Man kills wife for infecting him with HIV

Katongu, stiches of the self-inflicted injury
| credits: Olaleye Aluko

A forty-five-year-old man, Katongu, has confessed to policemen that he killed his wife because she infected him with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, among other misdeeds.

Katongu, who hails from Wamba, Nasarawa State, was apprehended by operatives of the Department of Criminal Investigations, Yaba, Lagos at the weekend.

After having allegedly killing the wife, Katongu, who worked as a construction worker on the Victoria Island, was said to have also attempted to commit suicide before the neighbours forced the door open and rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was revived.

He said, 

 “I married Justina, my second wife in December 2010. I later learnt that she had given birth to two girls for a man. The girls died of AIDS.

“However, when we first met, she did not tell me all these. I explained to her that I have a wife with children and I wanted to marry her too. Before marriage, I told her we should go to hospital to conduct HIV test, but she refused and said that she was HIV negative. So we started sleeping together.”

Katongu added that without his knowledge, his wife had been going to Abuja for medical treatment every three months for HIV, until March 2013 when she took him along.

He said it was at the hospital that she disclosed her HIV status to him.

He said, “I was angry and told the doctor who equally blamed her for not disclosing it to me. The doctor then tested me, and I was positive. We came back to Lagos and continued with the relationship because I loved her. But suddenly, she told me she wanted to pack out from my house that she was no longer interested in marrying me having had another person in Abuja. In fact, the man usually called her on phone while we were together.

“I told her that with her status, she should not go and be infecting people with the virus. And that I will kill her and kill myself. We started fighting and I stabbed her. It was in the early hours. I stabbed her three times with a knife. She shouted and people were knocking at our door.

After she died, I stabbed myself, and the people broke the door open. I woke up to find myself in a hospital. I feel very bad that I killed my wife. I loved her very much.”

Culled from PUNCH

Women, children stop military trucks conveying soldiers to fight Boko Haram

Military trucks conveying soldiers to fight Boko Haram terrorists at the weekend could not move past their take-off point in the army barracks as hundreds of women and children forcefully stopped them from conveying their husbands and fathers to the Boko Haram-seized Gwoza by locking the exit gates of a barracks in Borno State, demanding quality fighting equipment for the soldiers.

Scores of soldiers have been killed by Boko Haram in Borno State in the last few months, and many blame the inferior weapons Nigerian troops are equipped with to fight brutal insurgents.

According to witnesses, after locking the gates, the women and children placed themselves as wedges before the trucks that were to drive out of Giwa Barracks of the 21 armoured brigade Maiduguri.

One woman was quoted as saying, “we don’t want to be made another set of widows, give our husbands modern and better arms, weapons and vehicles or they go nowhere!”

The reaction came after nearly 60 soldiers killed in Gwoza and Damboa- both in Borno State- were given a mass burial at the Maimalari Barracks Maiduguri.

The women and children also reportedly blockaded the roads leading to the barracks with stones and sticks, while some sat in front of the barracks’ gate.

Some soldiers at the barracks said they were in support of the action. One soldier who chose to remain anonymous told newsmen that “we are ever ready to tackle Boko Haram terrorists but our superior officers are not helping us by not giving us the right arms to execute the war. How can I go and face Boko Haram with AK47 that is charged with only three cartridges when the enemy is brandishing modern GPMG, AA, RPG and so on. Most of our soldiers die every day like fowls because of faulty deployment and yet when you complain they only tell you to obey the last order.”

Another soldier said, “we are being pushed to death because we usually run out of ammunition or our weapons would fail us during an operation, while the Boko Haram who came fully kitted with better arms and extra supplies would continue to pick on us like insects.”

According to another: “We are ready to finish Boko Haram in one week because we have the courage to do that if we are given the right arms and ammunition.”

Culled from Vanguard

Beggar who stabbed passerby in the eye for refusing to give him cash is jailed for 2 years

Homeless Meshach Harrison stabbed the victim in the eye inside a Birmingham restaurant

A beggar has been jailed for just two years for blinding a Good Samaritan who offered to buy him food.

Homeless Meshach Harrison stabbed the victim in the eye inside a Birmingham restaurant.

The thug had repeatedly demanded cash from the 25-year-old and rebuffed offers of food.

Harrison, 29, had been due to stand trial for possession of an offensive weapon and inflicting grievous bodily harm before he admitted the GBH offence at Birmingham Crown Court.

