing. Reginald Carr’s 25th birthday began Thursday with him breaking an arm in a scuffle with another inmate in a holding cell. It ended with a death sentence

“Happy birthday . . .” yelled an angry Mark Befort, whose brother Jason was killed in the soccer field with Heather Muller, Brad Heyka and Aaron Sander.

Reginald Carr yelled back, directing a stream of obscenities at families in the gallery and even at his sister.

Jonathan Carr, 22, looked straight ahead and made little eye contact with anyone, much as he had done during the preceding 10 weeks of the trial.

“Jonathan, I love you, ” said his sister and mother in the courthouse hallway. They were inside the courtroom when the verdict was read.

“I love you, too!” Jonathan Carr shouted back as the brothers were taken out of sight.

Then before the door closed, one of the brothers yelled: “I’ll get out!”

District Attorney Nola Foulston said Reginald Carr had acted inapprop riately throughout the trial, winking and taunting both prosecutors and families.

“He is a dangerous, relentless killing machine, and he does get the punishment he deserves, ” Foulston said.

She said several jurors told her they wanted the e-mail addresses of the victims’ families so they could express their sympathy.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kim Parker cried with the families after the sentences were read.

“There’s nothing that can bring these kids back, ” Parker said. “But the jury could reach a just verdict, and they did.”

Said Foulston: “No one is jubilant over this because of the fact that it is a death penalty case. It is sad that these families had to go through this again.”

Reginald Carr’s lawyer, Jay Greeno, acknowledged the horror of the crimes but said it doesn’t change his mind about the death penalty.

“On a personal level, I don’t believe in killing people to teach other people that it’s wrong to kill people, ” Greeno said. “We are one of the only civilized countries that continues to do this, and I think we need to look hard at the others that do what we do . . . Iraq, for one.”

Ron Evans, who directs the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, said he will remember Jonathan Carr as one of his most gracious clients.

“I know what he did was bad, but that’s not the person he is to me, ” Evans said. “He’s always treated me as well as I’ve been treated by a client. And I feel bad for him.”

Ken Landwehr, chief of Wichita homicide detectives, said the final verdict brought a close to a case that began with the haunting images of four bodies lying in the snow.

“These crimes were atrocious, ” Landwehr said. “We worked a long time to bring this day to completion.

“I hope I never have to go through a December like that again.”

https://www.kansas.com/news/special-reports/carr-brothers/article16899866.html