LYNDON, Kan. — An attorney who represented a murdered Missouri woman in a divorce case was expected to be called as a witness Tuesday in the trial of her estranged husband, who is charged in Kansas with fatally shooting the woman, their two daughters and his wife's grandmother.
Prosecutors were preparing to call Dan Pingelton, of Columbia, Mo., for their second day of evidence against James Kraig Kahler, 48. They're seeking the death penalty, and Kahler's trial in Osage County District Court is expected to last at least two weeks.
The murders occurred the weekend after Thanksgiving 2009 at the home of the grandmother of Kahler's estranged wife, Karen. Pingelton was representing her in the couple's divorce case in Columbia, where Kahler had been water department director but lost his job.
The prosecution's first evidence put Kahler at the scene of the killings and included testimony from the defendant's 12-year-old son, who was there but escaped without physical injuries. Prosecutors called the murders premeditated.
Defense attorneys contend Kahler was suffering from severe mental illness at the time because his wife was having a lesbian affair and his marriage was breaking up.
The victims of the shootings were Kahler's estranged wife, 44; her grandmother, Dorothy Wight, 89, and the Kahlers' two daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16. Only the oldest daughter was found dead at the home; the others died later in a Topeka hospital.
During opening arguments, Thomas Haney, a Topeka attorney representing Kahler, said he was a loving husband and father who appeared to have a perfect family life for more than two decades before his marriage turned "cancerous" in 2009.
But in an interview with The Associated Press two days after the killings, Pingelton described Kahler as "controlling" and as interested only in his son, not his daughters.
The shootings came only months after Kahler was asked to resign from his job in Columbia, Mo., amid the contentious divorce case and facing a domestic assault charge stemming from an altercation with his wife. Haney said he tried to hug her when she didn't want him to touch her.
The four deaths are covered by a single count of capital murder because Kansas law allows the death penalty for multiple murders arising from a single "scheme or course of conduct."
As an alternative, the state has filed four counts of first-degree murder, carrying a sentence of life in prison. Kahler also faces one count of aggravated burglary because, prosecutors contend, he entered Wight's home without permission.
In court, Haney said Sunny Reese, of Weatherford, Texas, broke up the Kahlers' marriage through a relationship with Karen Kahler. The family lived in Weatherford before Kahler took the Missouri job in 2008.
There was no answer Monday at a telephone number listed in Weatherford under Reese's name in an Internet directory, and she did not respond to a message seeking comment left at a business number.
Haney said months before the killings, Kahler was having hallucinations and was prescribed medication, though he didn't take it.
Kahler's son, Sean, was among the first witnesses to testify Monday. The defendant smiled briefly as the slight boy entered the courtroom and took a seat in the witness chair. The boy held a yellow tennis ball with a smiley face and answered questions solemnly.
The boy said his father did not threaten him, and neither of his parents said anything. Sean Kahler, who'd often fished and hunted with his father and was 10 at the time of the murders, testified that he recognized the weapon his father was carrying.
"My dad came in and shot my mom," the boy testified.
Haney asked the boy, "After all you've been through, do you still love your dad?"
The boy replied, his voice shaking a little, "Not really."
Karen Kahler's brother, Bill Hetrick, who lives in the Wichita area, also testified briefly. Haney prompted him to recall an email by James Kahler that Hetrick received shortly before the shootings, saying Karen Kahler had recently spent time with Reese, with the Kahler children present.
Hetrick replied by email that he was sorry for what the Kahlers were experiencing but told James Kahler it was time for him to move on. Hetrick also said, based on James Kahler's email, "The situation has obviously driven you to extremes that are not healthy."
The case is State of Kansas v. James Kraig Kahler, No. 09-CR-270 in Osage County District Court.
Online:
Kansas courts website for Kahler case: http://www.kscourts.org/State-v-Kahler/