However, his two-year sentence was condemned as 'appalling' by the city MP whose constituency includes the crime scene in Soho Road, Handsworth.

Khalid Mahmood (Labour, Perry Barr) challenged the judge who imposed the term to justify it to traders worried about crime.

'I’m very concerned about the length of the sentence,' he said. 'It should have been far more severe.

Detectives released CCTV footage of Harrison after the attack, which happened inside Spices restaurant around 7pm on December 5 last year.

The beggar asked the victim, who was with a friend, for a cigarette.

He was given one but quickly returned, asked for cash and continued to harass the pair as they walked along the street.

Speaking at the time of the attack, police said the man was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.Despite offering to buy Harrison food, the victim was stabbed in the left eye with an unknown object.

Det Con Sharon Duncan, from Force CID, said last December: 'The beggar approached the two men on five or six occasions and, even though they offered to buy him food, he kept asking for cash.

'Finally he struck one of the men in his left eye with an unknown object.

'The young man was rushed to hospital, where he had to undergo surgery. His eye was saved, but unfortunately he has lost the sight in it.

'This is a devastating loss to a young man, who just appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

Justice Minister Lord Faulks said: 'Crime is falling and tough sentences are available to punish criminals, including life sentences for serious violent offences.

'Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the judges, taking into account all the facts of each case and the relevant sentencing guidelines.'

Culled from DAILY MAIL

How Obama promoted Africa's most corrupt and evil dictators

Barack and Michelle Obama have an official portrait taken with Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan

President Barrack Obama surprised the whole world this week when he rolled out The red carpet for some of Africa's most corrupt, most greedy and most violent leaders at the  first ever U.S-Africa summit at the White House. 

Although Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe was not among the guests invited to the occasion, the guest list still included several other African leaders with only slightly better human rights records.

Among the African leaders present at the event were Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’ of any homosexuals in the country and Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has the dubious honor of ranking 19th on author David Wallechinsky's 2006 list of the world's 20 worst living dictators. Others were Angolan president Jose Eduardo do Santos who is widely reported to have murdered many and exploited the country's resources to his own gain and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria who sparked major controversy over his decision in 2012 to end fuel subsidies not minding the fact that the decision directly put the poor masses at a disadvantaged position. He is also accused of pardoning corrupt politicians.

The White House promoted the summit as the largest-ever gathering of African leaders in the United States, with more than 50 countries represented.

Many of the leaders were later photographed in the White House, posing for individual portraits with Obama and the First Lady.

The President's opening speech avoided the prickly issues of homophobia and torture and instead sought out similarities between the two continents.

He opened with: ‘I stand before you as the president of the United States, a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa’.

Before going on to say: ‘Our faith traditions remind us of the inherent dignity of every human being and that our work as nations must be rooted in empathy and compassion for each other, as brothers and as sisters.’

Here we run the rule over nine of the most controversial leaders who enjoyed the lavish affair.

Barack Obama shakes hands with Gambia's Yahya AJJ Jammeh as the presidents pose for an official photo

Rwanda's president Paul Kagame with Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta with Barack and Michelle Obama

S President Barack Obama((L)) appauds with African leaders during a group photo at the US - Africa Leaders Summit at the US State Department in Washington DC

R

President Barack Obama and African leaders pose during the family photo session at the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit, on Wednesday, Auhust 6, 2014, at the State Department in Washington

Culled from DAILY MAIL

Woman who slit husband's throat with knife claims she was dreaming

Judith Jones

 A woman accused of slitting her husband’s throat as he slept reportedly told police she was dreaming of filleting a fish when the alleged incident occurred.

Judith Jones, 44, is facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault after her failed attempt at making her husband dead… something she had apparently been planning for quite some time.

Police say the couple’s 16-year-old daughter interrupted the attack late last month, quite possibly saving her father’s life. She later told police her mother had been planning to kill her father for about a year.

When questioned, Jones brought up the whole fish filleting spiel. Needless to say, that sorry ass excuse didn’t fly. She eventually admitted to the deed.

“I’ve seen stabbings before, but I’ve never had anybody tell us that they were dreaming that they were filleting fish when they committed a crime. It’s a first for that,” said Sheriff Fred Abdalla.

According to Abdalla, Jones is no stranger to police — she was arrested for threatening her husband’s life last year, and another complaint was filed in February of this year.

Police have reason to believe alcohol was involved in this particular incident. Her bond has been set at $500,000.

