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Karr's mug shot in 2006.

John Mark Karr (born December 11, 1964) is an American man who made a false confession^[1] regarding the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey.^[2] Authorities were made aware of Karr via e-mails he exchanged over the course of four years with Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado. They eventually located and identified Karr through telephone calls he was lured into making to Tracey.^[3]

Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 16, 2006, by Thai authorities, then released to U.S. agents and flown first to Los Angeles, California,^[4] then to Boulder for further investigation. On August 28, prosecutors announced they had decided not to pursue charges in connection with the murder after DNA tests failed to place Karr at the scene,^[5] although serious doubts had been expressed about the veracity of his admission even before the tests were conducted.^[6] Karr was held in Boulder until September 12, 2006, when he was transported to Sonoma County, California to face unrelated misdemeanor child pornography charges.^[7][8] The charges were dismissed by a California judge on October 5, 2006, and Karr was immediately released.^[9]

Background

Childhood

Karr was born in Conyers, Georgia^[10] and spent his early childhood in Atlanta.^[11] His father, Wexford Karr, married Patricia Elaine Adcock on August 21, 1958, when he was 37 and she was 18. Wexford filed for divorce in 1973, eleven years into marriage, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken," and that the boys were in his custody. Soon after, Wexford Karr, then 52 years old, married 29-year-old Susan Simpson, his neighbor in the same apartment complex.^[12] His marriage with Simpson ended in divorce six months later.^[11]

A family friend, Jonathan McCrary, has said that Karr's mother believed John Karr was possessed by demons. His mother allegedly built a pyre of kindling around him and attempted to burn him alive as an infant. Adcock was committed to the Central State Hospital, a mental hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, and later lived in a group home, according to her stepmother Shirley Adcock.^[12][13]

Karr moved to Alabama to live with his grandparents when he was about 12 years old. He grew up in Hamilton^[11] and graduated from Hamilton High School in 1983.^[14][15] After graduation, Karr returned to live in Atlanta at least twice: once to attend one semester at Riverwood High School in Sandy Springs from January to May 1981, and again some years after graduating from high school.^[11]

Marriages

In 1984, Karr married 13-year-old Quientana Ray Shotts.^[16] Karr evidently told Quientana to lie about her age, and took her out of Alabama, where they both lived, to marry her. Karr and Shotts lived together as a couple in Hamilton after their wedding, and Karr "was abusing her every way there was," according to Melissa Shotts.^[17] Court records show that, in 1985, a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of what the records call a "ceremonial marriage," saying she had feared for her life when she agreed to marry Karr in 1984. Karr admitted to the court that she was a minor, but disputed she had been 13. The marriage was annulled^[16] in 1985. Shotts later remarried and now bears a different surname.^[18]

Karr married Lara Knutson^[19] in Alabama on May 19, 1989, when he was 24 and she was 16 and pregnant. She was carrying twin daughters who were delivered via a home birth on September 1, 1989. The girls, named Angel and Innocence, died later that day. The couple went on to have three boys in close succession, the oldest, John born in 1990, Damon in 1992 and Seven Exodus in 1993.^[20][21] The couple divorced in 2001 following Karr's arrest for five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography in Petaluma, California.^[15][22] In the divorce petition, his wife wrote that Karr was never physically violent towards her, but that he was "very controlling" of her. A restraining order against Karr was granted.^[20] Knutson said he purposely set out to get her pregnant, telling her the pregnancy would allow them to skirt the law and get married, according to statements she made in divorce records.^[11]

In 2007, Karr became engaged to a 23-year-old woman named Brooke Simmons who had a three-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. ^[23]

Career

Karr had been working as a substitute teacher in Petaluma, but Bob Raines, the Superintendent-Principal at Wilson School in Petaluma said he was an ineffective substitute teacher: "He just seemed like somebody who thought he wanted to be a teacher... After a day, I could see it just wasn't for him."^[24] He worked from December 2000 through June 2001 in as many as 14 schools in the Petaluma, Old Adobe, Liberty and Wilmar elementary districts.^[25] His last paycheck for teaching work in Petaluma was issued in April 2001, the same month that he made his first court appearance for the aforementioned pornography charges. When he failed to show up for a readiness conference in December 2001, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, which was still outstanding as of August 2006.^[22]

In March 1996, Karr registered the domain Powerwurks.com and used it as a cover, claiming on Usenet to be "a world wide support organization for kids, teens and college students." As well as seeking troubled or depressed children, he also solicited discussion on sex.^[26]

