KBI agent recounts Kent interview
Kent retraced his route for officers
By Bobbi Mlynar
Friday, June 27, 2008
Kansas Bureau of Investigation Senior Special Agent Bill Halvorsen testified that Lyon County Sheriff Gary Eichorn had asked for his assistance in interviewing Kent about Arndt’s death. That, Halvorsen said, was his “first and only” official involvement in the case.
Halvorsen and Deputy Pat Stevenson had gone to Kent Fence Co. in Topeka on Dec. 19 to talk Kent about information they had about his staying at the cabin west of Americus. They saw a red-orange Ford pickup parked in the fence company lot.
“The significance of that was that it was consistent with the witness’s statement, in fact several witness statements, that a red pickup might be involved,” Halvorsen said.
He described Kent as “very cooperative in his attitude,” and said that the three of them went to a private back office to talk because of employees and a customer in the front office.
Halvorsen told Kent why they were there, which caused Kent to become “very emotional, expressed sorrow and regret” and asked to speak to the young man’s father, Bob Arndt.
Kent and Arndt talked on the telephone for several minutes and met face-to-face later that day when the agent and deputy brought Kent back to Lyon County. Kent had requested the meeting with Arndt.
“I remember Mr. Kent telling Mr. Arndt that he was sorry, that he would trade places with him if he could, and that the two embraced,” Halvorsen said of the meeting, held on Road 240, in front of the long driveway to the cabin.
The agent testified that Kent took them to Road D, north of Road 310, and identified it as the road he was on and marked the approximate spot he had been standing when he fired his rifle.
Kent also took the officers to the cabin; he showed them the rifle, which had been hidden under a mattress, and a shell casing that he identified as the one that came from his gun that day.
Halvorsen said that he then asked Kent if he would be willing to submit to a videotaped interview by law enforcement.
That was for Kent’s benefit as well as law enforcement’s, Halvorsen said, to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. Kent agreed to the interview, led by Stevenson with assistance from Halvorsen, Mishler, and Dave Adams, Wildlife and Parks officer.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Don Hoffman of Topeka questioned Halvorsen about the narrative report Stevenson wrote about the meeting.
Hoffman said that Stevenson reported that “Bill told Kent that he had shot an 18-year-old boy.”
“I did not tell him (Kent) that he was the guy that shot the young man,” Halvorsen said. “...He became very emotional, but again, it was after Mr. Kent himself concluded that he had shot the young man.”
After persistent questions comparing Stevenson’s report to Halvorsen’s testimony, Halvorsen said, “It’s Deputy Stevenson’s report, and obviously he recalls it that way. ... I don’t recall it the same way.”
Testimony Friday morning had begun by tracing Kent’s path in Emporia on Dec. 15, after the shooting incident.
Mel Reed, owner of Mel’s Tires, testified that Kent purchased a used tire at the store that morning.
Sgt. Mark Summey of the Emporia Police Department then took the stand to testify about a video recording he had access to as a part-time security employee at Bluestem Farm and Ranch Supply.
Bluestem has a security system that includes video cameras at numerous locations around the store, Summey said. The cameras record onto the hard drive of the store’s computer and are kept an average of 20 days, depending upon the location of the camera.
Receipts at the store carry times and dates of checkouts from registers, he said, and a receipt to the Kent Fence Company was located from the morning of Dec. 15, 2007.
Summey said that, at the request of Lyon County Sheriff’s deputy Det. Travis Mishler, he had reviewed the stored videos during the time on the receipt — 10:50 a.m., Dec. 15, 2007 — and had produced the video for Travis Mishler.
Still photographs taken from the video and showing Kent were entered into evidence.