Testifying against her former boyfriend, the daughter of a couple found shot in the UW Arboretum in 2020 said she had no idea where her boyfriend was during the time it’s alleged he was killing her parents, but she had called around frantically looking for him, afraid of being left alone in their short-term apartment that night.
Miriam Carre, the daughter of Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre, also testified she has not seen or talked to Khari Sanford since March 31, 2020, the day her father was found dead and her mother barely alive by joggers in the Arboretum. Her mother died a short time later at UW Hospital.
She has declined all of Sanford’s phone calls from the Dane County Jail, Miriam Carre testified.
Standing in Circuit Judge Ellen Berz’s courtroom before taking the witness stand, Carre looked away from Sanford’s direction as he was brought into the courtroom at the start of Wednesday’s afternoon session in Sanford’s trial. She continued to avoid looking at him while she testified.
Carre, 20, at first invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself by testifying, but agreed to testify once she was granted immunity. The reason she invoked her Fifth Amendment right was not specified.
Sanford is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for the March 30, 2020, execution-style shooting deaths of Potter, 52, who was medical director of employee health at UW Health, and Carre, 57, a stay-at-home dad who also coached soccer and helped young people apply for colleges.
Carre testified that she and Sanford were going to move out of her parents’ home on Rowley Avenue on Madison’s West Side, where Sanford had been staying, in part because of rising tensions in the household over their smoking marijuana, and over rules that were in place to prevent COVID-19 in the home.
Carre also testified that she secretly recorded audio of a family counseling session with her and her parents, and she believes Sanford listened to the recording, in which her parents frankly discussed Sanford. Berz ruled the recording could not be played for the jury.
Even with her father’s help, Carre testified, the search for an apartment was going slowly. Ultimately, she said, her father booked an Airbnb for her and Sanford on Sunny Meade Lane on Madison’s South Side. The move helped improve her relationship with her parents, she said.
The Airbnb was booked for two weeks. At her own place, she said, she and Sanford enjoyed their “freedom to smoke.”
Carre’s parents also let them use their white VW van.
On March 30, Carre testified, Sanford left the Airbnb, saying he was headed to a pawn shop. But as the hours went by and he didn’t return, Carre said, she became scared of being alone in the apartment. She called people to see if Sanford, who had a cellphone without a service plan, was with them. She sent text messages to Sanford, including one at 10:50 p.m. telling him, “Quit (expletive) playing, where are you?”
About 10 minutes later she sent another telling Sanford to at least come back and leave the van and have someone drive him. “I don’t feel safe,” she wrote. “Why would you put me in this position?”
Carre testified she had no idea where Sanford was. He later showed up with Ali’jah Larrue — who ultimately became a co-defendant in the homicide case. Sanford went straight to the bathroom, she testified. Frustrated, she talked to him through a half-open door.
Carre hung out in the bedroom until she fell asleep, she said. When she woke up, Sanford asked if she could drive Larrue home. She did, with Sanford along in the passenger seat. Nobody said much, she testified.
The silence continued when she and Sanford arrived back at the Airbnb. They started to watch a movie, then went to sleep. As he slept, Carre testified, Sanford woke up several times with “panicky dreams,” sweating.
They got up around 11 a.m. and went to McDonald’s, then went to play basketball at a school playground. They again talked about “smoking,” and went to the Arboretum to do it, but there were police all over. She said she had no idea why the police were there.
They parked not far from there and smoked near the back entrance of Vilas Zoo. They found out then on Facebook, she said, that two bodies had been found in the Arboretum.
“I said ‘that’s crazy,’” Carre testified, and she said Sanford agreed.
Back at the Airbnb, Carre said, Sanford again borrowed the keys to the van and left. Carre said she later got a call from one of her parents’ neighbors telling her there were police at her parents’ house. She said she tried to call Sanford, but he didn’t pick up.
Another neighbor called, then came over to the Airbnb. Sanford arrived at about the same time. Carre said she told Sanford something was going on with her parents, and asked him if he would go to their house with her. He said no.
When the other neighbor, Mollie Kane, drove Carre away from the Airbnb, that was the last time Carre saw Sanford, Carre testified.
Deputy District Attorney William Brown, in his opening statement Tuesday, told jurors that after Sanford had left Carre at the Airbnb on March 30, Sanford picked up Larrue and they ended up at the Potter-Carre house. There, Brown told the jury, Sanford led the couple at gunpoint from the home and drove them to the Arboretum, where he shot them.
Several gunshots were heard by a neighbor near the Arboretum just after 11 p.m. Police were dispatched to the scene just before 6:30 a.m. the following morning.
Larrue is expected to testify at the trial. He has already pleaded guilty to two counts of felony murder and is awaiting sentencing at a later date.
Art of the Everyday: A recap of April in photos from Wisconsin State Journal photographers
Khari Sanford listens while lawyers discuss a legal point with Circuit Judge Ellen Berz. Sanford's former girlfriend, Miriam Carre, the daughter of Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre, testified during Sanford's double homicide trial on Wednesday.