Wichita — Jurors will begin deliberations Thursday on whether to recommend two brothers convicted of killing five people, including four shot execution style in a snow-covered soccer field, be put to death.
In their closing arguments Wednesday, defense attorneys said just one juror could decide to show Reginald and Jonathan Carr mercy and spare their lives. Should they not receive a death sentence, the brothers would spent at least 50 years in prison if given the minimum possible sentence for their crimes, the attorneys said.
"Any one of you can decide to save this young man's life," said Ron Evans, Jonathan Carr's attorney. "You can decide there is some good there. There is something worth saving. You don't have an opportunity to do that very often in this life - to save another life. Our instinct is to preserve life ... it is there in all of us."
Jay Greeno, the attorney for Reginald Carr, said his client would be 25 today and was the product of an abusive household.
"This crime had to be committed by a damaged individual or individuals," Greeno said. "We just don't grow up that way."
Jurors convicted the brothers for 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 they knelt side-by-side in the field. They also were convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting of another woman, Ann Walenta, four days before the quadruple murder.
An eye for an eye
Prosecutors urged jurors to show the brothers the same mercy they showed the four killed in the field.
"What murder would warrant the death penalty, if it is not this? It defies reason to think torturous slaughter of these four young people who gave no fight," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim Parker. "They submitted hoping for life and they got death. You cannot bring these young people back, but you can you can go back and deliver a just and legal punishment."
The brothers also were 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, as well as forcing the five friends to engage in sex acts with each other and repeatedly raping the women.
Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston told jurors in her closing arguments the brothers were convicted of 23 sex crimes. She said the victims were made to suffer as no one should suffer and were humiliated before they died.
"That crime made their lives end in the most gruesome and vile way," Foulston said. "It made their lives end after degrading them."
Greeno told jurors that Reginald Carr should be locked up forever. But he said jurors also should think about the effect his execution would have on Carr's three young children.
Evans urged jurors to remember Jonathan Carr was only 22 and had no serious criminal record prior to these offenses.
"There is good in this young man," Evans said. "He is not a monster. He behaved monstrously that night."
Normal brains
Also on Wednesday, a radiologist testified that brain scans prepared for the Carr's defense showing alleged brain damage had been manipulated and the results skewed.
Dr. Norman Pay said his analysis showed the brothers both had normal brains. He testified for the state as a rebuttal witness in the penalty phase of the capital murder trial.
David Preston, a retired doctor and former professor at Kansas University Medical Center, appeared for the defense last week and testified the brain scans showed problems in the part of the brain that handles short-term memory and assigns risk to situations.
But Pay said his analysis showed the color-coded scans prepared for jurors had been skewed. Pay also said the scans were not in the proper anatomical location, but tilted in such a way that it showed a diminished area of the brain.
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