Tulsa World: Police had early doubts about Kastner

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Police had early doubts about Kastner
Details about the slaying of the former Webster High School teacher's wife emerge at a hearing.

Former Webster High School teacher and coach John Kastner is escorted to a courtroom Monday. Stephen Pingry/Tulsa World

By GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer
Published: 8/26/2008 2:04 AM
Last Modified: 8/27/2008 1:48 AM

Correction
This story incorrectly reported whether murder defendant John Kastner had taken medication on the night his wife, Lori Kastner, was killed. A Tulsa police officer testified at a preliminary hearing Monday that Kastner told police he had taken a sleeping pill but had not taken pain medication.

Read previous stories about the Lori Kastner homicide and the case against John Kastner, as well as a police aWdavit that led to his prosecution.

Details about the slaying of the former Webster High School teacher's wife emerge at a hearing.

Details of how John Robert Kastner said his wife was shot to death changed slightly as he talked to Tulsa police officers on the morning of June 25, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing Monday.

Kastner is charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Lori Kastner, who was shot in the head at their Tulsa home. The hearing will continue at 9 a.m. Friday at the Tulsa County Courthouse.

Tulsa Police Officer Mark Shelton spoke with Kastner at the home shortly after the shooting was reported about 4 a.m.

Kastner told Shelton that a dark-complexioned man came in through a back door, demanded money and mentioned the name of the Kastners' adopted teenage daughter, Shelton testified. When the

intruder was denied money, the man then grabbed a gun off the dining room table and started shooting, Kastner told police.

However, Officer Steve Douglas testified to a different version of events that Kastner told about 6:30 a.m. while receiving treatment at St. Francis Hospital for a gunshot wound to the left hand.

Kastner told Douglas he woke up to the sound of car doors slamming and saw a man standing at the foot of the bed holding a gun that had been on the dining room table, Douglas testified. Kastner said the man then shot his wife, who then sat up before the man shot her again, the officer said.

Douglas testified that Kastner was calm while recounting the story, which included a description of a struggle with the intruder that continued into another room.

Tulsa Police Officer Troy Dewitt, who investigated the crime scene, testified that he didn't believe a struggle had taken place.

"You would expect things to be knocked over and blood-splattered," he said.

Items such as shoes that had been placed on luggage and a flashlight that was standing erect on the dining room table were untouched, Dewitt said. He said Lori Kastner was lying on her left side with her arm under her pillow, as if she were asleep.

Kastner said his two children had taken Benadryl and that his wife had taken a sleeping pill the night before to help them sleep, according to Douglas. He told the officer that his family was excited about a trip to Israel they were to have started later that day and took the sleeping aids to relax.

Kastner told Douglas that he had not taken any medication, the officer testified.

The couple's 19-year-old daughter, Sally Kastner, was at another family member's home that night.

The Kastners' 15-year-old son, Fraser Kastner, testified that he did not hear a gunshot. His father woke him and asked him to go into his sisters' room because an intruder might be in the house, he said.

Fraser Kastner said that his father told him about one or two days after the shooting that he did not commit the crime and that the trip to Israel had been canceled.

"He said he found out a few months before we weren't going to Israel but were going somewhere else," Fraser Kastner said.

The Israel trip was for the family to start a new life, with Lori Kastner taking a job that John Kastner had lined up for her with the "713 Corp.," according to testimony. Lori Kastner had quit her job as an attorney with the Oklahoma Supreme Court to take the position.

John Kastner did not obtain a passport or help pack for the trip, according to testimony.

A State Department official testified that Kastner's passport had expired in 1995 and that no application was made to renew it, although he went with his wife and three children to obtain passports for them. He signed consent forms for his minor children to travel, according to Richard Higbie, an agent with the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

Fraser Kastner testified that his mother was busy packing and getting everyone ready for the move the day before she was shot. He said his father was in charge of most of the planning for the trip.

"It was mainly him because he knew most about it," the son said.

He testified that his father said Lori Kastner would be a co-owner of the 713 Corp., which was named after his father's unit in the Israel Defense Forces.

Police reports state that Kastner has no known connection to the Israeli military and that no such corporation exists.

Sally Kastner testified that the Kastners were expecting to have an income of between $5 million and $6 million per year.

