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Thread: Karl Karlsen Sentenced to LWOP in 1991 CA Murder of his wife Christina Karlsen

  1. #1
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    Karl Karlsen Sentenced to LWOP in 1991 CA Murder of his wife Christina Karlsen


    Cindy Karlsen died in 1991 in suspicious house fire.


    Levi Karlsen, 23, was murdered for $700,000 life insurance.


    Karl Karlsen


    NY Man, Already in Prison for Murdering Son, Now Charged in Wife's Death

    By HARRY PHILLIPS, JENNER SMITH and ALEXA VALIANT
    ABC News

    A New York man who is already in prison for murdering his son is now facing new murder charges in California for the death of his first wife.

    Karl Karlsen, 54, who is currently serving 15 years to life at a prison in upstate New York for killing his son Levi Karlsen, was charged today with first-degree murder in the 1991 death of his wife, Christina

    Karlsen, who is also Levi's mother. She died on Jan. 1, 1991 in a fire at their family home in California. Her death had been initially ruled an accident.

    Barbara Yook, the district attorney for Calaveras County, charged Karl Karlsen with one count of murder during the commission of arson. Yook declined to comment on the case when reached by ABC News today.

    Unlike his case in New York state, if convicted in this new case in California, Karlsen could face the death penalty. A court date has yet to be announced.

    Daughter of Murder Suspect Karl Karlsen Believes Father Killed Her Brother, Mother

    NY Man on Trial for Son's Murder Says He Left Him to Die in Never-Before-Heard Tape
    Family Suspicion of N.Y. Man Leads to Reopening of Two Murder Investigations

    Levi Karlsen, 23, was crushed to death in 2008 when the truck he was working on slipped off a jack and landed on top of him. His death was initially ruled an accident, but prosecutors later claimed Karl

    Karlsen killed him so he could collect a $700,000 life insurance payout.

    During his trial last year, Karlsen admitted he rigged the jack so the truck would fall on Levi, and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2013.

    New York authorities started investigating Karlsen after his second wife, Cindy Karlsen, came forward last year and told police of her suspicions of Karlsen's involvement with Levi's death. Authorities in

    California then opened an investigation into Christina Karlsen's death. That investigation was concluded this week.

    Karl Karlsen collected a $200,000 life insurance payout after his first wife died, but hadn't been charged in anything related to her death until now.

    Christina and Karl Karlsen’s daughter Erin told ABC News' "20/20" in a 2013 exclusive interview that she was always suspicious of her father.

    "We knew what he had done to our mother, and I knew what he did to my brother," Erin said at the time.

    Erin was 6 years old when she, Levi and their sister Katie escaped from the house fire that killed their mother. According to Erin, their father helped his children get outside safely, and then they stood and watched the house burn.

    "I didn't understand that my mother was behind that wall dying," Erin told "20/20" at the time, adding that her father "didn't make an effort to save her. He just stood there."

    A week after the fire, Karl Karlsen and his three children left California for upstate New York to be near his family, and he eventually remarried.

    As they got older, Erin said she and Levi started to wonder if their father had been responsible for their mother's death. However, when they confronted him about it, Erin said, "his biggest concern was that he wondered what the community would think of his own children accusing him of murdering their mother."

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/york-man-pr...ry?id=25164857
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Man who pleaded guilty to crushing son under truck now wants to appeal

    By Glenn Coin
    syracuse.com

    Waterloo, N.Y. -- Karl Karlsen, the Seneca County man who told a judge last year he knocked a pickup truck onto his son's chest and walked away to let his son die, now wants to appeal his guilty plea.

    Karlsen pleaded guilty last November to second-degree murder in the death of his son, Levi, in 2008. In the hastily called hearing with no media present, Karlsen admitted that the truck he had set up on a wobbly jack fell onto Levi's chest, and Karlsen walked away leaving his son to die. He has filed court papers to appeal that plea, and the 4th Appellate Division in Rochester has appointed a new lawyer for him.

