Autopsy findings withheld

Testimony ties suspect to holdup in park after couple's shooting

Autopsy reports on Pete Wallace and Wyona Chandlee were completed Monday.

But Douglas County Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney said the results would not be made public.

“It is my policy never to release reports generated by other agencies,” Kenney told the Journal-World.

A spokesman for coroner Erik Mitchell of Frontier Forensics in Topeka also declined to release the results, saying Kenney had asked the coroner to suppress the documents’ release to the public.

Kenney disputed that claim. “They were not told by us that they couldn’t release the report,” she said late Monday.

Police have said Wallace and Chandlee, both 71, were shot to death July 10 in their home at 1530 Learnard Ave.

Damien C. Lewis, 22, has been charged with capital murder in the slayings.

Also on Monday, Norris Hunter, 21, Lawrence, testified that Lewis was the gunman who robbed him July 16 in a Lawrence park. Lewis also faces charges stemming from the alleged robbery.

Lewis was armed with a pistol when he got into the backseat of a car and demanded money, Hunter testified during a preliminary hearing for Malcolm Glover, 21, Lawrence. Glover was charged with two counts of aiding and abetting aggravated robbery for allegedly helping Lewis in the park holdup.

“I asked him if he was playing,” Hunter testified under questioning by Assistant Dist. Atty. Dave Zabel. “He cocked the gun, and then I knew he wasn’t playing.”

Hunter said he had known Lewis, whom he called D.L., for a few weeks before the robbery at Edgewood Park, 1600 Maple Lane.

It was the investigation of the robbery in the park that led Lawrence Police to arrest Lewis and ultimately link him to the deaths of Wallace and Chandlee. Items taken from their house were found in the apartment where Lewis lived.

Hunter was one of two robbery victims who testified during a preliminary hearing for Glover.

Glover was initially charged with one count, but Zabel told District Judge Michael Malone that an additional charge had been filed to reflect that there were two victims.

After the hearing, Malone ruled there was enough evidence to try Glover on the charges. A trial was set for Oct. 7.

Hunter and the second victim, Brian Hodges, both identified Glover as taking part in the robbery. Hunter said he asked Hodges to drive him to Edgewood Park, where he planned to meet Glover and Lewis.

They said Lewis flagged them down in the park, then got into the back seat of the car. Glover walked up to the car and stood by the driver’s side window, Hodges and Hunter said. Hodges said Glover asked him to turn over money.

Police have said Glover played no part in the deaths of Wallace and Chandlee.

Malone, who is presiding over both Glover’s and Lewis’ cases, has ordered that search or evidence affidavits in both of the cases be sealed.

Speaking in general terms, attorneys with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office who have worked on capital murder cases said that attorneys sometimes move to have information sealed to prevent prejudicing the public. They said it could create problems in getting a fair trial and lead to the need to move the trial to another location.

A Sept. 3 preliminary hearing is scheduled for Lewis in the park robbery and capital murder cases.