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JonBenet suspect OKs transfer

Murder suspect John Mark Karr listens on Tuesday with his attorney, deputy public defender Haydeh Takasugi, during an extradition hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Linda Deutsch Associated Press
Murder suspect John Mark Karr listens on Tuesday with his attorney, deputy public defender Haydeh Takasugi, during an extradition hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

LOS ANGELES – John Mark Karr agreed Tuesday to be sent to Colorado, where authorities want him on a murder warrant in the slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey.

Karr spoke only briefly during a two-minute court hearing to confirm his decision. His blank expression changed only once when he slowly closed his eyes as the judge recited the count of first-degree murder that prosecutors in Boulder County, Colo., included in their arrest warrant.

Boulder County district attorney’s spokeswoman Carolyn French said Karr had not been formally charged and described the counts in the warrant as possible charges.

Although his public defender and a former defense attorney described Karr as eager to go, it was unclear when the 41-year-old teacher would be transferred. Boulder County sheriff’s deputies would not discuss travel plans, and Los Angeles jail officials said they had not yet been contacted about a transfer.

Karr’s face has flooded newscasts since he was named a suspect in Bangkok last week in the long-unsolved slaying of the 6-year-old beauty pageant queen, who was found strangled in the basement of her Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996.

Prosecutors have not disclosed their evidence against Karr, and his family has said he was in Georgia at the time of the slaying.

Karr told reporters in Thailand before he voluntarily flew to Los Angeles on Sunday that he was not innocent in JonBenet’s slaying, explaining only that he was present when she died and that her death was an accident.

Jamie Harmon, an attorney who represented Karr when he was charged in 2001 with possessing child pornography in Northern California, downplayed Karr’s comments about the slaying.

“A confession is a legal term … and the statements taken from Mr. Karr are primarily sound bites,” Harmon said outside court. “We have no idea what the context of the comments may be.”

The attorney said Karr was “not subject to ready categorization or easy answers.”

“You’ve heard the expression, ‘He marches to the beat of a different drummer?’ John Karr marches to the beat of a different drummer,” Harmon said.