Death penalty for man who killed Olathe woman and her child affirmed by KS Supreme Court
A Kansas man will remain on death row for the killings of an Olathe woman and her 18-month-old daughter, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Kyle T. Flack, 38, was convicted in a 2013 quadruple murder. In 2016, a Franklin County jury recommended Flack be sentenced to death for two of the homicides and District Judge Eric Godderz followed that recommendation. He was also sentenced to life and 22 years for the other two slayings.
Flack filed an appeal and oral arguments were held before the Kansas Supreme Court on Jan. 31, 2022.
Clayton Perkins, an attorney with the Capital Appellate Defender Office, told the high court that Flack’s trial attorneys were not given sufficient time to build a defense. He noted that there were over 20,000 pages of documents to read and that the public defenders had a heavy caseload.
When they asked for a third continuance because they had not finished reviewing discovery documents or completed their investigation, it was denied. Perkins said that decision was “unreasonable” and that “Mr. Flack’s constitutional rights to present a defense were violated.”
He also said investigators violated Flack’s Miranda rights when he repeatedly told police to take him to jail and they continued to question him.
Perkins said Flack was “clearly invoking his right to end interrogation which a reasonable police officer under the circumstances would have understood.”
Kris Ailslieger, deputy solicitor general with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, said the judge granted two continuances.
“Clearly there was no rush to trial here,” he said. “The defense had three years from the time Mr. Flack was charged and two years from the time of his arraignment to get ready for trial.”
“They had plenty of time. And I think the district court was right. At some point, you know, you can’t just keep kicking the can down the road.”
On the interrogation, Ailslieger said, “The standard is he has to unambiguously, unequivocally, invoke his rights. The best way to do that is to say, you know, ‘I’m done talking,’ ‘I want to end the interview,’ ‘I don’t want to talk anymore,’ something along those lines. He didn’t say that.”
The bodies of Steven White, 31, Andrew Stout, 30, and his girlfriend Kaylie Bailey, 21, were found inside a house near Ottawa. Her daughter Lana was found in a suitcase floating in a creek in rural Osage County near the Franklin County line.
Flack did not testify during the trial and a motive for the killings was not known, The Star previously reported.
The Kansas Supreme Court released its 87-page opinion Friday morning affirming Flack’s sentence.
Nine people remain on Kansas’ death row, according to the Department of Corrections. The state has not carried out an execution since 1965.
