Keith Carney was in control and not intoxicated when he stabbed 80-year-old Klea Sorenson to death and is guilty of capital murder, a judge said Thursday.
Sorenson's family members clung to each other and sobbed outside the courtroom after 3rd District Judge Kenneth Rigtrup pronounced his verdict. The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. today.Carney waived his right to a jury trial. His attorneys had based most of their defense on the premise that Carney was very drunk when Sorenson was stabbed 10 times the afternoon of Oct. 23, 1990.
Carney was burglarizing Sorenson's home at 733 E. 700 South when she returned from shopping and walked in on him. The 6-foot, 230-pound Carney stabbed Sorenson 10 times. Four of the stab wounds were lethal, testified Chief Medical Examiner Todd Grey, who estimated Sorenson died at 3 p.m.
Wayne Thompson, Carney's former roommmate, said Carney returned to their apartment that afternoon with blood all over him, a bloody knife and Sorenson's driver's license.
Thompson said he left the apartment and went to the police. "I wanted protection from (Carney)," he said.
Orlando "Yolanda" Rivera, Carney's transsexual lover, was also at the apartment when Carney came home. Rivera testified that Carney gave him a wedding ring, a gold watch, a jewelry box and a red purse. All were Sorenson's.
Rivera testified that Carney told him he had killed Sorenson. Rivera also testified that Carney woke up the morning of Oct. 23 still drunk from a 2-day drinking binge.
Police arrested Carney and confiscated two knives believed to be the murder weapons. In jail, Carney told his cellmate he'd killed Sorenson because he was afraid of being identified and that he planned to plead insanity because he had been drunk and on drugs.
But Rivera was the only witness who testified Carney was intoxicated that day. Thompson, a neighbor of Sorenson's, Carney's landlady and arresting police officers all testified that Carney did not appear drunk.
Rigtrup said he found Rivera's testimony "inconsistent" and that he did not believe him.
Besides confessing to Rivera, Carney also told his cellmate, jail trustees and Associated Press reporter Laurie Sullivan that he killed Sorenson.
Carney "had the ability following the crime to recite essentially what had happened" and to understand the gravity of his act, Rigtrup said.