13-hour video central to death penalty case
James Karr sat in the police interrogation room for more than 13 hours Dec. 30, 2014.
For 10 of those hours, he repeatedly told Allegheny County Police detectives questioning him about his estranged wife’s killing that he didn’t want to talk — that he wanted a lawyer.
It was only in the last hour of the interrogation that the Duquesne man admitted to binding Maureen Karr with floral wire, dousing her with vodka and setting their Friendship Street house on fire, authorities said.
In pretrial motions for Mr. Karr’s death penalty case underway this week, defense attorneys argued that the whole interrogation video should be suppressed since their client asked for a lawyer and the continued questioning violated his constitutional rights.
But a judge decided that the part of the recording where Mr. Karr actually confessed could be played at trial, saying it was legally obtained when he resumed contact with detectives by banging on the wall and asking them to come in to talk again. Mr. Karr also signed a Miranda warning then, waiving his right to a lawyer.
On Tuesday and early Wednesday, prosecutors from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office played the portions of the video in which Mr. Karr admitted to the crimes.
But the defense, which originally wanted to block the video, now wants Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani, who is presiding over the case in a nonjury trial, to watch all 13½ hours of it — including hours where Mr. Karr is in the interview room by himself sitting or with his head down. The defense argues that the lengthy video is crucial to determining whether their client’s statement was truly voluntary.
“As the fact-finder, we want the court to experience the duration, the passage of time,” said defense attorney Christopher Patarini. “He appears to be experiencing difficulty. He appears to be emotionally distraught.”
Judge Mariani, who said that watching silence on the screen is “not a productive use of judicial resources,” at first ordered the parties to play only the relevant portions.
But defense attorney Lisa Middleman argued, “In a case where the commonwealth is seeking the ultimate penalty, the defendant should have every opportunity to demonstrate his statement was not voluntary.”
Judge Mariani relented, at least for Wednesday morning, allowing the defense to start playing the interrogation from the beginning and said he will make a final determination when the case resumes Monday.
Mr. Karr is accused of killing his 56-year-old wife early Dec. 30, 2014. They had appeared in court the day before for a hearing on a protection-from-abuse order she had obtained against him, but the hearing was continued.
In the portion of the video played by the prosecution, Mr. Karr repeatedly tells detectives that he can’t remember what happened. The conversation continued for about an hour when Detective Timothy Langan was replaced by Detective Steve Hitchings, who tried to impart to Mr. Karr that the detectives had seen similar cases over their years in homicide.
“We’ve been dealing with this a long time,” Detective Hitchings said. “Your wife didn’t cause trouble for anyone but you. Same with his wife. Same with my wife. Same with every other guy in America.”
Mr. Karr admitted that he’d been smoking crack cocaine for about five years, and that he’d done so the day before.
After several minutes of Detective Hitchings wondering whether Ms. Karr’s death could have been accidental and the fire set just to cover it up, Mr. Karr admitted that he went to the house that night, entering through the back door.
He said she attacked him with an ax.
“I pushed her. She hit right against — in the kitchen there was a doorway. And she wasn’t moving. She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t breathing. I tried bringing her back, but she was gone,” Mr. Karr said in the recording. “So I guess I did do it.”