Dana Chandler: Kansas woman, 62, accused of killing ex-husband and his GF 20 years ago, released on bond
TOPEKA, KANSAS: A Kansas woman, who is accused of killing her ex-husband and his girlfriend 20 years ago, has been released on bond last month after a judge reduced the amount to $350,000 from $1 million. Dana Chandler, 62, was charged with two counts of murder after she fatally shot Mike Sisco, 47, and Karen Harkness, 53, at their home in Topeka, in July 2002. She is now facing a potential third trial in the case.
The Shawnee County District Court has, however, released Chandler under a few conditions which include being monitored by a GPS device, submitting to random drug and alcohol testing, and cannot possess any weapons. Besides she is also not allowed to travel out of the state without taking the permission of the court. She will be staying with her nephew.
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Chandler was set to face a verdict on September 2. Her second trial got delayed after a lengthy back-and-forth between prosecutors and the suspect's attorneys. Although she was initially found guilty and sentenced to life in 2012, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 2018 due to prosecutorial misconduct. The 62-year-old however maintained her innocence by claiming that she was hiking in Colorado when the killings took place. Prosecutors argued that she traveled to the state to kill them out of jealousy.
Prosecutor Charles Kitt said that while there is a lack of scientific evidence in the two-decade-old case, he believes that the jurors should be convinced that she killed the couple based on circumstantial evidence and her obsession with Sisco after their divorce. Hailey Sisco, Chandler's daughter, cried as she testified that she believes her mother killed her father.
Her defense team argued that as law enforcement held Chandler with the crimes, they failed and missed their chances to investigate other suspects. Investigators said nothing was stolen from the victim's home, the gun used in the killing was never recovered, no fingerprints were found on empty shell casings at the scene; and hair and fiber samples taken from Chandler did not match those at the victims' home. According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, her car also did not have any signs of a crime.
Chandler and her attorneys filed numerous motions seeking to exclude evidence, a change of venue, and dismissal of the case which resulted in delaying her second trial, which began on August 5. According to WIBW, the defense's request to move the trial to Johnson County was also tentatively approved by Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios, citing significant media interest in the case.