Carjacking victim testifies in murder trial
Wichita ? A man who prosecutors say was the first victim in two brothers’ nine-day rampage of robbery and murder tearfully testified Friday about the night he was carjacked outside a convenience store.
From the witness stand in Sedgwick County District Court, Andrew Schreiber identified Reginald Carr as one of the men who had forced him at gunpoint to drive to three automated teller machines on Dec. 7, 2000, and withdraw a total of $800.
Schreiber also identified a watch he said his abductors took from him a watch that detectives said they found in a Wichita apartment where Reginald Carr was arrested on Dec. 15, 2000, just hours after four robbery victims were found shot to death in a snowy soccer field.
Carr, 24, and his brother, Jonathan Carr, 22, are on trial on 113 criminal counts, including five charges of capital murder.
They are accused of killing Ann Walenta, a 55-year-old Wichita Symphony Orchestra cellist shot multiple times while driving home from rehearsal Dec. 11, 2000; and four friends who were abducted from a Wichita home Dec. 14 Aaron Sander, 29; Heather Muller, 25; Brad Heyka, 27; and Jason Befort, 26.
A fifth person Befort’s girlfriend survived the later shootings and provided details to police that led to Reginald Carr’s arrest and the discovery of large amounts of the victims’ belongings, including Schreiber’s watch.
Schreiber testified that one man put a gun to his car window outside a convenience store and forced his way in, and that they later picked up a second man. After he had been made to drive to three ATMs and empty his account, he said, his abductors drove him to a dirt road.
Questioned about what he had been thinking at that point, Schreiber lost his composure and replied that he feared he would be shot to death and that he prayed silently.
Between sobs and repeated objections from defense attorneys that were overruled Schreiber said he made two requests in his prayer.
“The first request I made was that if this is my time to go, please make it quick. … The second request I made in my prayer that the people close in my life knew how much I loved them,” he said.
Schreiber was dropped off unharmed in a small community near Kechi, where his abductors shot out his tire.
Earlier Friday, prosecutors showed the jury mounds of clothing that crime scene investigator Scott Pike identified as property removed from the apartment where Reginald Carr was arrested.
Prosecutors also brought into the courtroom television sets that were stolen, setting one of the sets on the witness stand with a loud thud. Jurors also were shown the victims’ credit cards, identification cards, checkbooks, wallets, ATM receipts and other items prosecutors contend were recovered from the apartment.
So much evidence filled the small courtroom Friday that District Judge Paul Clark asked prosecutors to make sure there was a clear path for jurors to walk through on their way to lunch.
For hours on the witness stand Friday, Pike identified one-by-one each piece of clothing and other property belonging to some of the victims. Some of the clothing was still on hangers and stuffed into duffle bags.