    Karlsen was also charged last week in California with the arson death of his first wife, Christina, in 1991. Karlsen faces the death penalty if convicted there. Prosecutors said they would begin extradition proceedings to bring Karlsen to Calaveras County.

    Karlsen collected $200,000 in life insurance after Christina's death, and more than $700,000 from his son's death.

    Karlsen is serving his sentence in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

    Seneca County District Attorney Barry Porsch, who prosecuted the murder case in Seneca County, said in a statement that a person who pleads guilty cannot later challenge the "underlying conviction" and can only argue limited issues on appeal.

    "The main issue will likely be the court's denial of (Karlsen's) motion to suppress his statements to his wife and the police," Porsch said. "I look forward to arguing this case at the Appellate Division Court and the Court of Appeals."

    Karlsen's nearly 10-hour interview with police and a secretly recorded conversation with his second wife, Cindy Karlsen, were played at hearings in Seneca County. Karlsen pleaded guilty Nov. 6, the day his trial was scheduled to begin.

    Karlsen's lawyer in the Seneca County murder case also hinted that day that California authorities would drop their case if Karlsen pleaded guilty in New York.

    "We are aware that California is recognizing this plea and is not likely to proceed," attorney Lawrence Kasperek told Seneca County Court Judge Dennis Bender.

    After Kasperek's statements were reported by syracuse.com, however, Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook said she had made no such promise, to Kasperek.

    "I can tell you that it is absolutely not true," Yook said then.

    http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s..._his_mind.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Judge denies Karlsen's bid to have conviction overturned

    WATERLOO — Karl Karlsen’s first attempt to overturn his murder conviction has failed.

    In a decision rendered last month, Seneca County Judge Dennis Bender denied what is known as a “440 motion.” Karlsen had filed one in an effort to vacate his conviction on a charge of second-degree murder for the November 2008 death of his 23-year-old son, Levi. Karlsen filed the motion on his own.

    The number is a reference to Criminal Procedure Law 440.10.

    “The motion is denied,” Bender wrote in a brief decision. “The judgment is pending appeal and sufficient facts appear on the record with respect to the issues raised in the motion so to permit adequate review upon appeal.”

    Karlsen pleaded guilty to the charge in November 2013. A month later, Bender sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.

    Karlsen, 54, is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility. He is eligible for parole in 2027.

    He filed the motion despite waiving his right to appeal when pleading guilty. Seneca County District Attorney Barry Porsch said defendants who waive that right can still appeal, but their options in a 440 motion are limited.

    Karlsen admitted causing a pickup truck on a wobbly jack to fall on Levi at Karlsen’s Yale Farm Road home in Varick, then leaving him there to die. He collected on a $700,000 life insurance policy he took out on Levi just weeks before his death.

    In his motion, Karlsen argued his guilty plea was due to duress and his attorney failed to question alibi witnesses that would have established his innocence. Specifically, Karlsen argued that a coroner gave Levi’s time of death as 3 p.m., a time when Karlsen was in Penn Yan for a funeral.

    Porsch argued the time of death was an estimate, and that Karlsen admitted to police he caused the truck to fall on Levi.

    “I am obviously pleased with the court’s decision to deny Karlsen’s motion to vacate his conviction,” Porsch said. “Karlsen was put under oath in court during the plea proceeding, and he admitted to the court that he caused the truck to fall on his son. In his pro se post-judgment motion, he made up an alibi excuse, claiming that he wasn’t there, which was contradicted by his sworn admission of guilt.”

    Last July, the Fourth Judicial Department of state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Rochester granted Karlsen’s request for poor person relief and assigned attorney John Cirando of Syracuse to represent Karlsen on appeal. Cirando, a former Onondaga County chief assistant district attorney who is widely considered one of the state’s pre-eminent appellate lawyers, could file that appeal later this year.

    Karlsen also faces a first-degree murder charge in California for the 1991 death of his first wife, Christina. Under California law, that qualifies Karlsen for the death penalty if he is convicted.