Karr also operated a day care center in northwest Alabama. The Marion County Department of Human Resources issued a license for Karr to begin operating a day care out of his home in June 1997. Under the license, Karr was allowed to care for as many as six children at a time, ranging in age up to 14 years old.^[27]

2001 arrest

On April 13, 2001, Karr was arrested for possession of computerized child pornography. He plead not guilty four days later. On October 15, 2001, after a series of court hearings, Karr was released from jail, but was ordered to report to a probation officer. The court records in the case were sealed. In December 2001, Karr failed to appear and a "No Bail" warrant was issued by a Sonoma County Superior Court Judge.^[28] Since then Karr had been on the run, living in Asia, Europe and Central America, until his arrest in Thailand.

New lead in JonBenét case

In June 2006, the Boulder District Attorney's office received copies of the suspect's emails from University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey, who received the emails from a person with the email address "December261996@yahoo.com." December 26, 1996, was the date of JonBenét's murder. At least one of the emails was signed with the signature "Daxis."^[29]

Armed with the email address and Internet service provider, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) determined the general location of the suspect in Thung Maha Mek, a neighborhood in Bangkok, Thailand. At the time, the suspect's name and exact location was not known.^[29]

Authorities identified and found Karr when he sent an envelope to Tracey by regular mail with a return address bearing the name of a major thoroughfare in Bangkok, but no number or cross street.^[29] Tracey sent Karr another kind of mail – a photograph delivered to a Thai post office box. Agents arranged a controlled delivery and were ready to spot their suspect. The man who arrived to pick up the mail delivery was using a 21-speed bicycle, the purchase of which was mentioned in e-mails sent by the suspect. The agents followed Karr to his residence and learned his name.^[30]

On August 11, 2006, they notified ICE officials, and from that point on, Karr was placed under surveillance by Thai immigration officials.^[29] A sealed arrest warrant, signed by Boulder County District Judge Roxanne Bailin,^[31] was sent by the Boulder District Attorney's office to officials in Thailand on August 15, 2006. The next day, upon receipt of the warrant, Thai immigration authorities revoked Karr's visa.^[29]

Detention in Thailand, deportation to United States

Karr was detained in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 16, 2006. Karr said he was with JonBenét when she died,^[32] and told a press conference that her death was an accident.^[2] He said: "I love JonBenét," and "I was with JonBenét when she died; she died accidentally."^[2] When asked if he was an innocent man, he said: "No."^[6] Thai Immigration Police Lieutenant General Suwat Tumrongsiskul stated that Karr admitted attempting to kidnap JonBenét Ramsey for an $118,000 ransom to be paid by the Ramseys, only to strangle her after his plan went awry.^[33] While he was detained in Thailand, officials there had Karr on a 24-hour suicide watch.^[34]

Karr returned on a business class flight. He was not handcuffed during the flight, ate from a free choice of menu and drank Champagne^[35] on the Thai Airways Airbus 340-500 he took to the United States.^[36] Experts, such as Denver attorney Larry Posner, have speculated that Karr was given the food and drink to get him to start talking about his involvement in the murder of JonBenét:

Karr was not handcuffed or under arrest during the flight but was escorted by investigators working for the Boulder district attorney.^[38] He had been detained in Thailand because his visa had been revoked by request of Boulder County, Colorado, but he was released to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ensure he returned to the U.S. Karr was not legally arrested until August 20, 2006, after the airliner touched down at Los Angeles International Airport. He was first admitted into the country, then he was arrested at the airport on a warrant from Boulder County^[31] by the waiting officers of the LA County Sheriff's Department, and taken by helicopter to Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles. Citing Sheriff's Department policy regarding inmates who are "accused child molesters", deputies stated that Karr was held in isolation while he was at the facility.^[39][40]

Extradition to Colorado

On August 22, 2006, John Mark Karr waived extradition during a three-minute hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, clearing the way for his transfer to Boulder.^[41] According to CNN, on his way back to the correctional facility after the extradition hearing, Karr was quoted as telling an officer, "Everybody says I couldn't know my way around the house, but I got in the house around 5 o'clock ... and I stayed there all night."^[42]

On August 24, 2006, Karr was handcuffed and driven by Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies onto the tarmac at the airport in Long Beach, California, where he boarded a State of Colorado twin turboprop airplane.^[43] Karr arrived more than 3 hours later at Jefferson County Municipal Airport in Broomfield, Colorado,^[44] and then was driven to the Boulder County Jail.

