Chandler seeks to exclude CSI witness testimony in murder re-trial

Facing re-trial on charges of fatally shooting her former husband and his fiancee, Dana Lynn Chandler has filed motions to limit testimony by some witnesses who testified during her first trial, including a crime scene expert and crime scene officers.

By Friday, the start of Chandler's re-trial will be only one month away. It is to start on June 10.

Chandler is charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness, in Harkness' southwest Topeka home in July of 2002.

Jurors relied on circumstantial evidence when they convicted Chandler of the two counts of murder in March 2012, nearly 10 years after Sisco and Harkness were slain.

Chandler was sentenced to two 50-year prison terms, a consecutive sentence of 100 years.

On April 6, 2018, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned Chandler's convictions of two counts of first-degree murder.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors led jurors to falsely believe Chandler had violated a protection from abuse order issued in Douglas County.

Supreme Court justices said a protection from abuse order didn't exist in the trial record.

In one motion, Chandler seeks to exclude some testimony by Cory Latham, who at the time of Chandler's first jury trial in March 2012, was the team leader with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's crime scene team.

Chandler "specifically" seeks to exclude testimony by Latham about his expert opinion focusing on types of crimes, crime scene reconstruction and motives for crimes on the grounds it is "irrelevant, immaterial, is based upon hearsay, invades the province of the jury, (and) is not helpful to the jury or the court to understand evidence."

It also would offer "an opinion of the weight and credibility of the evidence," a Chandler filing said.

Latham testified during the first trial on March 16, 2012.

Latham testified he eliminated burglary and robbery as potential motives in the shootings because several hundred dollars in cash in the kitchen and in Sisco's pants pockets were untouched, and other valuables remained in the residence.

The shootings weren't drug-related or tied to sex assault, and the victims were "defenseless," Latham testified, adding the motive to enter the victims' home was murder. The only motive for the slayings was revenge, Latham testified.

Chander, who is acting as her own lawyer, also suggested that the judge conduct a hearing about Latham's testimony.