    Following Christina’s death, Karlsen collected $200,000 on a life insurance policy he had bought just weeks before she died. Karlsen saved his three young children, including Levi, from the house but told police he could not save his wife, who was 30 at the time.

    Police officially listed Christina’s death as accidental, but her family members suspected Karlsen killed her. After Karlsen was charged with killing Levi, California investigators reopened the case.

    http://www.fltimes.com/news/article_...97292deeb.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    NBC's "Dateline" will air a new episode Friday night on Karl Karlsen

    http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s...d_his_son.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Karlsen pleads not guilty in wife’s 1991 death

    Prosecutors say he killed for financial gain

    Karl Karlsen, 56, pleaded not guilty to killing Christina Karlsen Monday in Calaveras Superior Court, a little more than a quarter century after Christina died in a house fire near Murphys.

    Karlsen is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. on May 9 in Calaveras County Superior Court, when a date will be set for a preliminary hearing on charges that he killed his wife.

    If found guilty of first-degree murder, Karlsen’s penalty could be severe. According to California Penal Code Section 190.2, “The penalty for a defendant who is found guilty of murder in the first degree is death or imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole if one or more of the following special circumstances has been found under Section 190.4 to be true: The murder was intentional and carried out for financial gain.”

    Murder charges were filed against Karlsen on Aug. 29, 2014, by the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office. The complaint alleges he killed his wife during the commission of arson for financial gain.

    He was extradited in March from Clinton Correctional Facility in New York to the Calaveras County Jail to answer the charge that he committed arson to kill his wife and collect insurance. A New York court three years ago convicted him of killing his son, 23-year-old Levi Karlsen, also to collect insurance. He is serving a 15-year-to-life sentence for the New York conviction.

    According to the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office, located in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York, Karlsen pleaded guilty in 2013 to killing his and Christina’s son in 2008 by knocking a truck off a jack while Levi worked under it.

    The elder Karlsen bought a $700,000 life insurance policy on his son 17 days before he died, and collected the payment a few months later, according to the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office. Levi’s death was originally listed as an accident.

    Karlsen received a $200,000 payout from an insurance policy he bought weeks before Christina died in 1991, and her death was listed as an accident.

    Calaveras County officials reopened the investigation into Christina Karlsen’s death in 2012.

    http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/n...9680f93a.html?

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    Karlsen’s California fate in judge’s hands

    By Mike Hibbard
    Finger Lake Times

    Nearly three years after Karl Karlsen admitted murdering his son in Seneca County, a judge in California will decide if Karlsen stands trial for allegedly killing his first wife.

    A preliminary hearing was held last week in Calaveras County, Calif., on the first-degree murder charge Karslen faces. He is accused of setting a fire that caused the death of Christina Karlsen in 1991.

    The hearing started Monday, and testimony ended Friday afternoon. Among those testifying were Seneca County Undersheriff John Cleere and members of Karlsen’s family.

    In an email Thursday from California, Cleere said he testified Tuesday. A digital copy of Karlsen’s nearly 10-hour interview at the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office in November 2012 was admitted. On that tape, Karlsen confessed to killing his 23-year-old son, Levi, in 2008 — a death that was ruled accidental when it first happened.

    Karlsen pleaded guilty to second-murder in November 2013. He admitted causing a pickup truck on a wobbly jack to fall on Levi at Karlsen’s Yale Farm Road home in Varick, then leaving him there to die while he attended a funeral in the Penn Yan area.

    Karl Karlsen collected on a $700,000 life insurance policy he took out on Levi just weeks before his death.

    Seneca County Sheriff’s Office investigators apprehended Karlsen after the 2012 confession. That came after Karlsen’s second wife, Cindy, secretly taped several conversations between the two — they were estranged at the time — that reportedly included admissions by Karlsen that he killed Levi.

