The nation’s highest court has refused to hear a second appeal from death row inmates Jonathan and Reginald Carr, Kansas brothers convicted of capital murder in a brutal December 2000 quadruple slaying that continues to be one of Wichita’s most-notorious crimes.
“Today’s action means the two defendants have exhausted their direct appeals and their convictions and death sentences are considered final, although they still have the ability to file additional lawsuits in state or federal court seeking to prevent their executions, and it is expected they will do so,” outgoing Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a news release announcing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday declining to review a January 2022 state court ruling upholding the Carrs’ death sentences.
The court has twice considered appeals from the Carrs, who 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 a fifth victim in an brutal execution-style shooting on a snow-covered soccer field. The last time the case went before the Supreme Court, in 2016, it reversed a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that had overturned the Carrs’ death sentences in 2014 because prosecutors tried them together.