Hubby, 49-year-old Thomas, is recovering in the hospital, stitched from ear to ear.

Culled from DREAMIN DEMON

Mother and son born without arms eat, wash and play with their feet

Linda Bannon her son Timmy, now 9, were born with Holt-Oram syndrome. The are condition affects bone growth and can cause heart problems

For most, the household chores are an arduous task.

But for mother-of-one Linda Bannon, simple jobs such as cooking dinner in the evening, washing up and making the bed, present an almost impossible challenge.

The 35-year-old was born with no arms - the result of the rare hereditary condition Holt-Oram syndrome, which affects bone growth and can cause heart problems.

But Mrs Bannon refuses to let her disability get in the way of her living a normal life, using her feet in place of her hands.

Mrs Bannon, 35, refuses to let her disability get in the way of her living a normal life, using her feet in place of her hands

She now plans to become a motivational speaker, to help others facing similar disabilities

And the mother-of-one has passed on her inspirational attitude to her son, Timmy, who was born with the same condition. 

Like her, the nine-year-old has not let the condition hold him back.

He can swim, regularly takes taekwondo classes and plays video games like any boy his age - using his toes to grip the controller.

Mrs Bannon, who has taught herself to eat using cutlery, put on make-up and even sew using her feet, said: 'Timmy is just like any other little boy.

'He does his homework, plays Lego and tidies his room, all using his feet. 

'He gets frustrated by things like fastening buttons, but he's very positive and I'm so proud of him.

'I knew from scans he was going to be born without arms. We were understandably concerned, but I wasn't too daunted as I knew he'd be able to live a normal life like me.'

The mother-of-one, who grew up in Chicago with her parents and four younger siblings, said her parents were unaware of her condition until she was born.

'They took it in their stride and never treated me differently,' she said.

'They helped me to walk and dress myself. I had prosthetic arms but they were uncomfortable. 

'So by the age of 12 I was doing everything with my feet. I was teased at school, but my friends supported me.'

When Timmy was born, he had holes in his heart and spent two months in hospital. He has since made a full recovery

While Timmy, pictured playing the ukelele, 'initially scooted around on his bum', he had learned to walk by the time he was two

While she did try prosthetic limbs (right, aged eight - and left, aged nine months), Mrs Banno  said she found them uncomfortable 

Mrs Bannon has taught herself to eat using cutlery, put on make-up and even sew using her feet

The couple knew from scans that Timmy would be born without arms - but his mother says she was confident he would be able to lead a normal life like her

When she left school Mrs Bannon became a primary school teacher, then met her husband Richard at the age of 24 while at the gym.

She said: 'We hit it off straight away. He wasn't fazed by my disability - he liked my independence.'

The couple married in July 2004 and decided to try for a baby.

'After I became pregnant we were told that there was a 50 per cent chance our baby could inherit my condition,' she said.

'I questioned whether we were doing the right thing, but we really wanted a family.'

When Timmy was born doctors told his parents he had holes in his heart. The newborn spent two months in hospital before he was allowed home.

His mother said: 'He had surgery and thankfully made a full recovery. I threw myself into being a mum. I'd carry him in a blanket hooked round my neck.'

And as soon as he was old enough, Mrs Bannon began to teach him everything she had learned.

When Timmy was born, he had holes in his heart and spent two months in hospital. He has since made a full recovery

'As a baby he'd scoot around on his bum, but had learned to walk by the time he was two.'

I showed him how to grip a toothbrush and cutlery with his feet.

'He swims on his back using his legs to propel himself. He gets down sometimes when he can't do things like ride a bike. But he never stays upset for long.

'However, I'm not having any more kids as I couldn't bear to see them go through the same heart problems Timmy had.'

Mrs Bannon now plans to become a motivational speaker, to help others facing similar disabilities.

She said: 'I want to raise awareness about my disability and show you can live a full life. 

'There's no reason why Timmy can't have a wife and family. As long as he's happy that's all that matters.'

Culled from DAILY MAIL

44 yr-old man who 'raped mother and her 8-yr-old daughter' is arrested after manhunt

 David Pits, 44, was arrested in Florida after leading authorities on a four-day manhunt on suspicion of raping a mother and her 8-year-old daughter

A man accused of raping a mother and her 8-year-old daughter at knife-point in Alabama is behind bars after leading law-enforcement officials on a four-day manhunt.