    The judge in the California case, Thomas Smith, told attorneys he wanted to review the interview with Karlsen in Seneca County before resuming the hearing Tuesday. Following closing arguments by the attorneys at that time, he is expected to make a decision if the case will go to trial.

    During his testimony, Cleere also submitted a certified record of conviction and testified about Karlsen’s guilty plea.

    “I had a chance to visit Christina and Levi’s gravesite — that meant a lot to me,” Cleere said in the email. “It was nice to catch up with the family members too.”

    If convicted of the murder charge in California, Karlsen could face the death penalty. Following Christina’s death in the fire, Karlsen collected $200,000 on a life insurance policy he had bought just weeks before she died.

    Karlsen saved his three young children, including Levi, from the house but told police he could not save Christina. Police officially listed Christina’s death as accidental, but family members suspected Karlsen killed her.

    After Karlsen was charged with killing Levi, California investigators reopened their case.

    Seneca County Judge Dennis Bender sentenced Karlsen to 15 years to life in prison. Karlsen, who was incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility, is eligible for parole in 2027.

    He was extradited to California earlier this year.

    http://www.fltimes.com/news/karlsen-...ffbc397d8.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    April 12, 2018

    Karl Karlsen Issued New Trial Date

    The Ledger-Dispatch

    A former Calaveras County man accused of killing his wife for insurance money has been issued a new trial date. Earlier this week, Karl Karlsen was issued a new trial date of Oct. 3 in the Calaveras County Superior Court. Karlsen has been accused of killing his wife, Christina Karlsen, who died in a fire at their Murphys home in 1991, and of collecting $200,000 in life insurance following her death. Karlsen is serving a sentence of 28 years to life in Seneca County, New York, after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and committing insurance fraud to collect on an insurance policy he had submitted just days before the death of his son, Levi, who had been pinned under a truck at their family farm in 2008. Judge Thomas Smith scheduled a pretrial conference for 3 p.m. June 12 to check on the status of the case. D.A. Barbra Yook told the Judge that her office and Karlsen’s defense team would work together to determine a set of jury questions before jury selection began.

    http://www.ledger.news/news/local_ne...4c7aa600a.html

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    Karlsen trial postponed: Lawyer quits, cites conflict of interest

    By Giuseppe Ricapito
    The Union-Democrat

    Sonora attorney Scott Gross quit his representation of Karl Karlsen on Tuesday at the Calaveras County Superior Court, forcing the postponement of the trial less than one day before jury selection was scheduled to begin.

    Gross said he discovered a conflict of interest in his representation of Karlsen, but did not offer additional details in open court. Following the hearing, Gross declined to comment on the reason for the conflict due to a protective order on the trial.

    “After extensive consultation with my attorney,” Gross said in a prepared statement to the court, “we declare the conflict to preserve our client’s best interest.”

    Karlsen, 56, who is accused of murdering his wife, Christina Karlsen, after starting a fire at his family home in Murphys in 1991 to collect on a $200,000 life insurance policy in her name, shook his head and muttered when Judge Thomas A. Smith granted Gross’ request.

    Gross had been Karlsen’s attorney since March 7, 2016, when Karlsen was first arraigned on the murder charge. Gross represented Karlsen throughout the preliminary hearing in July and August 2016, and in dozens of motion hearings and conferences over the past two years.

    Karlsen is serving a 28-years-to-life sentence in Seneca County, New York, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the death of his son, Levi, and committing insurance fraud to collect on an insurance policy he had submitted just days before Levi’s death. Karlsen admitted he knocked a truck off a lift and it fell on his son in 2008 at their family farm.

    Following a 45-minute closed conference between Smith, Gross and Karlsen, Smith said Gross provided “sufficient good cause for granting the motion” and he would vacate the scheduled trial date of Oct. 3 “very reluctantly.”

    Smith set a trial setting conference for Oct. 11 at the Calaveras County Superior Court and tentatively assigned Karlsen representation from the Calaveras County Public Defender’s Office.

