Carr brothers denied new sentencing hearings by Kansas Supreme Court
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that convicted Wichita murderers Jonathan and Reginald Carr won’t get new sentencing hearings after the brothers argued there were still sentencing issues left to resolve.
In a 23-page ruling, the court said the mandates it issued when it affirmed the Carrs’ death sentences in 2022 were final judgments that left no issues for the trial court to take up on direct appeal.
A mandate is an order issued after an appellate court’s decision is final. It formally notifies the lower court of the ruling and directs it how to proceed.
“The mandates did not remand the matters or instruct the district court to conduct further proceedings,” the ruling says. “And defendants have failed to demonstrate that the mandates left any outstanding capital-sentencing issues for the district court. ... We thus affirm the district court’s dismissal of (their) ... post-mandate motions for sentencing.”
Attorneys for the brothers had argued the death sentences the Kansas Supreme Court upheld weren’t legal due to the way the capital murder counts were numbered when Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Clark announced their death sentences in 2002. The brothers filed motions in Sedgwick County District Court in 2023, arguing they were entitled to new sentencing hearings over the issue.
But Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering denied the requests, saying the Supreme Court mandates gave no additional direction to the trial court and that he had no authority to overrule them.
The Carrs were convicted of robbing, sexually assaulting and murdering 29-year-old Aaron Sander, 27-year-old Brad Heyka, 26-year-old Jason Befort and 25-year-old Heather Muller and injuring another woman during a home invasion that ended with an execution-style shooting in a snow-covered soccer field in December 2000. They were also convicted of carjacking and robbing a 23-year-old man and fatally shooting 55-year-old Wichita Symphony cellist Linda “Ann” Walenta during their Wichita crime spree.
The Carrs currently have civil appeals pending. They are also waiting for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to announce a decision on recent executive clemency requests where they’ve asked her to commute their death sentences to life in prison.