David Pitts, 44, had been on the run from Ozark since Thursday, when he was accused of raping a 30-year-old woman at gunpoint and making her daughter watch.

He then allegedly assaulted the little girl in front of her mother.

Pitts was arrested without incident at Bethesda Hospital East after the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office received a tip that he was being treated there.

The 30-year-old victim said Pitts, who lived nearby, was inside her home when she arrived with her daughter Thursday evening.

He abducted them at knife point and made the woman drive him to a secluded location some 10 miles away, where he assaulted them. 

He held the victims overnight, at one point producing a gun and threatening them with it, authorities said. 

Pitts, who knew the victims, eventually swapped vehicles and let them go.

He is charged with kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse, theft of property and burglary.

'It's shocking to hear something close like that,' neighbor Willie Baker told WSFA. 'It's just sad.'

Another neighor, Thomas Jones, told the station: 'All I can tell you is that he is a weird guy, especially when he drives by here like he is noticing everything and checking everything out — so I just watch him.'

Pitts remains at the Palm Beach County Jail, where he is awaiting extradition back to Alabama.

Culled from Daily Mail

Man rapes and impregnates his 12-yr-old daughter

Leonel Rodriguez 

 Police have arrested 39-year-old Leonel Rodriguez after they say he raped his 12-year-old daughter and got her pregnant.

On July 17, the girl’s mother took her to the doctor when she began complaining about cramps. It was soon revealed that the 12-year-old was pregnant. The doctor notified the state Department of Children and Families, but the girl would not tell them who had knocked her up.

However on July 18, during a family trip to New York City to visit relatives, the girl disclosed to an aunt that Rodriguez sexually assaulted her on several occasions and caused her to become pregnant, police said. The aunt contacted New York City police who immediately took Rodriguez into custody. They could only hold him for 48 hours, so police decided to interview the girl – along with her mother and her aunt – in hopes of getting her to repeat her statements.

They must have gotten the information they needed from the girl, because an arrest warrant was issued for Rodriguez on charges of sexual assault in the first degree and risk of injury to a minor.

Rodriguez  was held on $100,000 bail was arraigned on Monday in Superior Court in Stamford and is scheduled to plead on Aug. 4. As of right now, he’s sitting in Bridgeport Correctional.

Culled from Dreamin demon

How George Bush and Tony Blair destroyed Christianity in Iraq.

George W. Bush (right) and Tony Blair (left), were responsible for the invasion of Iraq

Presently, a vast exodus has taken place in Iraq following an ultimatum given by ISIS to Christians in that country that if they did not convert to Islam by noon on July 19, they would pay a fine or be executed.

This is a Christian community that was one of the oldest in the world. The murals of the earliest church building to have been discovered in that part of the world was painted between 232 AD and 256 AD, three-quarters of a century before the Roman emperor, Constantine, recognised Christianity.

The travails of the Christians living in Iraq began with the invasion of that country by Britain and the United States under the leadership of Tony Blair and George Bush.

The naive and stupendously ill-conceived foreign policy of Britain and the United States over the issues in the Middle East in 2003 is about to wipe out the practice of the Christian religion in Iraq.

Because Saddam Hussein refused to reduce the price of crude oil sold by his country and perhaps because he made a mistake by annexing Kuwait, the Government of the United States plotted his downfall by alleging that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Even when no evidence was found in support of that claim, the US government kept on insisting that Iraq had chemical weapons and later, George bush convinced the then British Prime minister, Tony Blair to join him in the plot to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

In the end, Hussein’s government was toppled and himself executed by the US government.

For however revolting Saddam Hussein may have been, he did at least tolerate Iraq’s Christian community, which at one time was almost 1.5 million-strong. In the years following the invasion, the number of Christians dwindled to 300,000.

Then, last month, Islamic State captured Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, which still had a sizeable Christian minority

Meanwhile, in the north of Iraq — a country allegedly delivered into freedom from Saddam Hussein in 2003 — the Islamic State (previously known as ISIS) is executing thousands of Shia Muslims and Christians as the central government in Baghdad looks on, powerless to intervene.

According to Canon Andrew White, a brave Anglican priest resident in Baghdad: ‘It looks as though the end [of Christianity in Iraq] could be very near.

Continue reading...

Japanese schoolgirl, 15 murdered and decapitated classmate for fun

Victim: Police said Aiwa Matsuko was killed during a visit to the accused schoolgirl's apartment

In one of the most grisly crimes tackled by Japanese police, a schoolgirl has been arrested for strangling a classmate, severing her head and chopping off one of her hands.

