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Dana Chandler’s third trial starts Monday in 2002 Topeka double homicide
Jury selection begins for Dana Chandler’s third trial
WIBW A local news source with a long history of spreading Copaganda, and that had a long business relationship with Harkness’ family, the Warswicks, who owned Wolfs Camera in Topeka for decades. WIBW had this to say:
WESTMORELAND, Kan. (WIBW) – The jury selection is underway for Dana Chandler’s third trial.
Chandler is charged with two counts of murder in connection with the 2002 deaths of her ex-husband and his fiancé.
The trial moves to Pottawatomie County Court in Westmoreland, Kan.
Jury selection will last through Thursday, Feb. 6, with opening statements beginning on Friday, Feb. 7.
Chandler’s convictions were overturned after a 2011 arrest and a retrial ended in a hung jury in 2022.
Topeka Capitol Journal, another conspirator in the media’s attempts to smear Dana Chandler as guilty before she was even arrested had the following detailed article covering todays Jury Selection.
The Shawnee County double murder case against Dana Chandler has seen more twists and turns than a soap opera.
Gunshots fired repeatedly into their sleeping bodies killed her former husband, Michael Sisco, and his fiancée, Karen Harkness, in 2002 at Harkness’ duplex in southwest Topeka.
In the years that followed, Chandler:
- Was pinpointed as a possible suspect in 2009 on the CBS true crime documentary program “48 Hours Mystery.”
- Was convicted of the murders in 2012 and given prison sentences that left her ineligible for parole for 100 years.
- Saw her convictions overturned in 2018.
- Was given a second trial, which ended in a hung jury in 2022 in Topeka.
- Learned later in 2022 that her third trial would be at the Pottawatomie County Courthouse at Westmoreland.
That trial is to begin Monday, 22 years and seven months after Sisco and Harkness died.
225 potential jurors set to report Monday
A pool of 225 potential jurors is set to report Monday, said Lea Welch, administrator for Shawnee County District Court.
Those jurors will all be Pottawatomie County residents, she said.
Pottawatomie county takes its potential jurors from a list of licensed drivers obtained from the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles, Welch said.
Jury selection is anticipated to last four days, with opening arguments being heard Friday, she said.
The case will be heard by 12 jurors and five alternate jurors, with the alternates being chosen at random before deliberations begin, Welch said.
The trial is expected to last four weeks, including jury selection and deliberations, she said.
National media attention continues
The case against Chandler continues to receive national media attention.
Welch said Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios, who is presiding, granted permission to take video at the trial to NBC Dateline, a news magazine reality legal show.
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NBC Dateline had asked permission in October 2023 to have a camera in the courtroom, she said.
Rios this past week granted The Capital-Journal permission to take still photos at the trial.
Court testimony: Harkness died instantly but Sisco did not
Harkness, 53, was a convention sales representative with the Topeka Convention and Visitors Bureau at the time of her death. Sisco, 47, was a district sales manager for National Standard Welding Products.
Sisco and Chandler had been married in 1982 and divorced in 1998. Sisco was granted full custody of their daughter and son, who were 17 and 15 years old, respectively, at the time of his death.
Chandler, now 64, moved to the Denver area after their divorce, but prosecutors said she continued to be obsessed with Sisco and make frequent, persistent phone calls to Harkness and Sisco.
Kevin Rigsby, a co-worker of Sisco’s, told police Sisco told him that if he failed to show up at work, Chandler had killed him.
Harkness and Sisco went the evening of July 6, 2002, to the Sac and Fox Casino in southern Brown County.
They were found deceased the next day in their bed in a basement bedroom in Harkness’ duplex in southwest Topeka.
Sisco had seven gunshot wounds and Harkness had five. Harkness died instantly but Sisco did not, according to testimony at Chandler’s first trial.
Police ruled out robbery and burglary as motives, saying they found cash totaling $1,305 in two wallets at the scene.
Chandler was initially questioned by Topeka police but not charged.
About a dozen officers pointed guns at Chandler during her arrest
Officials had gone seven years without make an arrest or filing charges in the case when “48 Hours Mystery” in 2009 contacted newly elected Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor about it.
An episode of that program, which aired later that year, focused on Chandler possibly being the killer. Meanwhile, Taylor and his office worked to build a case against Chandler.
Prosecutors accompanied law enforcement officers as they arrested Chandler in 2011 in an Arby’s parking lot in Duncan, Oklahoma, where she had moved.
About a dozen officers drew their guns, pointed them at Chandler’s vehicle and ordered her to surrender before she complied, The Capital-Journal reported.
Jurors deliberated 83 minutes before convicting Chandler in 2012
Then-Assistant District Attorney Jacqie Spradling focused during Chandler’s 2012 trial on circumstantial evidence that could tie her to the murders.
Chandler said she wasn’t in Kansas when the murders were committed and instead was spending time alone in the Colorado mountains with her cell phone turned off.
But prosecutors noted that Chandler acknowledged buying two 5-gallon cans of gasoline on July 6, 2002. They contended she used the gasoline to refuel her car during the round trip from Denver to Topeka so she wouldn’t leave any credit card records placing her in Kansas.
Jurors for Chandler’s 2012 trial deliberated only 83 minutes before convicting her of two counts of intentional and premeditated first-degree murder. She was given prison sentences that left her ineligible for parole for 100 years.
Jurors were hung at Chandler’s second trial in 2022
But the Kansas Supreme Court in 2018 unanimously reversed Chandler’s convictions and sentence.
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