WINGS Murderer released to kill again gets DP
Twislok
Kleypas sentenced to death for killing Kansas college student
By TRACI CARL - Associated Press Writer
Date: 03/11/98 11:20
GIRARD, Kan. -- A judge this morning sentenced Gary Kleypas to death for
killing 20-year-old Pittsburg State University student Carrie Williams. Her
mother said there would be "only sadness for the Kleypas family and Carrie's
own family and friends."
Kleypas, in his orange jumpsuit, showed no reaction as Judge Donald Noland
sentenced him to death by injection for the 1996 murder. He appeared composed
in the heavily guarded Crawford County courtroom.
"There is no laughter today, only sadness brought by the actions of one man's
choice, and the realization that our laws in colleges are more interested in
the privacy and rights of a convicted murderer than the safety of our children,
students and community," Janie Williams, Carrie's mother, read in court in a
family statement.
She noted that Kleypas was on parole for a previous murder when he killed
Williams. Kleypas, 42, who was a nursing student at Pittsburg State, stabbed
Williams to death in her apartment on March 30, 1996.
He was arrested two days later at a Springfield, Mo., motel, where he tried to
slash himself to death. He was convicted July 25.
Janie Williams, wiping away tears, noted that the jury never saw a picture of
her daughter before the killing. They saw pictures of her body after she had
been killed.
She added that there will be "only sadness for the Kleypas family and Carrie's
own family and friends."
Outside the courtroom, family and friends hugged and cried quietly.
Kleypas' attorneys filed last-minute motions barring the death penalty because
the state hasn't developed guidelines for administering the sentence, and that
Kleypas' trial on attempted rape and capital murder charges constituted double
jeopardy. Noland denied them.
Defense attorney Ben Wood said after court that he wasn't surprised by the
death sentence.
He said he does not expect the case to go very far in appeals before it is
overturned because, he said, "riddled with constitutional errors." For example,
he said the judge didn't allow the jury to be recalled after the verdict, and
that many jurors said they would've rather sentenced Kleypas to life in prison.
Noland also sentenced Kleypas to more than 17 years in prison for the attempted
rape and aggravated burglary charges stemming from Williams' death. He told
Kleypas that, with good behavior, he could receive a 15 percent reduction of
the lesser sentence for good behavior. Kleypas appeared to nearly chuckle.
Kleypas' death sentenced is automatically appealed. He is the first person to
receive the death penalty since the state reinstated it in 1994.
George York and James Latham, hanged on June 22, 1965, were the last people to
be executed in Kansas. They were accused of killing seven people in five states
during a crime spree stretching from Florida to Colorado. Another prisoner was
awaiting execution when the U.S. Supreme Court declared capital punishment
unconstitutional. But in 1976 the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.
Prosecutors have claimed there are three aggravating circumstances in the
Kleypas case that warrant the death penalty -- a previous conviction for a
felony with great bodily harm; a crime committed to avoid arrest or
prosecution; and a crime committed in an atrocious or cruel manner.
But defense attorneys have said several mitigating circumstances -- including
mental illness, organic brain damage, remorsefulness, emotional disturbance,
intoxication and family genetic disorders -- warranted a life prison term for
Kleypas.
Kleypas served 15 years of a 30-year sentence for killing a 78-year-old
neighbor woman in Galena, Mo., and was released from prison in Missouri in
1992, four years before he killed Williams.
During Kleypas' trial, prosecutors showed a videotaped confession in which
Kleypas said he killed Williams because he did not know what to do after
sexually assaulting her.
Death penalty inmates will be held with other inmates at El Dorado Correctional
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