Police who went to the 15-year-old high school girl's apartment in Sasebo, 900 miles south west of Tokyo, found the bedroom soaked in blood, with the decapitated body of her friend lying on the bed.

The 15-year-old suspect was interviewed yesterday to establish the reason for the alleged murder.

Police named the victim as Aiwa Matsuko, also 15, who died when she visited the accused schoolgirl's apartment in Sasebo, in Nagasaki Prefecture, 900 miles south west of Tokyo.

Police alleged that the suspect struck Matsuo on the back of the head more than 10 times with a blunt instrument and while she was unconscious strangled her.

Then as a final act, it is alleged, the suspect, who has not been named because she is a minor, cut off Matsuo's head and her left hand with a large knife.

The horrific crime came to light after Matsuo's parents contacted police to say their daughter had not returned home.

Police said Matsuo had earlier sent a message to her parents to say she was going to visit her friend at her apartment - then later sent her parents a text at around 7pm to say she was about to leave for home.What had started out as a casual inquiry about a schoolgirl returning home late from a friend's house turned out to be an alleged investigation into one of the country's most shocking crimes in recent years.

Police found Matsuko's body lying on the suspect's blood-soaked bed. The knife and an unspecified 'blunt instrument' were lying nearby.

Officers said the two girls were alone in the apartment at the time of the crime. They alleged that the suspect, who did not live with her parents, admitted murdering her friend.

'She has not provided us with a motive for the attack at the moment,' said a police spokesman.

The victim had graduated from the same junior high school as the suspect.

The murder comes 10 years after Sasebo, with a population of 270,000, was rocked by the killing of a primary school girl who was stabbed by a classmate.

Culled from Daily mail

Inmate escapes from prison by climbing atop basketball hoop

Wade Cole Dickinson 

A physically fit inmate who was a known flight risk escaped from a central Arizona jail by hoisting himself atop a basketball hoop, grabbing on to an overhead security fence and breaking it apart, according to an investigative report released Monday.

No one was directly supervising the recreation yard when Wade Cole Dickinson escaped July 12 while awaiting transfer to a state prison, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. He remains at large, with the U.S. Marshals Service recently joining the hunt for him.

The report suggests Dickinson's classification as a medium-security inmate and his fitness level played a major part in his ability to flee the Camp Verde jail.

After the 6-foot-1, 190-pound former personal trainer broke through the overhead security fence, he ran across a roof and dropped about 30 feet before scaling an exterior fence with barbed wire, Sheriff Scott Mascher told The Associated Press.

"He was definitely in top physical condition," he said.

Dickinson wasn't discovered missing until someone called 911 to report a man in orange pants and a white shirt trying to steal a vehicle at a Camp Verde business. The jail was placed on lockdown and searched.

Authorities believe Dickinson, 28, used a basketball to break a security camera mounted on a wall in the outdoor recreation area. The camera has since been repaired, the basketball hoops removed, and all inmates in the recreation yard are under direct supervision.

Dickinson was under increased security during court hearings after jail staff received credible information that he would try to escape. The same level of cautiousness did not occur in housing, Mascher said. Dickinson was classified as a medium-security inmate, and no review of his classification was conducted after he was sentenced to nearly 25 years in state prison for fraud, drugs and possession of a firearm.

Mascher said the jail commander, Capt. David Rhodes, has identified ways to ensure that inmates are properly classified, security issues are addressed, and policy changes are made as needed. He said he couldn't recall another escape from the jail in more than 20 years.

"I am not taking it lightly," he said.

Dickinson's criminal history doesn't indicate he is violent. Instead, he's a con man, a "flimflam kind of guy," and a thief, Mascher said.

Louann Patterson, who owns the Cooper Star Indoor Shooting Range near the jail, said she didn't feel threatened when she saw Dickinson looking under the fenders of her son's truck the day he escaped. Dickinson told her he was looking for his keys. When she offered to help, she said he bolted over a barbwire fence, ran across a highway and jumped another barbwire fence.

She thought he had been released from jail, not that he had escaped.

"I really wish this man would just give himself up," Patterson said. "He's really making things worse for himself at this point."

A $7,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Dickinson's arrest.

Culled from Huff post

School Principal caught trying to smuggle heroin into prison

Sadie Silver 

A New York City elementary school principal has been arrested on charges of trying to smuggle drugs into a maximum-security upstate prison.

