As if following a trail of breadcrumbs, police investigating the 2020 murders of a UW Health doctor and her husband collected cellphone and Wi-Fi network data, images from city street cameras, and statements by witnesses to bring charges against their daughter’s then-boyfriend, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Khari Sanford’s attorneys, however, said there’s no direct evidence tying the 20-year-old to the deaths of Dr. Beth Potter, 52, and Robin Carre, 57, who were shot in the head and left in a shallow ditch at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum on March 30, 2020.
“We believe the state cannot meet the burden to beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Khari Sanford who murdered these two individuals,” state assistant public defender Tracey Lencioni said during the first day of what is expected to be Sanford’s nine-day trial on charges of first-degree intentional homicide.
The jury of 13 men and three women on Tuesday heard Dane County Deputy District Attorney William Brown lay out the state’s case, first in broad strokes and then in detail. The bottom line, Brown said, was that Sanford killed the couple after an already tense relationship between Sanford and his girlfriend’s parents became even tenser because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after Potter and Carre had Sanford move into their home to keep their daughter, Miriam Potter Carre, from sneaking out at night to see him.
Potter, who was medical director of employee health at UW Health, was immunocompromised and greatly concerned about the pandemic as it ramped up in the U.S., Brown said. She and Carre had set rules for the home, but Potter Carre and Sanford continually broke them by going out to spend time with other people and staying out late.
People who knew and worked with Potter testified Tuesday that Potter told them the two were disrespectful toward her and Carre. And they continued to sneak out, despite the pandemic.
“This was a huge concern for Dr. Potter and Mr. Carre,” Brown told the jury.
Eventually, Potter and Carre rented an Airbnb on Sunny Meade Lane, on Madison’s South Side, for Potter Carre and Sanford and loaned them a Volkswagen van so that they could find jobs to pay for the apartment they were trying to find.
“The Airbnb went well, until it didn’t one night,” Brown said.
Tracking the van
With uncertainty about where he would be living after the Airbnb rental expired, Brown said, Sanford left the night of March 30 in the van, while Potter Carre stayed home.
Brown said there’s no indication Potter Carre knew what was about to happen. She is expected to testify Wednesday afternoon.
The van’s path from there was tracked by cameras to a McDonald’s restaurant on Regent Street, where Sanford connected to the Wi-Fi, which Brown said Sanford had used before.
Sanford then went Downtown and picked up Ali’jah Larrue. While Sanford’s iPhone had an updated privacy feature that kept it from attempting to connect to every Wi-Fi network it passed, Larrue’s did not, so police were later able to see on Larrue’s phone where the two went by way of the Wi-Fi networks it attempted to connect to.
Eventually, the van circled the area of Potter and Carre’s home, then parked there. Sanford’s phone automatically connected to the home’s Wi-Fi network, placing him there at 9:43 p.m., Brown said.
Larrue, who has pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder in the case, will testify that Sanford left the van and went into the house, Brown said. Sanford later came out leading Potter and Carre, dressed for bed, at gunpoint. Brown said Sanford had Larrue drive to the UW Arboretum, where Sanford ordered the couple out of the van. He shot Carre first, Brown said, then Potter. Potter was still alive when she was found by joggers early the next morning, but died at UW Hospital.
Crime scene
One of the women who came across the bodies of Potter and Carre as she jogged testified it didn’t sink in immediately what she had seen, and she had to circle back to be sure.
A neighbor testified she heard what turned out to be gunshots just after 11 p.m. on March 30, 2020. Police were dispatched to the scene just before 6:30 a.m. the following morning. Potter died at 7:54 a.m.
Following up on city street images and video from a private surveillance camera near the Airbnb, police found pieces of what are believed to be Potter and Carre’s cellphones thrown into a wooded area, along with pants that Sanford was wearing. A state Crime Lab analysis found the pants had Sanford’s DNA and were speckled with Potter’s blood. A mask with Sanford’s DNA on it was found with the pants.
Police also found video of Sanford attempting to use the couple’s debit cards to withdraw cash, but he was unsuccessful because he did not have their PIN numbers.
“The evidence you’ll hear in this case is overwhelming,” Brown said.
Defense responds
Lencioni described Sanford, who was 18 at the time, as a “kid,” one who had a gun, she said, “but he was a kid.”
Lencioni said the defense team disagrees with the characterization of the days and weeks leading to the homicides, saying instead that what Potter and Carre were dealing with in their home was “typical teenage angst.”
Prosecutors have to prove that Sanford pulled the trigger, she said, but they can’t. She said it’s possible that defense attorneys will not ask a lot of questions of witnesses. Jurors will see horrifying things, including photos of Potter and Carre, but “they do not tell you who murdered these two people.”
Police never found a murder weapon, she said, and they don’t have GPS data that specifically places Sanford in the Arboretum at the time Potter and Carre were killed.
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Khari Sanford's trial on two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for the 2020 deaths of his then-girlfriend's parents began Tuesday with opening statements.