    Gross’ revelation of a conflict of interest was met with almost universal disbelief from court officers and those in attendance.

    Smith, Gross, Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook and Deputy District Attorney Jeff Stone met privately in the judge’s chambers for five minutes at the 11:30 a.m. hearing before the announcement was made.

    When they returned, Gross explained to the court that he wished to make a “prepared statement,” and all three other parties registered visible surprise when he requested that Karlsen be assigned new counsel.

    Karlsen sat beside Gross during the announcement, but did not react to the request. Karlsen, who was cuffed at both his hands and feet, sidled his rolling chair to Gross’ seat while the parties were in the judge’s chambers and appeared to read a document laid out on the desk.

    Citing the unexpected nature of the announcement, Smith ordered that his ruling on the request be delayed until the afternoon session so that the District Attorney’s Office can prepare a response.

    Christina Karlsen’s parents, who frequently attend the hearings, left the courtroom Tuesday morning in a state of shock. The mother cried as she was led out of the room by Yook and Calaveras County probation officer Mike Whitney, but later said aloud, “One way or another, I’m going to witness a trial. A debt has to be paid.”

    Gross claimed in the afternoon that the District Attorney’s Office had “no standing” to speak on his request, due to Karlsen’s protected 6th Amendment rights. The 6th Amendment, among other provisions, provides the right to counsel.

    In her inquiry to the court, Yook derided the request as an “orchestrated tactic for unknown purposes” made in the “eleventh hour” and implored the court to make an inquiry into the “general nature” of the conflict of interest.

    Yook asked the court to determine when the conflict arose and whether it could have affected previous hearings due to the potential for an appeal motion from new counsel.

    “Without knowing when, there is a concern lingering,” she said.

    Yook added that if the court did not ascertain the reason behind the conflict, new counsel for Karlsen could also be subject to the same issue.

    “We’re obviously very unhappy that this was coming up in the last second,” she said.

    Following the 45-minute conference with Gross and Karlsen, Smith said a transcript of the discussion would be sealed.

    Yook also suggested that the Calaveras County Public Defender’s Office may decline the appointment to Karlsen at the upcoming hearing.

    Gross left the hearing with Dan Quinn, who said he was a court-appointed investigator on behalf of the defense. Quinn was present for the hearing on Tuesday and part of the previous motion hearing on Sept. 26.

    During the previous motion hearing, Smith denied six defense motions filed by Gross. The motions included the request to dismiss the trial or recuse the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office, to suppress statements Karlsen to Seneca County Sheriff’s deputies investigating the death of Levi in November 2013, to suppress statements made by Karlsen to Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office detective Mike Whitney in March 2014 while Karlsen was in prison in New York, to strike Karlsen’s Seneca County murder conviction of his son Levi from the court record, to suppress tape recordings made by two California Department of Forestry firefighters who recorded Karlsen without his knowledge in 1991 and to exclude police and insurance reports, police reports and video recordings stored by a California Department of Forestry employee in his garage for 20 years after the Murphys house fire.

    Smith also upheld prosecution motions to allow evidence related to Karlsen’s repeated utility of insurance policies in a 1986 fire of his Dodge Charger, a 2002 barn fire and his son Levi’s murder and for the introduction of domestic violence evidence related to Christina Karlsen six months before her death, and to Karlsen’s daughter Erin DeRoche and Levi within 10 years of Jan. 1, 1991.

    At the end of the Sept. 26 hearing, Gross said he expected to file additional motions before the start of the trial, but also assured Karlsen that the trial would begin next week.

    When the trial begins, it is expected to last up to 20 days. An amended prosecution’s witness list includes 45 witnesses including Karlsen family members, DeRoche, former Calaveras County coroner Terry Parker, Whitney, and other retired emergency officials.

    https://www.uniondemocrat.com/localn...es-conflict-of

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    July 9, 2019

    Karlsen defense says his former lawyer won't turn over investigative files, trial delayed

    By Lyn Riddle
    The Union Democrat

    The murder trial of Karl Karlsen was postponed again Tuesday after his defense attorney said his former defense attorney — Tuolumne County’s new public defender Scott Gross — had refused to hand over his investigatory materials.

