Cellist could ID suspect before dying

? A woman who was shot in an attempted robbery identified Reginald Carr as her attacker in a photo lineup before she died, a police detective testified Wednesday.

Randy Reynolds, a detective for the Wichita Police Department who interviewed the woman at the hospital, said Ann Walenta could not pick out Carr’s brother, Jonathan, from a second photo array.

Reynolds said Walenta told him the man she saw had gotten out of the passenger side of a vehicle that followed her home Dec. 11, 2000. He approached her car and asked for help. He then brandished a handgun, shooting her when she tried to back her car out of her driveway.

The identification by Walenta at the hospital was made Dec. 15, the day the Carr brothers were arrested as suspects in a quadruple killing in Wichita.

Walenta’s husband, Don Walenta, also testified Wednesday, discussing the outdoor lighting at the home. He said he remained with his wife at the hospital throughout her stay and was present when the photo arrays were shown. He told jurors detectives did not prompt his wife.

Earlier Wednesday, Anna Kelly testified about how she discovered her neighbor across the street Ann Walenta had been shot inside a car.

Kelly told jurors she initially dismissed the gunshots her daughter thought she heard as unlikely in her neighborhood. About 10 minutes later, Kelly said, she opened her front door because she heard honking from Ann Walenta’s driveway.

That’s when Walenta started flashing her car lights and yelling for help, Kelly said.

“Ann, help me,” Kelly said Walenta yelled.

Walenta, 55, a cellist for the Wichita symphony, died Jan. 2 of her injuries.

Walenta’s shooting just days before four other people were shot and killed in Wichita are part of the 113 charges Reginald and Jonathan Carr are being tried for in Sedgwick County District Court. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Kelly re-created for jurors the evening Walenta was shot.

“I asked her who shot you … (she said) it was a black guy with wire hair. I stayed there with her. I opened the front door to get closer to her, and this glass fell out and her left leg fell out. I realized she didn’t have control of it, so I put it back in and shut the door.”

Kelly said she yelled to her husband to call police while she stayed with Walenta, holding her head the whole time and trying to keep her talking.

“She kept repeating to me, ‘I’m not going to make it.’ I kept arguing with her, ‘The police are coming, you will be fine,”‘ Kelly said.

Porter testified his hospital examination Dec. 11 showed Walenta had five gunshot wounds, mostly in the left side of her chest. She had been shot three times, and two of the shots exited her body and one remained lodged inside.