Although Karr had been represented by public defenders in Los Angeles and Boulder, two California-based attorneys, Patience van Zandt (who worked with Karr on his 2001 child pornography case) and Jamie Harmon served him in an advisory capacity.^[45] In Boulder, Karr was assisted by Boulder County Public Defender Seth Temin, despite the fact that three dozen lawyers had offered to represent John Mark Karr (for free in many cases) against the charges.^[46]

Charges dropped

On August 28, 2006, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office announced "the case of the People vs. John Mark Karr has been vacated."^[47] According to Denver's NBC affiliate, KUSA, the DNA taken from Karr's hair and saliva after his arrest and tested by the Denver Police Department's crime lab did not match the DNA found on JonBenét Ramsey's body; as a result, the District Attorney's Office would not file charges against Karr for the murder. Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy estimated the total public cost of the investigation at about $13,000;^[48] other estimates, however, have pegged the cost as high as $30,000.^[49] Colorado Governor Bill Owens said Lacy should be "held responsible for the most expensive DNA test in Colorado history."^[50]

Prior to August 28, George McCrary, a longtime friend of the Karr family, insisted that John Karr is innocent of the murder. "He's a pedophile, not a murderer," said McCrary, who also called John Karr a "genius" whose "confession" was a deliberate tactic to avoid jail in Thailand, and be taken to the United States where he knew he would be found innocent.^[51]

Following Karr's release on August 28, he was quickly rearrested after prosecutors in California indicated that he was to face charges of possessing child pornography.^[52]

Extradition to California

On August 28, 2006, the Sonoma County DA's Office announced their intent to have Karr extradited from Boulder to face the five misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography that had been filed five years earlier. On September 12, 2006, Karr arrived in Santa Rosa, where he stood by his original plea of not guilty^[53] If convicted, Karr could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison and $2,500 fine for each count.^[54] On September 19, 2006, prosecutors offered Karr a plea bargain in which he would plead guilty to two of the five counts, in exchange for dismissal of the remaining three counts and a sentence of time served in jail and three years probation. Karr would also be required to register in California as a sex offender.^[55] San Francisco based criminal defense attorneys Robert Amparan, Gayle Gutekunst, and Benjamin Prince represented Karr in Sonoma County. Karr turned down the plea bargain offer in the case. On September 25, 2006, however, Judge Cerena Wong agreed to consider a defense motion to dismiss all charges against Karr, in light of the Sonoma County sheriff's department's alleged 2002 junking of a computer believed to contain the pornographic images that are the basis of the prosecution's case. The prosecution maintained that it printed the photos from Karr's computer before it went missing; it is these printed copies that the prosecution planned to introduce as evidence if the case went to trial.^[56]

Charges dropped

On October 5, 2006, all of the child pornography charges against Karr were dropped after investigators lost the computer seized from Karr in April 2001. The Deputy District Attorney Mary Maxiemer was put up on the stand and questioned by defense attorneys. It was determined she withheld information from the Court and she was appointed an attorney. The case was immediately dismissed by the court. He was immediately released from jail per orders from Judge Rene Chouteau.^[57][58]

Aftermath in the Media

On October 6, 2006 Karr already found himself being questioned again by police when he decided to stop by a school where he used to teach. A limousine carrying Karr and two producers from ABC's Good Morning America was stopped and questioned by police but they determined that no crime was committed.^[59] Karr was apparently giving the producers a tour of the neighborhood where he used to live and work when he suddenly exited the limo and approached the school. According to Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, "his behavior gave us serious pause, and ABC decided not to proceed with the interview."^[60] Karr was the guest on CNN's Larry King Live on October 16, 2006.^[61]

On October 26, 2006, Karr sent an email to Bill Hammons of Bill's List of Literary Agents and Their Authors' Books from a "phoenix rising" email address and stated that "I seek a literary agent who can help me publish a manuscript that some might find controversial."^[62]

Domestic argument arrest

After a long break from being in the media, Karr was again arrested and jailed July 6, 2007 when he was involved in a domestic argument at his father's house in suburban Atlanta. The argument was between Karr, his girlfriend and his father. He was charged with battery and obstruction. He later was released.

References

Further reading

• Boulder arrest warrant for John Mark Karr, signed and issued by Judge Roxanne Bailin
• Larry King Live transcripts on the John Mark Karr confession.
• Does Karr Believe He Did It? The truth in John Mark Karr's false confession.