John Kastner "said he saved someone very important and we were pretty much going to have a good life with shopping and having a private plane that was the company's and having bodyguards," she testified.

She said she started living with the Kastners during her junior year of high school and was adopted during her senior year, changing her first and last names. She said she came from a dysfunctional home and that Kastner had been her track coach and teacher at Webster High School.

About a week before the shooting, Sally Kastner said, her adoptive father showed her a .22-caliber gun he had bought, saying they would need it for protection in Israel. Within that week, she saw Kastner walk outside about 3 a.m. and fire the gun, she testified.

"I heard a gunshot, and he came back in and I asked what that was," she said. "He said it was a noise. But I said: 'You have a gun in your hand. Is everything OK?' He said he was just test-firing it."

Sally Kastner said she originally had thought he was sleepwalking, which she said he did almost every night.

Defense attorneys quizzed her about about an ex-boyfriend's threats to her after their breakup and about her biological mother's unhappiness about her adoption.

Jim Harper, who served as co-athletic director with John Kastner at Webster, said Kastner told him he was inheriting about $100 million from his father's estate. He said Kastner told him his father had died about 20 years ago and had wisely invested $20 million at that time.

Kastner's father is living in Owasso.

Harper and Ray Bell, a volunteer coach at Webster last year and a current football coach and teacher, testified about John Kastner's promises to give large amounts of money to the Webster football program.

Webster Principal Phil Garland testified that Kastner was upset with being disciplined for an impromptu speech he made at a year-end sports banquet this spring. Garland said Kastner's behavior for about seven months leading up to the shooting was more reactive and sensitive to criticism than previously.

"His performance was not standard behavior or productive," Garland said.

Garland also said Kastner could not produce any documentation or assurances of the promised donations.

The Webster staff members said Kastner spoke lovingly about his wife and never complained about his marriage.

He spoke of her "like she was an adviser he respected," Garland said. "He admired her and her intelligence."

Ginnie Graham 581-8376
ginnie.graham@tulsaworld.com By GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Kevin, (8/26/2008 6:02:52 AM) Looks like he has lost a few pounds on jail food.....
	Report Comment Ignatz, Broken Bow (8/26/2008 7:21:11 AM) Weight loss might also be related to worry about what the future holds...
	Report Comment Fruits&Nuts, (8/26/2008 10:01:57 AM) He doesn't have to worry any more about his future. It is set. Free housing, free food, free legal advice. Such memories.
	Report Comment 48miniRacer, (8/26/2008 11:29:28 AM) Such a tragic story. It just doesn't make sense. I've met many people who had problems with lying including myself. I think some people just wish their imaginations of bravery, wealth, and love just become so much of their life that they truly believe it's true. Then they are faced with the truth and they collapse into a world of consequences. To bad his decision to end his great lie was to kill his wife and end up in prison. I don't feel bad for him. He wrote his own book. Maybe you could say he got what he wanted, Attention.
	Report Comment Shooter, Tulsa (8/26/2008 11:52:26 AM) This is a tragic story. His children lost their mother and will never see their father again except from behind bars. They will be scarred from this for the rest of their life. I hope they have some good family member that will take them in and help them through this. He must of been a really good liar to convince his wife to quit her job as supreme court lawyer to go to work for a company that doesnt even exist. What an evil person I hope he gets what he deserves.
	Report Comment teacherteacher, LaLa Land (8/26/2008 1:24:02 PM) We all know and understand he's definitely deranged, but I don't understand why his wife fell for this crazy story about this Israeli 713 crap. No, I'm not putting blame on her at for her own murder; just her lack of common sense and judgement. I mean that story is waaayyyy out there.
	Report Comment thinker, (8/28/2008 8:29:06 PM) maybe she just believed in someone she loved and had trusted for yearsme on...we don't know what went on behind closed doors...and he must have been somewhat convincing considering many people fell for his stories....
	Report Comment thinker, (8/28/2008 8:29:59 PM) I tried to take out some words and some remained....me on..doesn't belong
	Report Comment Thats right ok maybe not, Depew (9/27/2008 7:35:40 PM) Hey its hair cut time it looks like,he should make lots of really good pals in there.

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