    Judge Thomas Smith agreed to the defense motion, but said he did so begrudgingly.

    District Attorney Barbara Yook objected to the delay, saying the prosecution had prepared for trial, prepared again and again.

    “We’ve waited a very long time,” Yook said. “But there is good cause if they have not started their investigation.”

    The mother of Christina Karlsen, Karl Karlsen’s wife who he is accused of murdering in a house fire in 1991 in Murphys, let out a long sigh when defense attorney Anthony Salazar asked for the continuance.

    Yook told the judge the family is “very unhappy.”

    “This is extremely difficult for them,” she said.

    Salazar said Gross told him he could not release the results of his investigation because of the conflict of interest he claimed when he asked to be removed from the case on Oct. 2, 2018, a day before the trial was set to begin. The reason for Gross’ conflict of interest was sealed by the court.

    Karlsen told the judge Tuesday that he did not know why Gross asked to be removed.

    “I was at more of a loss than you people,” he said.

    The judge said he wants to know why Gross did not hand over the materials.

    “You have to start your discovery from scratch?” Smith asked.

    Salazar said he did and that Gross had also denied him the opportunity to talk to his investigator.

    Jan. 8 will be the fifth trial date set in the case. Karlsen was charged in Calaveras County in the death of his wife in 2014 after he admitted to killing his and Christina’s son Levi.

    Levi Karlsen died when a truck he was working on fell on him at his family’s farm in upstate New York in 2008. Karlsen admitted to kicking a jack stand out from under the truck, and then leaving to go to a wedding while his son struggled to live.

    Karlsen received $707,000 in life insurance on a policy he'd taken out about two weeks before his son died.

    Karlsen was sentenced in 28 years to life after pleading guilty in Seneca County, New York, to two counts of second-degree murder in the death of his son, Levi Karlsen, and committing insurance fraud to collect on an insurance policy taken out days before Levi’s death.

    Karlsen was moved from a New York prison to Calaveras County in 2016. He received $200,000 insurance settlement after his wife’s death. Shortly after she died he moved to News York, where he also received an insurance policy on some horses that perished in a stable fire.

    https://www.uniondemocrat.com/localn...wyer-wont-turn
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Karlsen’s sister in law recalls abuse of Levi and her suspicions about Christina

    By Giuseppe Ricapito
    The Union Democrat

    After the 2008 death of Levi Karlsen, Jackie Karlsen began to suspect her brother-in-law, Karl Karlsen, may have been involved in the death of his wife Christina in a 1991 Murphys house fire.

    “Levi would get knuckled,” said Jackie Karlsen, a nurse. She explained to the jury in the Calaveras County Superior Court how Karl Karlsen, now on trial for the murder of his wife, would rap his son on the head when he was three or four years old to discipline him.

    She said Levi would make a face and “grimace to indicate pain.”

    When Levi died in 2008 after a car he was working on crushed him, Jackie Karlsen drove Karl Karlsen to the hospital.

    “He said he couldn’t believe how one person could have so much bad luck in his life.”

    That statement “stuck in her mind,” she said, but it wasn’t until a 2013 deposition related to Levi Karlsen’s death that she asserted her suspicions about Karl Karlsen’s involvement in the death of Christina.

    “Looking back on the events, it struck me very odd,” she said, noting the “discrepancy on how the fire started.”

    Jackie Karlsen referenced a phone call from Christina and noted “she was afraid to die in a fire,” but further comments on the topic were stifled by a flurry of defense objections.

    Karlsen’s attorney, Richard Esquivel, attempted to downplay her suspicions because she did not contact the police.

    He also suggested Jackie Karlsen was negligent in her role as a nurse, an occupation which has a designation of “mandatory reporter” if abuse is observed, because she did not report the knuckling.

