Legal analyst: Break in (JonBenet) Ramsey case could be Hoax

DENVER (KUSA) - 9NEWS legal analyst Scott Robinson believes there are still too many questions about the suspect, John Mark Karr, to feel confident about conviction.

“In this particular case when you have an uncorroborated confession, I think it’s good to be cynical and to be skeptical,” Robinson said. “The suspect seems to be ducking questions about his connection to the Ramsey family… how the little girl came to be in the basement with him in the first place.”

Robinson believes one thing is clear, however. This is the biggest development in the case so far.

“This is either the break that we have all been waiting for, or the biggest hoax that’s ever been perpetrated in the JonBenet Ramsey case, a case that has had its share of wacky people involved in it.”

However, DNA evidence could make this an open and shut case in a very short period of time.

“If they can tie [Karr] to the Ramsey home, or to any of the physical evidence at the scene… the case is pretty much done and over,” Robinson said.

“These days you can get a presumptive DNA test done in a day if you have good tissue and certainly a definitive result in a week. So we will know pretty soon if there is a DNA match,” Robinson explained after being asked how long it might take to get this evidence evaluated.

The problem Robinson is concerned with is what happens if the DNA evidence is inconclusive.

“His father says this is a young man who became obsessed with the case and wrote about it for a college paper. That sets the stage for a potential defense that [Karr] didn’t commit the crime, he’s just obsessed with it.”

Will the various issues with compromised evidence and crime scene have a major impact on the outcome of the case? Robinson believes it may help the prosecution as much as it could help the defense.

“That’s a sword that cuts both ways. For those advocating his guilt, perhaps that’s why his DNA was not found at the scene, because the scene was hopelessly compromised in the first few moments of the investigation.”

When asked if he believed the day of an arrest would ever arrive, he responded with conviction.

“Never! Ever! It’s an extraordinary development,” Robinson said. “What we are looking at here is either: the biggest break ever in the JonBenet Ramsey case, or the biggest hoax since the young girl’s body was found in the basement.”

Here's some Info from our local Rag:

Former Petaluma substitute teacher nabbed for JonBenet murder

Published: Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

A former Petaluma substitute school teacher terminated for possessing child pornography was arrested in Thailand Wednesday as a suspect in the highly publicized murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo., in 1996.

John Mark Karr, 41, admitted to being in the room with JonBenet when she died, but claimed that her death was an accident.

He served for 11 days as a substitute teacher for Petaluma City Schools from Dec. 8, 2000 to April 2, 2001, said Steve Bolman, the district’s deputy superintendent of business and administration.

Karr taught at several of the district’s schools — as well as at schools in the Liberty, Old Adobe and Wilmar elementary school districts — and in 2001 was charged with five counts of possessing child pornography. His teaching credential was suspended and then revoked for violating the education code. He is still wanted in California for failing to appear on those charges.

Karr and his wife at the time, Lara, married in 1989 and lived in Alabama before moving to Petaluma in 2000. He began teaching in Petaluma and Napa. Carl Wong, Sonoma County superintendent of schools, said he received no complaints about Karr’s work. Laura Karr, who still lives in Petaluma with her three children, filed for divorce in 2001, after he was charged with possessing pornography.

His arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday followed several months of highly intensified investigation, said Mary Lacy, the district attorney in Boulder. An investigator from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office is bringing Karr from Thailand to Colorado.

JonBenet’s beaten and strangled 6-year-old body was found in the basement of the home of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, on Dec. 26, 1996. She received a massive blow to the head and was strangled with a device made from a paintbrush.

Karr is the first suspect arrested for the murder, which many people thought might never be solved.

Karr also was a suspect in several sex crimes near his former homes in Alabama and Georgia, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported.

He's a creepy bastard whatever happens.

NUTZ and has a thing for young girls

Sandra Ford, a retired fifth-grade teacher at Kilby School in Florence supervised Karr's internship, says she was concerned by the way he related to female students. Karr's marriages to teen girls also generated talk in the area. Court records show a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of their "ceremonial marriage" in 1985. She claimed she feared for her life when she agreed to wed him in 1984, when she was just 13 and he was 19. Karr admitted she was a minor, but denied she was 13.
A judge granted the annulment. Karr later married Lara Karr, who was 16 when their twin daughters died the day they were born on September 1st, 1989. The girls, Angel and Innocence Karr, are buried in the cemetery of a rural church in a family plot. Former Sheriff A-C Tice says the twins were born at home. Probate Judge Annette Bozeman says Karr apparently delivered his children.

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