Friends of Duquesne couple testify about the night when woman died
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Attorneys and spectators in Allegheny Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani’s courtroom spent nearly 13½ hours over the past two weeks watching footage from the 2014 Allegheny County Police interrogation of James Karr, 50, of Duquesne.
Ten hours into that interrogation Dec. 30, 2014, Mr. Karr admitted to knocking his 56-year-old estranged wife unconscious, tying her to a chair, dousing her with vodka, and setting their Friendship Street house on fire early that morning.
In pretrial motions for the death penalty case, Mr. Karr’s defense attorneys argued that footage of the interrogation should be suppressed because Mr. Karr asked for a lawyer and never received one.
The pretrial judge ruled that the video was admissible as evidence, but after hearing arguments from the defense, Judge Mariani agreed to review the entire tape.
Friday, after playing the final minutes of the interrogation, the prosecution went back to calling its witnesses.
First on the stand was a toxicologist with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office, who testified that lab tests had identified cyanide and high levels of carbon monoxide in Maureen Karr’s blood. Cyanide is createdwhen plastic burns.
Next, the court heard from two men who were with Mr. Karr the night of his wife’s death.
Clifford Jackene, who said that he and Mr. Karr had “loafed together” for years, testified that he and Mr. Karr had spent the early evening of Dec. 29, 2014, drinking in bars in Duquesne. They then headed to the house of a friend, Lance Ludwick, where the three men continued drinking and smoked crack.
A little after 8 p.m., Mr. Jackene said, Mr. Karr told him he needed some air and was going for a walk.
When Mr. Karr did not return and failed to answer his phone, Mr. Jackene said he got worried. Mr. Jackene knew that Ms. Karr had a protection from abuse order against Mr. Karr.
“I said to Lance, ‘Come on and let’s go take a ride down there near his old house to make sure he isn’t getting into trouble,’” Mr. Jackene said.
He and Mr. Ludwick drove to the house where Mr. Karr had lived with Ms. Karr. After searching unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes, he said they headed home.
A little after midnight, Mr. Jackene said, Mr. Karr called him and asked for a ride to his mother’s house in South Park. Mr. Jackene said he didn’t have enough gas to take Mr. Karr all the way to South Park, so he dropped him at a gas station, where Mr. Karr said his mother would pick him up.
Mr. Jackene said he had just gotten back in bed when Mr. Ludwick knocked on his door to tell him that the Karrs’ house was on fire, and that he thought Ms. Karr was inside.
He immediately called Mr. Karr, asking, “What did you do?”
He said Mr. Karr sounded calm, telling him to “get out of here, I didn’t do nothing.”
Mr. Ludwick, who took the stand next, mostly corroborated Mr. Jackene’s story, though he disputed some of his estimates of time and denied that he had been smoking crack.
Later, the prosecution called Doreen Collins, who said Ms. Karr –– whom she called “Reeny” –– had been her best friend.
Ms. Collins told the court that sitting in the backyard of the Karrs’ house with the couple six to eight months before the fire, Mr. Karr said to his wife, “I’ll burn it down before you don’t let me have it,” referring to the house.