U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeal in Carr brothers case

The U.S. Supreme Court next week will hear an appeal asking to reinstate death sentences for three Kansas men, including brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who were convicted of robbing, sexually assaulting and murdering four people in frozen soccer field in east Wichita in 2000.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt also will ask justices to reinstate the death sentence for Sidney Gleason, who was found guilty of killing a Great Bend couple in 2004.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Oct. 7.

At 10 a.m., Schmidt will argue that the instructions jurors received about how to implement the death penalty in all three cases did not violate the Constitution.

At 11 a.m., Kansas Solicitor General Steve McAllister will argue that the joint sentencing hearing the Carrs received was constitutional. The brothers were tried together in Sedgwick County District Court.

In separate decisions last year, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the Carrs’ and Gleason’s convictions but overturned their death sentences. Schmidt asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state court’s decisions. In March the court agreed to hear oral arguments on two issues.

The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned every death sentence that has come before it on appeal since the state brought back capital punishment in 1994. Thirteen men have been ordered to die for their crimes since that time but four had their sentences changed to life in prison after they appealed.

Nine men currently sit on death row in Kansas. The count includes the Carrs and Gleason.

The last executions, by hanging, took place in 1965.

Jonathan and Reginald Carr were sentenced to death after a jury found them guilty of breaking into a Wichita home in December 2000, forcing the five people inside to have sex with one another, robbing them and then shooting them execution-style in a soccer field at 29th Street North and Greenwich.

Four of them – 29-year-old Aaron Sander, 27-year-old Brad Heyka, 26-year-old Jason Befort and 25-year-old Heather Muller – died. One woman survived and ran for help.

Gleason was ordered executed for the murders of Darren Wornkey and Wornkey’s girlfriend Miki Martinez, who was a potential witness in another criminal case against Gleason.

The U.S. Supreme Court review of the cases prompted Kansas’ high court in May to halt its review of a fourth capital murder case — that of Scott Cheever, who was convicted of shooting Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels in 2005.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 1:43 PM with the headline "U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeal in Carr brothers case."