In closing arguments, Karr's lawyers searched for the magic bullet of reasonable doubt, telling the jury that the government's massive six-day download of circumstantial evidence was ridden with inconsistencies. "Their theory is baloney. Their facts are weak, flawed, and defective," said Mills. "Mr. Karr's defense is from the Boy Scout handbook. You can't make a strong structure with weak wood, and the prosecution did not have the facts."
Defense lawyer Christie Williams echoed the theme, telling jurors, "You have the right to expect more than a theory. You have a right to know absolutely, conclusively what happened, and they haven't done that."
John Anderson
x
John Anderson
x
Related Content
More About
Prosecutors, however, argued that the defense's explanation, that O'Hair and her two children had bolted for Eastern Europe, leaving the $500,000 in gold with their nemesis Waters, was a greater fantasy. "Would you flee to Romania if you were old and sick?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Mills.
"That's just a rabbit trail they are trying to lead you down, to get you away from the real evidence, the killing of the O'Hairs by this man and others," he said.
The jury retired to deliberate late on a Tuesday morning. It did not reappear, or even send out a note, until Friday afternoon. In the absence of the judge and jury, the courtroom quickly lost its formal ambience. As deliberations went to their second, third, and then fourth day, the government lawyers relaxed, joking and sharing war stories of past trials with gray-haired reporters who had covered them. The trial portion over, the four lawyers chatted easily with one another, and defense attorney Mills circulated a poster, one of his trial exhibits, getting signatures from reporters and others in the courtroom. He also made periodic visits to Karr, waiting it out in a holding cell one floor up.
"Gary said the inmates at the Travis County Jail and Bastrop County Jail have been following the story in the papers and on television and are overwhelmingly optimistic about his chances. That's two representative samples," he said with a straight face.
During the wait, the humor ran heavily to jokes about wild hogs, which the government argued during trial had consumed all traces of the O'Hairs, and to Romanian humor. One prosecutor impressed the crowd with his knowledge of Transylvanian trivia, beginning with the character Vlad the Impaler, who, as the name suggests, stuck his victims on pikes. Vlad was the inspiration for the fictional Count Dracula, according to the local expert.
Then, Friday afternoon, after more than 30 hours of secret deliberation, the jury sent out two notes for Judge Sam Sparks, and the atmosphere went instantly tense. The notes suggested the panel was at an impasse on one or more charges. Sparks instructed the jury to keep deliberating, but hinted that he would accept a partial verdict. But that possibility became moot three hours later, when the jury announced it had reached verdicts on all five counts. The panel appeared exhausted and drawn as it filed back into the courtroom. One woman appeared to have been crying. None looked in Karr's direction. When the clerk read the verdict, the jury had found Karr guilty of four of five counts, but acquitted him of the first charge, conspiracy to kidnap the O'Hairs. Karr was found guilty of conspiring to rob and extort the O'Hairs; traveling interstate to commit a crime of violence; money laundering; and interstate transport of stolen property.
"It seems interesting at least that he was found not guilty of kidnapping, and that was the basis for the state's whole theory," said a subdued Tom Mills.
In conversations with jurors, it was apparent that one defense bullet had landed. "We didn't necessarily say there was no kidnapping. It's something we didn't decide," says juror Jeff Sloan. "We had gotten to the point where there was a lot of frustration and brain fade. I am fried," he said as he left the courthouse.
In an interview days after the verdict, the jury foreman said that the majority of the panel did not even believe the O'Hairs are dead. "I would say that three jurors think they are dead and the other nine think they are alive somewhere in the world," said Hector R. Rodriguez, who also said no one on the panel bought the government's horror-story ending. "No one believed there was a dismemberment. It was too implausible based on what we heard and assessing the credibility of the witnesses."
Nevertheless, after the verdict, Edmond Martin, the IRS investigator who began working the case in late 1996, said, "Initially, I was looking for Jon Murray for money laundering, and I ended up with Waters, Karr, and Fry, and four dead people.
"No one deserved to die like Danny Fry died, and I believe the O'Hairs died the same way. You can't let a crime like that go unpunished."
Karr, who did not react visibly to the verdict, will return to court August 4 to be sentenced by Sparks. And unless he changes his mind about cooperating with the feds, he faces a mandatory life sentence.
