Murray to stand trial for murder of ex-wife
A judge ruled today there is probable cause that a Kansas State University professor murdered his ex-wife.
Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild made the ruling late this afternoon — deciding there is enough evidence for English professor Thomas E. Murray to stand trial on first-degree murder charges.
That decision comes after the judge listened to a week’s worth of testimony about the November 2003 stabbing of 40-year-old Carmin Ross inside her rural Douglas County home.
The preliminary hearing concluded today with prosecutors playing the entire videotape of the nearly 10-hour police interrogation of Murray.
During the interview at the Riley County police department in Manhattan, investigators say Murray killed his wife in a crime of passion and rage. Murray calmly refers to himself as a “thinking man” — someone who is incapable of murder.
The tape shows Murray never asks investigators how his ex-wife died and doesn’t deny killing her until more than nine hours into the interview.
He also told detectives he didn’t drive to Lawrence the morning his ex-wife was killed.
But later, the tape shows after asking if there were cameras on I-70, Murray changes his story and admits driving toward Paxico on the turnpike.
Murray’s attorney insists his client is innocent until proven guilty.
The judge has not yet set an arraignment date for Murray.
Meanwhile, the family of Carmin Ross did not miss a minute of the week-long hearing. And although they declined to talk on camera, Ross’ father did say he wanted to thank the Lawrence community and everyone who’s worked on his daughter’s case, during what’s been the most difficult time of his entire life.
For more on this story, return to this Web site, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Saturday’s Journal-World.
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