Sedgwick County District Court Judge Jeff Goering denied a request Monday for a new sentencing hearing in the capital murder case of Jonathan and Reginald Carr.
It’s the latest step in a long, winding judicial process since the brothers were convicted of a series of robberies, assaults and murders in Wichita more than 20 years ago. Both are on death row.
The Carr brothers were sentenced in a joint hearing after their convictions. Their attorneys want separate sentencing hearings. They indicated that they would appeal the judge’s decision.
“I'm not going to hazard a guess on how long it'll be, but I would venture to guess it’ll be longer than I'm going to be district attorney,” Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said about the length of the latest appeals process.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case last year – including a motion for separate sentencing hearings – after the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the death sentences.
The brothers also have a second stage of appeals underway, arguing that they had ineffective counsel in their initial trial.
The Carrs were convicted in a series of crimes that occurred in December 2000. They included the robbery and kidnapping of a former Wichita State University baseball player and the shooting of a Wichita Symphony member, who later died of her injuries.
The Carrs later invaded a home in east Wichita. They terrorized the five people inside, including two women who were sexually assaulted. They drove one woman to an ATM and made her withdraw money.
All five were taken to a snowy field near K-96 and Greenwich Road in east Wichita and shot. One woman survived. She later identified the Carr brothers at trial.
There are nine people on death row in Kansas. Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, but it has not executed a prisoner since 1965.
