Father to be tried in son’s slaying
Leavenworth ? Hours after a failed suicide attempt, Raymond Boothe told police he’d killed his disabled son because the 11-year-old was an “abomination” and had “given him the finger,” a Leavenworth County detective testified Wednesday.
Boothe, 34, is accused of stabbing his son Levi several times and leaving him for dead about 10:30 p.m. Aug. 27, 2002, on the Kansas Turnpike in Leavenworth County.
Testifying at Boothe’s preliminary hearing, Detective Ron Ewert said Boothe told him he had tried unsuccessfully to strangle Levi with one hand, after which Boothe stopped his car, dragged the boy into a nearby ditch and stabbed him several times with a pair of needle-nose pliers and a “folding Buck knife.” Boothe said he then dragged Levi from the ditch, flung him onto the turnpike and, before leaving, ran over him once with his right front tire, Ewert testified.
In a handwritten statement given to police, Boothe said that as he drove away, his two daughters and another son were screaming and crying in the back seat. He said he told them to “pray with me and we’ll be OK.”
Boothe, who has a history of mental illness, reportedly later told police, “Levi went to heaven or hell, and I just want my family back.”
Leavenworth County Undersheriff David Zoellner said several passersby called that night to report seeing “something that looked like a human being crawling” alongside the turnpike. At least one stopped to inspect “a glob or a mound” in the outer westbound lane near mile marker 207.
Zoellner and Ewert both testified that it appeared Levi Boothe had been struck by at least one vehicle.
Because of his multiple disabilities, Levi Boothe was unable to talk and could barely walk.
Leavenworth County District Judge Frederick Stewart ordered Boothe, who is charged with first-degree murder, to stand trial. Arraignment is set for May 8.
Stewart deferred ruling on whether Boothe was competent to stand trial after Boothe’s attorney, Gary Fuller, said an independent evaluation was unfinished.
“The interviews have been done,” Fuller said. “It’s just not in writing, and some additional information is being sought.”
Stewart agreed to consider legal questions on Boothe’s sanity at the May 8 hearing.
Family members have told the Journal-World that in the days preceding Levi’s death, Boothe, a union carpenter, had been acting erratically. The morning of the boy’s death, Boothe drove from his family’s home in Cameron, Mo., to Creston, Iowa, where he was seen buying gasoline in his underwear. He later picked up Levi at a group home for children with disabilities, drove back to Osborn, Mo., a small town outside Cameron. There, Boothe picked up his three children and told his sister that he and the four children were going to Oklahoma.
After leaving Levi on the turnpike, authorities contend, Boothe drove to Lawrence, where he apparently drove around for almost three hours before crashing his four-door Dodge sedan in an apparent suicide attempt at 27th Street and Lawrence Avenue. None of the four occupants was seriously injured.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in the case.
6News video: Boothe will stand trial
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