Carson trial begins in Clarke County

Tuesday, May 2, was the first day for statements and witness testimony at Clarke County Courthouse in the trial of Richard Ryan Lamb Carson, 38, of Osceola. Carson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Jan. 26, 2015 and pleaded not guilty. District Court Judge John D. Lloyd is presiding.

Whether Carson killed Noe Flores, 27, and Erick Reyna, 22, is not up for debate. The defense maintains shots were fired at Carson as he approached a car, causing him to react in self-defense. The prosecution tells a different story.

“On Jan. 23 of 2015, two men were executed by the defendant,” said Assistant Attorney General Susan Krisko in the prosecution's opening statements. “We’re never, ever going to know exactly why he decided to end those two mens’ lives.”

From the stand, Tracy Kay Johnson, 45, of Osceola said she and her then-boyfriend Carson visited his friends, Christopher Martin Elben, 44, and Lynn Ranean Sutton, 49, at their residence at 624 S. Filmore St., on the night of Jan. 23, 2015. Flores and Reyna arrived a few minutes later to pick up their friend Tori Byers, who was also living there. The men were waiting outside while she finished getting ready.

According to Johnson, Carson went outside alone unexpectedly, and when he came back, he said he’d beaten someone up. Carson and Elben left for several hours, then called Sutton needing a ride home from a farm out near Jamison. Johnson said she and Sutton drove out to Jamison in Carson’s truck to get them and brought them back to Carson’s mother’s house, where Carson and Elben scrubbed themselves with bleach, showered and disposed of the clothes they had been wearing, down to their boots.

On the stand Tuesday, Johnson said she saw Carson cleaning his gun with bleach and heard him talking to Elbin about shooting someone in the head. She also said Carson asked her about a possible storm drain at her apartment building, and that after hearing its location, he left with his gun. After alerting the authorities to this, they were able to retrieve the gun used in the shootings from the drain.

On cross examination, defense attorney Jill Ann Eimermann stressed the inconsistencies in Johnson’s testimony at the trial versus a statement she’d given under oath earlier to police as part of a plea deal. In particular, Eimermann didn’t believe comments on Carson using bleach to clean his gun.

Adriana Reyna, 27, of Osceola took the stand next. Erick Reyna was her younger brother and a long-time member of the community. At the time of his death, he worked at Valley Under the Moon, where he worked to support his three-year-old son.

Noe, married to Adriana's cousin, Alicia Flores, had three children — a twin boy and girl and a three-year-old daughter.

Adriana said the family had not seen her brother in days when they heard the police were looking for him. She went to the station to get more information and found out someone had filed a missing person’s report on him.

After providing the police with her brother’s phone number, the authorities were able to perform an emergency locate — a location check through a cell phone provider which determines the latitude and longitude where a phone is located. Based on this information, authorities were able to find the bodies of Flores and Reyna in a car parked at an abandoned farm in Jamison.

Defense attorney Michael Adams cross-examined Reyna, asking about the reputations of Reyna and Flores.

“Would you describe… Noe as ‘a tough guy’?” he asked.

“Probably,” said Reyna. “He can defend himself.”

On re-examination by the prosecution, Reyna clarified she had never heard of Noe threatening someone with a gun or shooting at them.

When Byers took the stand, she told the court local rumors and threats of violence have forced her to live elsewhere since the shootings. Her version of events differed from Johnson’s. In particular, Byers said Carson was upset when he came back inside. She described him as saying, “I just beat the **** out of that Mexican.”

Byers claims Johnson and Sutton physically restrained her from leaving as Carson and Elbin left the house that night to check on her friends, and said Carson told her they’d gone to the hospital. The next day, according to her testimony, Byers called a friend and began looking for Noe and Reyna because she was worried. When she couldn’t find them, she went to police. Byers said Carson had commented in the past on hurting her friends.

“He said that he knew they had drugs and that he was going to kill them and take the drugs,” she said.

On cross examination, Byers told Adams she did inform officers of the comment when she turned in the missing person’s report. That was refuted in later testimony by Osceola Police Sgt. Curtus Jacobson.

Adams also asked Byers about statements she made in regards to Noe owning a gun and his ability to physically defend himself. On re-examination by the prosecution, Byers said she had never seen Noe with a gun, and also, that she hadn’t seen Carson carrying multiple guns back into the house from his altercation with Noe and Reyna.

Two Jamison-area residents then took the stand to talk about Carson and Elben’s surprise visit to their farm — on foot — the night of Jan. 23 to use the phone and wait for a ride. The farm is located about half a mile from where the bodies of Noe and Reyna were found.

Jacobson, Osceola Police Officer Robbie Hurley, criminologist Mike Halverson, Osceola Police Officer Cody Smith and Special Agent Michael Rowe testified later in the day in regards to the investigation and methods used to locate the men’s bodies, as well as details on evidence collection and the property and car where their bodies were found. More experts were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, with closing arguments expected by Thursday afternoon.

Carson pleaded not-guilty and claims he acted in self-defense. So far, according to the prosecution, the only gun, spent shells or live ammunition presented in evidence are his own. He also went outside to see the men without provocation. This could be a problem for the defense.

“If you intend to use defensive justification, you cannot be the aggressor. If he caused the assault to occur, he is out of luck,” said Robert Rigg, professor of law and director of the criminal defense program at Drake University.

That said, as Adams stated during his opening remarks, it is up to the prosecution to answer all the important questions in the case and prove Carson’s guilt beyond any shadow of doubt.

If found guilty, Carson will receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.