Monday, November 30, 2009

Dad charged with capital murder in shootings of 2 teen daughters, wife (Lyndon, Kansas)

Another devoted daddy who shows his great love for his family by gunning everybody down in cold blood. JAMES KRAIG KAHLER, who was already scheduled to appear in court on a domestic assault charge against his wife, has shown his true mettle. Observe that Daddy had been harrassing the mother about custody (here phrased as "the couple had been sparring about the children," as if this were some damn fencing tournament). But we can see how much he really wanted those kids, right? Dead or alive was all the same to him.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gpb-PPO8ZanJboYIP6eDaxQJPERwD9CA56980

Man charged with capital murder in 3 Kan. deaths
By JOHN HANNA (AP) – 3 hours ago

LYNDON, Kan. — A former Missouri city official previously accused of assaulting his wife was charged Monday with capital murder in the shootings of her and their two teenage daughters in eastern Kansas.

James Kraig Kahler, 46, also was charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of his estranged wife's 89-year-old grandmother and one count of aggravated burglary. Authorities suspect he broke into the grandmother's home near Topeka, where the shootings occurred.

During Kahler's first appearance in Osage County District Court, Judge Phillip Fromme set bail at $10 million and scheduled another hearing for Dec. 10.

Kahler, who often went by his middle name Kraig, declined to comment as sheriff's deputies escorted him in handcuffs from jail to the courthouse. He had been scheduled to appear in court in Columbia, Mo., on Wednesday on a domestic assault charge stemming from an altercation with his wife in March that led to the loss of his job as director of Columbia's Water & Light Department.

A divorce trial for Kahler and his 44-year-old wife, Karen, was scheduled to start Dec. 21, but a settlement hearing was planned for Friday. Court records showed that he complained of financial pressures and the couple had been sparring over their children.

The Kahlers' daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16, were killed Saturday, along with their mother. His wife's grandmother, Dorothy Wight, 89, was wounded. The couple's 10-year-old son, Sean, was at Wight's house south of Burlingame on Saturday but was uninjured.

Wight remained in critical condition at a Topeka hospital, said Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office. She declined to say where the boy was staying.