More than two years ago, Raymond D. Boothe stabbed his disabled son and left him to die on the Kansas Turnpike, then drove to southwest Lawrence and launched his car through a fence in a spectacular crash.

But it wasn’t until Thursday that he made his first court appearance in Douglas County to answer for the wreck, which prosecutors say was an attempt to kill himself and his three surviving children. Wearing a jail jumpsuit and resting his arm on a podium in a mostly empty courtroom, Boothe answered a judge’s questions by saying “Yes, sir” and “No, sir.”

Boothe, 36, who has a history of mental illness, already has been convicted of murder in Leavenworth County in the death of his 11-year-old son, Levi, on the turnpike. He’s serving a 16-year sentence at the state prison in Hutchinson.

But in August, Douglas County Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney’s office decided to seek additional prison time by charging Boothe with three counts of attempted murder and one count of battery on a law enforcement officer related to the wreck.

Boothe arrived Wednesday night at the Douglas County Jail after being transported from Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

When Judge Michael Malone asked Boothe on Thursday if he was currently in custody elsewhere, he said, “Yes, serving a 16-year sentence.”

Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Dunbar read the charges against Boothe and handed him a copy of a written complaint.

Malone said even though Boothe didn’t face the death penalty, a member of the state’s salaried death-penalty defense team would be appointed to represent him.

For years, the court has used local private-practice attorneys who take turns serving on an appointment list and who get paid by the hour. But Malone said the state had directed judges to start appointing death-penalty team members to all level-one felonies.

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Malone set Boothe’s next hearing for Wednesday and asked if he had any questions.

“Not at this time,” Boothe said.

At the time of the murder, Boothe and his wife lived in Cameron, Mo. Raymond Boothe told investigators that as he was driving the children to Oklahoma he heard the voice of God on the car radio telling him to kill his son.

Boothe told detectives he stopped his car, pulled Levi into a nearby ditch and stabbed him several times with needle-nosed pliers and a folding knife.

He eventually entered a plea of intentional second-degree murder.

The Boothes’ 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter now live with Raymond Boothe’s mother and two of his three sisters.

The couple’s youngest child, an 8-year-old daughter, lives with her mother in Iowa.

Boothe’s family members were not in the courtroom Thursday.