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The Wichita Massacre, also known as the Wichita Horror, was a spree of random robberies, assaults, rapes, and murders perpetrated from December 7 to 14, 2000 by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr against several people in the city of Wichita, Kansas. In this period, the Carrs killed five people and a dog in the course of robberies and assaults, robbed another man, and severely wounded a woman. The crimes shocked Wichitans, and they quickly purchased new guns, locks, and home security systems, causing a boom in that business in the city.〔(''The Wichita Horror, The Brutal Murders by Jonathan and Reginald Carr: The Heartbreak of a City'' ) by Denise Noe, Court TV's Crime Library〕 The brothers were tried and convicted on multiple counts, including for kidnapping, robbery, rape, four counts of capital murder, and one count of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to death in October 2002, but later overturned to life in prison.〔 The case has continued to receive attention because the convicted killers' sentences have been subject to various rulings related to the state's death penalty law. In 2004, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the state's death penalty law, but the Kansas attorney general appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. It upheld the constitutionality of the state's death penalty law; this meant that the Carrs and other condemned killers were returned to death row. Defense attorneys continued appeals. On July 25, 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death sentences against the Carrs because of trial judge error in the penalty proceedings. A penalty trial is required for each of the brothers.〔 Before this occurred, the state attorney general appealed its high court's decision to the US Supreme Court, which agreed in March 2015 to hear the case. That will happen in the fall of 2015.〔("Carr brothers’ death sentences to be reviewed by U.S. Supreme Court" ), ''Wichita Eagle'', 30 March 2015, accessed 27 June 2015〕 The brutal nature of the Carrs' murders and assaults overshadowed four murders committed a week earlier in Wichita, but the latter had been the worst violent crime in 27 years in the city. Nineteen-year-old Cornelius Olivier killed his girlfriend, 18-year-old Raeshawnda Wheaton, her roommate and two visiting friends at her house on December 7, 2000. Oliver is serving a life sentence for the murders. The community commemorated the four friends in 2010 on the tenth anniversary of their deaths.〔(Ron Sylvester, "Victims in 2000 quadruple homicide aren't forgotten" ), ''The Wichita Eagle,'' 7 December 2010, accessed 26 June 2015〕 ==Crime spree== The Carr brothers, 22-year-old Reginald and 20-year-old Jonathan, already had lengthy criminal records when they began their spree based on robbery. On December 8, 2000, having recently arrived in Wichita, they committed armed robbery against Andrew Schreiber, a 23-year-old assistant baseball coach. On December 11, three days later, they shot and mortally wounded 55-year-old cellist and librarian, Ann Walenta, as she tried to escape from them in her car; she died three days after the shooting. Their crime spree culminated on December 14, when the Carrs invaded a home and subjected five young men and women to robbery, sexual abuse, and murder. The brothers broke into a house chosen nearly at random where Brad Heyka, Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort and his girlfriend, a young woman identified as 'H.G.', all in their twenties, were spending the night. They were all working adults: Befort was a local high school teacher; Heyka, a director of finance with a local financial services company; Muller, a local preschool teacher; and Sandler, a former financial analyst who had been studying to become a priest. H.G. is a teacher. The Carrs initially scoured the house for valuables. H.G. learned of Befort's intent to propose marriage to her when the Carrs discovered the engagement ring he had hidden in a can of popcorn. After the search, the Carrs forced their hostages to strip naked, bound and detained them, and subjected them to various forms of sexual abuse, including rape and oral sex.〔 The brothers forced the men to engage in sexual acts with the women, and the women with each other. They drove the victims to ATMs to empty their bank accounts, before taking them to a snowy deserted soccer complex on the outskirts of town. There they shot the five execution-style in the backs of their heads. The Carr brothers drove Befort's truck over the bodies and left them for dead. H.G. survived her head wound at the soccer field because her plastic barrette deflected the bullet. After the killers left, she walked naked for more than a mile in freezing weather to seek first aid and shelter at a house. Before getting medical treatment, she reported the incident and descriptions of her attackers to the couple who took her in, even before the police arrived. The Carrs had returned to the friends' house to ransack it for more valuables, and while there killed H.G.'s dog Nikki, which was muzzled. The next day the police captured the Carr brothers. Reginald was identified by both Schreiber and the dying Walenta. The District Attorney said that, based on evidence in the case, the Carrs' motive was robbery.〔 With the help of HG's testimony at the trial, the Carr brothers were convicted of nearly all 113 counts against them, including kidnapping, robbery, rape, four counts of capital murder, and one count of first-degree murder. Reginald Carr was convicted of 50 counts and Jonathan Carr of 43. They were each sentenced to death for the capital murders, as well as to life in prison, with decades to serve before being eligible for parole.〔 Their cases were appealed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wichita Massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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