Topeka ? The State Finance Council on Wednesday approved paying $1.575 million to the relatives of four murder victims killed during a 2000 crime spree.

Aaron Sander, Jason Befort, Heather Muller and Brad Heyka were shot to death by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr on Dec. 15 of that year. Another woman was shot but survived.

Before the killings, the five were robbed, held at gunpoint and sexually assaulted.

Muller’s family did not join in the lawsuit filed by relatives of Sander, Befort and Heyka.

A separate lawsuit was filed by the husband of Ann Walenta, a cellist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She was shot by Reginald Carr during a robbery four days before the other killings and later died of her injuries.

The agreements approved Wednesday call for the Sander, Befort and Heyka families to share $1.125 million in damages. Walenta’s family will get $450,000.

The Carr brothers were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

The families’ suits alleged negligence by a state parole officer who mistakenly authorized Reginald Carr’s early release from the Ford County Jail shortly before the killing spree began.

A Sedgwick County judge ruled in March the families could sue the state for negligence for up to $500,000 each.