    “I’m only required to report the patients I’m caring for,” she said.

    He then further accused her of “making it up” because it was the first time she told about the abuse in court.

    Karl Karlsen pleaded guilty to second degree murder of Levi in 2013.

    Jackie Karlsen recalled being close friends with Christina before their family moved to California.

    “She was a great friend, very, very kind person,” she said.

    Like others who attested to knowing Christina as “joyful” when she was without her husband, Jackie Karlsen said Christina was restrained and nervous when with him.

    “Christina was a different person when she was with Karl. She seemed always on edge,” she said.

    Christina was characterized by many as loving to sew — she made her children’s clothes by hand — but Jackie Karlsen said she was only allowed to buy fabric and thread on certain occasions. She would save strands of material if not allowed to buy more, Jackie Karlsen said.

    Jackie Karlsen accompanied her brother-in-law, Mike Karlsen, to Murphys following the house fire.

    She said Karlsen “seemed very calm, like nothing happened.”

    Jackie Karlsen testified Karl Karlsen told her that the fire was caused by a kerosene spill which spread to kerosene-contaminated clothes in the dryer.

    Art Alexander, Christina’s father, employed Karl Karsen at his air conditioning and heating business Art’s Sheet Metal after they moved to California. He gave Karl a 10 percent stake in the company and paid him weekly at a $13 an hour rate.

    “He was a pretty good hand and he learned well,” Alexander said.

    District Attorney Barbara Yook examined over a dozen checks in Alexander’s personal checking account ledger, which itemized payments throughout 1990 for Karlsen’s wage and his health insurance.

    In the last check from Dec. 20, 1990, Karlsen is paid $1,056 for 70 and three-quarter hours of work and other small credits to his pay. On Dec. 7, 1990, Karlsen is paid $955 for 32 and three-quarters hours of work and a Christmas bonus. On Aug. 14, 1990, he is paid $1,768 for two weeks of vacation and a 56-hour work week. Earlier in the year he was paid $549 on Jan. 5, 1990; $534 on Feb. 9, 1990; and $585 on April 20, 1990.

    Not all the weekly checks were shown. Yook selected the ones shown to the jury, but said there were checks for every week.

    The payments seem to contrast statements attributed by investigators to Karl Karlsen earlier in the trial, who said he averaged $700 a week in take-home pay.

    Lynne Sanders, a former bartender at the Murphys Hotel, testified Karlsen would occasionally come in with Alexander for lunch and ask about the running habits of his closest next door neighbor, her father, Vic Lyons.

    “He was very interested in what my dad was doing,” she said. “I thought it was strange.”

    Sanders said she told Karl Karlsen on Christmas that her father would be gone on New Years Eve and New Years Day, first for a run and then for a polar plunge.

    William Ostrander, a retired insurance fire investigator, also testified that he interviewed Karl Karlsen on Nov. 5, 2002, two days after a fire on Karl’s Romulus ranch destroyed a large wooden barn, killed three horses and damaged an attached storage garage.

    Karl Karlsen told Ostrander he noticed the fire at approximately 2:20 a.m. when he saw an orange glow out his bedroom window, according to a 10-minute audio interview with Karl Karlsen played from a boombox in the courtroom.

    The large Belgian mare used for breeding was insured for $20,000, the barn for $60,000 and the garage for $5,000, Karlsen said, though he claimed it would not cover the loss.

    When Ostrander asks Karlsen if he was involved in any other fires, Karlsen reveals the details of the Murphys fire and again blames it on kerosene and dryer.

    The audio tape warbles out at the precise moment when Ostrander asks if there were any injuries, Karl Karlsen mentions Christina and how he saved the children.

    Ostrander collected wiring from the fire site — the barn was almost totally demolished, he said — but could only determine the fire started in the barn. He never determined a cause, he said.

    Esquivel noted the fire was never investigated as a crime.

    https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/a...c708d1216.html
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