Man gets life in '96 killings of couple

The same verdict form that overturned Gavin Scott's death sentence also helped end the double murder case after 14 years.

Scott, 32, agreed Wednesday to life sentences on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder in the 1996 killings of Doug and Beth Brittain.

As part of a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, Scott also gave up his rights to further appeal the case.

"This is done now," prosecutor Marc Bennett said afterward.

The sentence from Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert assures Scott won't get out of prison.

Life without parole wasn't a legal option when Scott and Jason Wakefield broke into the Brittains' Goddard home and killed them, leaving their small children alive.

But the sentence assures Scott won't be parole eligible for 80 years. Wilbert sentenced Scott to two consecutive life sentences, each requiring 40 years before parole is considered, following the agreement worked out between the prosecution and the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit.

Scott's sentence is the same Wakefield received in 1997.

As the shooter, Scott had been sentenced to death twice previously. After the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the latest sentence in 2008, Scott faced another sentencing proceeding April 5.

Wednesday morning, 128 potential jurors had come to the courthouse to fill out questionnaires in preparation for jury selection.

But the afternoon hearing negated the need for that, enabled by a unique verdict form fashioned by trial Judge David Kennedy in 1998.

The original jury convicted Scott of capital murder, two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder under Kennedy's verdict form.

"He was essentially convicted of five different counts of these two murders," Bennett said.

In May 2008, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the capital murder conviction of Beth Brittain but reversed the conviction for Doug Brittain.

Under Kansas law, killing more than one person constitutes capital murder. The Supreme Court said convicting Scott of more than one count violated his constitutional right to not face trial more than once for the same crime.

But the verdict form also saved family members of the Brittains from going through yet another sentencing hearing and years of further appeals.

Scott on Wednesday asked Wilbert to reinstate only the jury's convictions on the first-degree murders and sentence him on those.

"It left those other charges hanging out there and allowed a resolution both sides thought was appropriate," said Jeff Wicks, one of Scott's lawyers from the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit.

Wicks and Tim Frieden took the offer to Bennett.

"We do what we always try to do — keep people off death row," Wicks said.

Bennett said he then talked it over with the Brittain family.

If Bennett could convince a third jury to sentence Scott to death, the prosecutor estimated it would take another dozen years or more to go through more appeals.

"Taking this realistically, we weren't likely to see the death penalty imposed until the 28th anniversary of these deaths," Bennett said.

Diane Asmann, Doug Brittain's sister, told Wilbert on Wednesday that the family just wanted to put Scott behind them.

"As of today, you no longer exist to us," she said to Scott.

Asmann also told Wilbert the family figured Kansas would eventually abolish the death penalty, nullifying any further proceedings.

"They didn't want to wake up every day wondering where he was or if he'd get out," Bennett said. "The goal, for both the defense and the state, was basically to let him go to the penitentiary and live out his life."

The case had been hampered by legal troubles for years.

In August 1998, a jury found Scott, then 20, guilty of killing the Brittains, then decided he should die.

But Judge Kennedy threw out the death penalty verdict after learning that one of the jurors brought a Bible into deliberations.

Another jury sentenced Scott to death in June 1999.

Then in 2006, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that juries in capital cases had been given instructions that incorrectly stated the law. That nullified the death sentences of several defendants, including Scott.

Scott became the third defendant to have a death sentence changed to life since Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994.

All three — Scott, Stanley Elms and Michael Marsh — were Sedgwick County cases.

This story was originally published March 25, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Man gets life in '96 killings of couple."