[1] Their vicious crimes created panic in the Wichita area resulting in an increase in the sales of guns, locks, and home security systems.
[2] The case has received significant attention because the killers' death sentences have been subject to various rulings related to the use of executions in Kansas.
[3] In July 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court again overturned the Carrs' death sentences on a legal technicality relating to their original trial judge not giving each brother a separate penalty proceeding.
On December 8, 2000, having recently arrived in Wichita, the brothers robbed and wounded 23-year-old Andrew Schreiber, an assistant baseball coach.
Three days later, on December 11, they shot 55-year-old cellist and librarian Ann Walenta three times as she tried to escape from them in her car, leaving her paralyzed.
Inside the property, which they had chosen at random, were Brad Heyka, Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort, and his girlfriend, a young woman identified as "Holly G." Heyka was a director of finance with a local financial services company; Muller was a local preschool teacher; Sander a former financial analyst who had been studying to become a priest; Befort was a local high school teacher; and Holly G. was a teacher.
Befort had intended to propose to Holly, and she found this out when the Carrs discovered an engagement ring hidden in a popcorn box.
After taking the victims in Befort's truck to ATMs to empty their bank accounts, they drove them to the closed Stryker Soccer Complex on the outskirts of Wichita, where they shot all five execution-style in the back of their heads.
Holly G. survived because her plastic barrette deflected the bullet to the side of her head, while the other four were killed instantly.
In January 2016, the United States Supreme Court (in an 8–1 ruling) reinstated the death sentences, overturning the Kansas Supreme Court, deciding that neither the jury instructions that were challenged by the Carrs' legal counsel, nor the combined sentencing proceedings, violated the Constitution.
[9] The victims were white and the Carr brothers are black, but the District Attorney held that there was no prima facie evidence of a racial crime.
Based on the robberies, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston decided against treating these incidents as hate crimes.
In this case, Cornelius Oliver, 19, killed his girlfriend, Raeshawnda Wheaton, 18, at her house, as well as her roommate Dessa Ford, and friends Jermaine Levy and Quincy Williams, who were visiting the women.