LYNDON, Kan. (AP) Osage County residents are paying higher taxes because of the upcoming capital murder trial for defendant James Kraig Kahler.
Tiny Osage County, population 16,386, will pay more than $200,000 to stage Kahler’s trial, which begins Monday.
County Commissioner Ken Kuykendall told The Topeka Capital-Journal that the $200,000 is specifically for the trial. Another $60,000 was spent on upgrading the courtroom where the trial will take place.
Kahler is charged with capital murder in the 2009 deaths of four people; four alternative counts of first-degree murder; and one count of aggravated burglary of the Burlingame home of Dorothy Wight, a slaying victim whose home was the homicide scene.
Besides Wight, the victims were Kahler’s wife, Karen Kahler; and daughters 16-year-old Lauren, and 18-year-old Emily. Wight was Karen Kahler’s grandmother.
