Jury selection continues in Wichita trial

Questioning of potential jurors enters fourth week in quadruple murder case

? One of the bloodiest rampages in Wichita’s recent history has led to the longest jury selection process anyone can remember in Sedgwick County.

When the 15th day of questioning of potential jurors concluded Friday afternoon, 14 more people still were needed to form the final jury pool. The fourth week of individual screenings begins Monday.

From the final group of 68, lawyers will select the 12 jurors and four alternates who will hear the capital murder case of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.

The Dodge City brothers are accused of killing five people in Wichita in two separate incidents a week apart in December 2000. The Carrs are charged with a combined 113 crimes.

Fatigue has begun to show on some of the jurors and lawyers involved in the proceedings.

“I went home last night and had a message from the Red Cross wanting me to give blood, and I felt like telling them to come to the 10th floor of the courthouse any morning,” Jay Greeno, a lawyer for Reginald Carr, said before court began Friday.

The questioning is meant to probe the opinions of potential jurors so lawyers can judge their ability to be fair and impartial.

Four to seven jurors have been approved during each day of individual questioning.

Individual questioning of nine people resumes Monday, and it could be yet another week before testimony begins.

Police have said the Carrs stalked people driving newer cars in east Wichita with the intention of robbing them.

One of the murder charges stems from the death of Ann Walenta, a 55-year-old cellist who performed with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She was shot Dec. 11, 2000, while sitting in her sport utility vehicle outside her former home in east Wichita and died of her injuries Jan. 2, 2001.

The Carrs are also charged with abducting five people on the night of Dec. 14, 2000, from a Wichita townhouse, forcing them to withdraw cash from automated teller machines and then taking them to a soccer field where all were shot in the head.

Killed in that attack were Heather Muller, 25, a Wichita State University student; Jason Befort, 26, a teacher and coach at Augusta High School; Bradley C. Heyka, 27, a Koch Industries employee; and Aaron Sander, 29, a former Koch employee who was planning to become a priest.

The fifth abductee Befort’s 25-year-old fiancee survived the shooting and walked naked nearly a mile through the snow for help.