Justices reject Kimberly Younger’s claim that her rights were violated when the judge in her original trial allowed a defendant to testify remotely via videoconference
By ALLISON KITE
Kansas Reflector
The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a woman who orchestrated the murder of a couple working at a traveling carnival during a stop in Barton County.
Kimberly Younger had claimed that her Constitutional rights were violated in the original trial when a witness was allowed to testify remotely via videoconference. Both the U.S. and Kansas constitutions guarantee defendants’ rights to confront witnesses to criminal cases.
In oral arguments before the Kansas Supreme Court, Younger’s defense attorney, Clayton Jay Perkins, said Younger had been “convicted of capital murder without having killed anyone.”
“Her conviction rests on the troubling foundation of the credibility of co-defendants,” Perkins said, “including the actual killers that received reduced or lesser convictions and had incentives to place culpability on Miss Younger — and whose testimony was propped up by numerous Constitutional and legal errors.”
Attorneys for Younger declined to comment, saying Younger had not signed a release allowing them to speak with media.
Younger was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for her role in the murders of Alfred and Pauline Carpenter, an elderly couple from Wichita that sold merchandise from a camper at county fairs.
Younger — who also used the names Myrna Khan, Jenna Roberts and Tiffany Jones — is in her 50s and worked as a truck driver and ticket seller at the carnival, which in the summer of 2018, stopped at the Barton County Fair.
At the carnival, Younger shared a unit in the bunkhouse with her significant other — and possible husband — Michael Fowler. Younger was known to Fowler as Jenna.
The court ruling outlines an elaborate story she told police about how a competing carnival owner with mafia ties instructed her and others to kill the Carpenters and dispose of their bodies in Arkansas.
Fellow employees Rusty Frasier and Christine Tenney were given instructions by Younger to help Fowler with the killing.
According to the Kansas Supreme Court ruling, in July 2018, Younger asked Alfred Carpenter out of the camper to talk about buying his business as he and Pauline Carpenter were preparing to retire. The plan was for Fowler to then slit his throat. Carpenter fought back, and Frasier rushed in and stabbed him. Then, Fowler shot Alfred Carpenter and entered the trailer and shot Pauline.
The group then drove the trailer with the bodies for more than six hours to Van Buren, Arkansas, and stayed with Fowler’s daughter and son-in-law. They then drove to Ozark National Forest where Fowler’s son-in-law and his other daughter’s boyfriend helped them put the bodies in a ravine and cover them with a mattress, rocks and dirt.
During the Van Buren police’s investigation, Younger initially identified herself as Tiffany Jones. When she became “belligerent,” she was arrested and put in the police car where she was recorded without her knowledge and made incriminating statements.
At the police station, the gun used to kill the Carpenters was found in her backpack. While she was interviewed, “the others started cooperating with law enforcement almost immediately,” the Supreme Court ruling says.
First, Younger denied the murders, but “she eventually told an elaborate version of what had happened, blaming the events on a crime syndicate.” She was charged in December 2018.
Fowler, Frasier and Tenney all pleaded guilty to various charges and testified against her at trial.
At trial in September 2021, Younger claimed another traveling carnival owner, Frank Zaitshik, “ran a criminal enterprise, paid her to transport drugs and guns around the country, and hired bodyguards to shadow Fowler and protect him from a supposed hitman.” She said Zaitshik put the group up to the murders.
Zaitshik was called as a witness and allowed — over Younger’s objections — to testify remotely via videoconference because of his concerns about COVID-19. He said that “he had no connections with criminal enterprises, he had no idea who Fowler or Younger … were, he had never directed anyone to commit murders, and he did not have Italian ancestry.”
Younger’s counsel claimed the judge’s decision to allow Zaitshik to testify remotely violated her right to confront witnesses, guaranteed by both the U.S. and Kansas constitutions.
But the justices cited case law saying the “right to a face-to-face confrontation with an adversarial witness is not absolute and is subject to narrow exceptions when necessary to further important public policies.”
The witness’ underlying health issues and concern about contracting COVID-19, the justices said, “suffice to allow an at-risk witness to testify remotely.”
Younger’s lawyers also attempted to have her conviction overturned on the grounds that she made incriminating statements before being informed of her right to remain silent and to request counsel.
But the court found Younger had made incriminating statements voluntarily while in the back of the police car. They found that despite requesting counsel at the police station, she voluntarily re-initiated an interrogation with police, who had stopped questioning her while they waited for an attorney.
“She repeatedly said she wanted to talk,” the ruling says. “She even showed impatience at delays in the interview when she outright asked whether they even wanted to hear what she had to say. There is little indication of coercive conduct by the police.”
Younger’s attorneys also sought, unsuccessfully, to suppress evidence found in Younger’s backpack, which she gave written consent for police to search.
While the Kansas Supreme Court upheld Younger’s convictions, it overturned portions of the restitution she was ordered to pay, finding that the court didn’t have enough evidence to justify the claim. It remanded the restitution issue back to the trial court for correction.