Cracks in Karr confession fuels skepticism

[kurth]

Cracks in Karr confession fuels skepticism
JonBenét Ramsey murder case
By Kevin Simpson
Denver Post Staff Writer

Cracks in the confession of John Mark Karr, combined with the Boulder prosecutor's unusual caution, fueled skepticism Thursday about the apparent break in the JonBenét Ramsey murder case. Karr, detained on Wednesday in Thailand, made some questionable claims to reporters in Bangkok while admitting to the 6-year-old's December 1996 slaying - a crime he called an "accident" when a kidnapping scheme went bad. But Lara Knutson, Karr's ex-wife, maintains that Karr was nowhere near Boulder the night JonBenét was murdered and is searching for personal photos or documents to prove it, she said through an attorney...

Meanwhile, Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy emphasized a presumption of innocence for Karr and, in language that seemed to discount his emergence as a suspect, explained that sometimes arrests are made before an investigation is complete... To longtime Denver defense attorney Larry Pozner, Lacy's words betrayed an obvious lack of confidence in the case against Karr in the JonBenét murder. "I never heard a prosecutor give a speech about the presumption of innocence," Pozner said. "Come on, prosecutors brag about their case every day and she looks up and says it would be irresponsible to talk about the facts. She isn't saying, 'I have a weak case.' She is saying, 'I may have no case."'

What Karr has said - and what he has declined to say - cast some doubt on his involvement in the decade-old crime. Karr reportedly said that he'd picked up JonBenét at school - even though the crime was committed on the day after Christmas, when school wasn't in session. Karr said he drugged and sexually assaulted JonBenét before realizing he had killed her. But an autopsy found no trace of drugs in JonBenét's system, and evidence of sexual assault was inconclusive. "There's a huge inconsistency there," said Laurence "Trip" DeMuth, who was once one of the lead prosecutors in the case. Karr described the killing as an accident, even though JonBenét had been beaten and strangled with a garrotte. Asked how he gained entry to the Ramseys' home in Boulder, he wouldn't comment. Asked what happened to JonBenét, he sidestepped the question...

Knutson told San Francisco television station KGO-TV on Wednesday that Karr was with her in Alabama during the 1996 holiday season. Records also show that Karr was enrolled in an Alabama community college at the time. "There's reason to take this confession not just with a grain of salt, but with the whole container," said criminal justice professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston. Former Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent John Lang, who often assisted Boulder police in their investigation, said he never heard Karr's name mentioned and also urged caution when assessing his confession. "Everything in this case was leaked from the get-go," he said, adding that investigators should be wary of a Ramsey fanatic fabricating a rather detailed confession. "So many people are infatuated with this case." ...

http://www.denverpost.com/jonbenet/ci_4199089

[Blackthorn]

1. Hmmmmmmmmmm

*waits for all the people who felt the need to berate people for being skeptical to apologise*

*dies of waiting*

[LibDemAlways]

2. With regard to the ex-wife establishing an

alibi....Wouldn't that have been one of the first things the DA would have determined before arresting the guy? Making damn sure she could place him in Boulder the night of the murder.

If she hasn't done that, and the alibi holds up, she ends up looking mighty incompetent.

Reserving judgment for now....but this "case" is not looking good.

[LostInAnomie]

3. I still think the Ramseys did it.

Flame me if you must.

[NJCher]

4. no flames from me

If you look at the psychic's picture that was released http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9694322/detail.html , it looks like Karr but it looks more like John Ramsey. And he published it on his own Web site! Imagine--publishing a photo that looks like you and saying it could be the murderer.

:shrug:




Cher

[Divameow77]

8. Sorry to disagree

but I think that picture looks much more like Karr then Ramsey.

We all know how reliable psychics are don't we?

[rocktivity]

6. No flames from me, either

My suspicions of the Ramseys have always been rooted in their lack of interest in eliminating themselves as suspects. While the parents of Adam Walsh and Polly Klaas submitted to being questioned for hours on end, the Ramseys were lawyering up and doing photo-ops with the local clergy. Aside from that, I was not encouraged by Karr's confession that "I was with her when she died." And given Karr's history of child sexual predation, we can't ignore the possibility that he's simply scammed his way into a less punitive legal system. At any rate, Patsy's writing the ransom note to cover for John still sounds like the most reasonable scenario.

:shrug:
rocknation

[saracat]

5. I thought this was a touch too nifty and facile an answer! But hey believe

what you want. Many are so quick to convict.

[annabanana]

7. Roseanne Roseannadanna strikes again!

(nevermind)

[rocktivity]

9. It was Emily Litella who said "Never mind"

Roseanne Roseannadanna said "It's always something."


For the uninitiated, both were characters invented by the late great comedian Gilda Radner, who was married Gene Wilder and once said, "I'd rather be funny than glamorous--glamorous is much harder."

Thanks for the memory.

:headbang:
rocknation

[leftofthedial]

10. this is as fishy as the menu at a Key West restaurant.

I'll wait and see how the investigation progresses, but I'll be shocked if it turns out that his guy really did it.

[daleo]

11. Here's an interesting bit

"Meanwhile, more details about Karr's recent stay in Thailand emerged.

In May, he got a job at Bangkok Christian College, an elite, 5,000-student grade school and high school for boys, according to a teacher at the school who requested anonymity for fear of being fired.

"This is the power base of wealthy families," said the teacher. "The sons of government ministers attend the school. They really protect their image." "

You might think the power base of wealthy families would be a bit more choosy.