The Daily News reports (HTTP://NYDN.US/1RNLXCP ) that Public School 28 Principal Sadie Silver and a man she was with were arrested Friday after state police said they carried heroin and prescription drugs into the Coxsackie Correctional Facility.

According to New York State Police at Catskill, Sadie Silver, 40, and Michael Acosta, 34, were arrested after arriving at the facility to visit an inmate with heroin and suboxone, an opiate, which they were allegedly attempting to deliver. The pair had a 10-year-old child with them at the time.

Michael Acosta, 34, was charged with various crimes after allegedly trying to bring narcotics to an inmate at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility.

They were both charged with promoting prison contraband in the first degree, a class D felony, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, a class B felony, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, a class D felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor.

Silver and Acosta were processed and arraigned before Justice Richard Roberg in the Town of Coxsackie court. Silver was remanded to the Greene County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond. Acosta was remanded to the Greene County Jail in lieu of $15,000 cash bail or $30,000 bond. Both were issued tickets to appear in court at a later date.

State police were assisted in the arrests by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, State Inspector General’s Office, and the Greene County District Attorney’s Office.

Silver and Acosta have been released on bond. Information on their attorneys was not available.

Education officials have reassigned Silver to an administrative center away from students.

Culled from HUFF POST

Brothers who forced 5 friends to have group sex before killing them escape death penalty on 'trial technicality'

In this combination of 2013 photos provided by the Kansas Department of Corrections, is Reginald D. Carr, left, and Jonathan D. Carr. The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday, July 25, 2014 overturned the death sentences of the two brothers convicted of capital murder in a crime spree in Wichita in 2000 including robbery, rape, forced sex and four fatal shootings in a snow-covered soccer field. (AP Photo/Kansas Department of Corrections)

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday overturned the death sentences of two brothers convicted of killing four friends who were robbed and forced to engage in sex acts before being shot to death and left in a snow-covered Wichita field.

The court also struck down three of the four capital murder convictions each against Jonathan and Reginald Carr, citing procedural problems at the brothers' joint trial for its decisions. It upheld one capital murder conviction for each of them.

Prosecutors said the brothers broke into a Wichita home in December 2000 and forced the five people there to have sex with each other and later to withdraw money from ATMs. Two women were raped repeatedly before all five were taken to a soccer field and shot while they were kneeling. 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 of the women survived a gunshot wound to the head and she ran naked through the snow to seek help. She became a key witness at the brothers' trial on the capital murder convictions.

The killings ended a series of crimes that authorities alleged the Carr brothers committed over nine days in December 2000.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled 6-1 in overturning the Carr brothers' death sentences because the presiding judge did not hold separate sentencing proceedings for each man. 

In overturning most of their capital murder convictions, the majority said the instructions to jurors had been flawed because the judge tied those charges to the rape of the surviving victim, not the deceased ones.

The brothers' cases will return to Sedgwick County District Court for further proceedings

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and several GOP legislators were immediately critical of the decisions, which involved crimes that were among the most notorious in the state since the 1959 slayings of a western Kansas family that inspired the book In Cold Blood.

The legislators said the ruling shows the court's unwillingness to uphold a death sentence, and the governor said he was stunned.

'They were convicted by a jury of their peers in front of an elected local judge,' Brownback said in a statement. 

'Today's ruling unnecessarily reopens wounds of a tragic moment in Wichita's history.'

Heyka's father, Larry Heyka, also expressed disappointment and said he was struggling to make sense of the rulings, which totaled nearly 480 pages.

'Hopefully going forward, we will all understand what these rulings really mean,' said Heyka, who is from Council Grove.

Attorneys for the brothers did not return telephone messages seeking comment.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said he's not sure whether his office will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he promised to continue pursuing death sentences.

Jonathan Carr, now 34, and Reginald Carr, 36, were in their early 20s when the crimes occurred. 

Together, they were convicted of 93 counts, including rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

The state Supreme Court upheld a total of 57 convictions against them. 

Most of the overturned convictions involved the allegations of forcing their victims to engage in sex acts.

Five other convicted killers remain on death row in Kansas. The state Supreme Court last week overturned the death sentence of Sidney Gleason in the killings of a Great Bend couple in 2004.

Kansas last executed someone in 1965, by hanging. The current capital punishment law was enacted in 1994, but the state's highest court has yet to approve any death sentences.

Culled from DAILY MAIL