LYNDON, Kan. (AP) A Kansas judge is set to decide formal sentencing for a Columbia, Mo., city official convicted in the fatal shootings of four family members in 2009.
A jury has already recommended that 48-year-old James Kraig Kahler be sentenced to death. District Judge Phillip Fromme can instead sentence him to life in prison without parole.
The victims were 44-year-old Karen Kahler, her grandmother 89-year-old grandmother Dorothy Wight, and the Kahlers’ two daughters, 18-year-old Emily and 16-year-old Emily.
A psychiatrist testified during Kraig Kahler’s trial that he was upset with his daughters for siding with their mother and believed Wight had a duty to push Karen Kahler to stay in their marriage.
The shootings occurred at Wight’s home about 30 miles southwest of Topeka.
