Trial preparation begins in Burlingame slayings

? Attorneys have begun interviewing hundreds of potential jurors for a quadruple homicide trial in east-central Kansas.

James Kraig Kahler, of Columbia, Mo., is scheduled for trial Aug. 8 on four counts of capital murder in Osage County District Court. He has pleaded not guilty.

He’s accused in the November 2009 shootings of his ex-wife, Karen Kahler; their two teenage daughters, Emily and Lauren Kahler; and his ex-wife’s grandmother, Dorothy Wight. The killings happened at Wight’s home in Burlingame.

WIBW-TV reported that nearly 300 potential jurors were questioned Monday at Lyndon High School because the courthouse was too small.

Kahler, of Meriden, is a former city utilities official in Columbia, Mo.