Trial over multiple killings grips Wichita

WICHITA, Kan. -- The grim details of how two brothers allegedly committed a nine-day crime rampage that left five people dead are being closely monitored by a community that is still shaken nearly two years after the slayings and more than a month into the brothers' murder trial.

The apparently random abduction of five friends from a home on Dec. 14, 2000, is the darkest detail to surface. Investigators say the victims were forced to engage in sexual acts and withdraw money from automated teller machines. Then they were all shot, execution-style, as they knelt in the snow on a dark soccer field.

Four of them -- Aaron Sander, 29; Heather Muller, 25; Brad Heyka, 27; and Jason Befort, 26, died.

Befort's girlfriend, then a 25-year-old teacher, survived. Bleeding from a head wound, she ran barefoot and naked through the snow for nearly a mile to find help. The brothers were caught within hours.

Reginald Carr, 24, and Jonathan Carr, 22, now face a total of 113 charges, including murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Third suspect

In opening arguments, Reginald Carr's attorney, John Val Wachtel, alleged Jonathan Carr committed the crimes with a third man who has never been caught. Watchel said his client was selling drugs the night of the quadruple homicide.

Jonathan Carr's lawyer, Mark Manna, argued that no evidence connects his client to the earlier robberies. He discounted ballistics evidence, saying that even if Reginald Carr is connected to the crimes, it does not mean his client is.

The alleged crime spree began on Dec. 7, 2000, with the abduction of Andrew Schreiber, who was also forced to withdraw cash from an ATM but was otherwise left unharmed.

The crimes escalated on Dec. 11 with the shooting during an attempted robbery of Ann Walenta, 55, who later died.

The case has become a rallying cry for white supremacists groups across the nation because the suspects are black while all the victims were white. Weeks before the trial was set to begin, a Nazi group held a rally in Topeka where the case was repeatedly cited.

Prosecutors are not trying the case as a hate crime. They say robbery was the motive.

Wichita Mayor Bob Knight -- who has made improving race relationships a cornerstone of his administration -- said Friday that regardless of race and ethnicity, what occurred could be described as "raw, brutal and evil."

"You have innocent people tortured, killed, humiliated by someone who is little more than an animal. I'm not looking at it as a black and white issue," Knight said. "I am not a big fan of capital punishment, but if anything deserves people losing their lives, it is this kind of heinous crime."

Jurors appeared riveted by the survivor's testimony on Oct. 10.

"As I was kneeling, there was a shot. And I don't remember, we were all screaming, but I can remember hearing Aaron say, 'please no' -- he used the word 'sir.' There was another one, and another one, and then another one, and then everything kind of went gray as I was shot," she said.

She said she felt the impact of the bullet, but did not fall forward until one of the men kicked her. She heard the men get into the truck and waited until she could no longer see headlights before she got up to check on her friends to see if they were alive.