<&007>Police interviews with Kristi Koslow<&LIST>/L/LEditor's Note: The following is a transcript of an interview with Kristi Koslow by Detective D.F. LaRue of the Fort Worth Police Department. We have performed only minor editing of this transcript. Where you see ellipsis (...) in the text, this does not indicate a deletion by editors. This is punctuation as contained in the original transcript. Likewise, blanks (------------------------) are contained in the transcript and do not indicate deletions by editors./L/LThe transcript of a second interview, this one with Detective C.D. Brannan, follows the first transcript./L/LInterview with Kristi Koslow/L/LMarch 25, 1992/L/LLaRue: I'm Detective D.F. LaRue of the Fort Worth Homicide Section. I'm at the Lieutenant Foley's office of the Homicide Once in an interview with. Would you state your full name?/L/LKoslow: Kristi Koslow./L/LLaRue: And how old are you, Kristi?/L/LKoslow: Seventeen./L/LLaRue: Kristi, before we go any farther, you were arrested by myself, uh, just a short time ago, less than thirty minutes, is that right? You're gonna have to say yes --/L/LKoslow: Oh yes --/L/LLaRue: cause this tape, this tape doesn't know what the shake of a head is. Okay? And at that time, you said you'd like to talk to me and I asked you if you wanted to talk to a lawyer or go see a judge and you said no. That I would take, I would take you before a judge and have you warned of your rights, and you've had your rights read to you out there at the time you were arrested, and, and let me formally read them to you again, okay?/L/L Koslow: Um huh./L/L LaRue: That they're on top of my head here, that you have the right to remain silent, not make any statement at all, any statement that you make may be used against you at your trial, any statement you make may be used as evidence against you in court, you have the right to have a lawyer present to advise you prior to and during any questioning, if you're unable to employ a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer appointed to you, to advise you prior to and during any questioning, and you have the righ t to terminate this interview with me at any time. Now, you know, those rights I have explained to you, to my understanding that you at this time, you are voluntarily, willingly, wishing to talk to me about this incident in which you were involved./L/LKoslow: Yes sir./L/LLaRue: Okay, uh, I don't know exactly where the mike is on this particular recorder, just talk up and talk clear./L/LKoslow: Okay./L/LLaRue: I guess let's just let you start where ever you want to start and how long ago you wanna, want to go back. Uh, I'm talking about the relationship with your boyfriend and your father and your step-mother. So tell me where, where you wanna start at./L/LKoslow: I don't know./L/LLaRue: Well, you came up with a decision or an idea, at some time ago, that's an idea?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: Some time ago. Why don't you scoot up here real close by me. You don't want any coffee --/L/LKoslow: No sir --/L/LLaRue: Or, you need to go to the restroom or anything like that? You came up with an idea a while back of, of robbing your father and your step-mother, having some boys do a party at their residence of where you could get some money?/L/LKoslow: No, it was just a joke. We weren't gonna take anything, just kind, you know, it was a joke, just . . ./L/LLaRue: Who, who all did you talk to about doing this, and how long?/L/LKoslow: Brian./L/LLaRue: Who?/L/LKoslow: Just to Brian. I mean we had joked around about it before and all my friends were, I mean -------------- joked around, just. Cause he's always been mean to me and I didn't feel like he loved me and I thought maybe it would get his attention./L/LLaRue: You were doing this, you just wanted some attention?/L/LKoslow: Not really, not to hurt anybody, not to, not to do anything wrong. Just, it was a joke. I didn't think people would take me seriously./L/LLaRue: How long ago did you and your boyfriend Brian start talking about it and, and for the purpose of this tape recorder that's going, who is Brian. How do you spell the name and how are you related to him?/L/LKoslow: He is Brian Salter and he's my boyfriend./L/LLaRue: How long has he been your boyfriend?/L/LKoslow: About five or six months, I've known him for a long time, though .../L/LLaRue: You've gone exclusively with Brian through that time?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: How long ago did ya'll start talking about robbing your, your father and step-mother?/L/LKoslow: Oh we just joked around about, you know, a year ago. We just joked around about it. Cause I'd always be upset because my dad, my dad would upset me or something, ---------------------------------------------- and I would be upset at him, it was just a joke. I mean, that's all it was./L/LLaRue: How old are you now Kristi?/L/LKoslow: Seventeen./L/LLaRue: And when will you be eighteen?/L/LKoslow: February 15th./L/LLaRue: So you just turned seventeen not too long ago?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh./L/LLaRue: So in your estimate, how long a time ago was it that, that you and, and Brian seriously started talking about this, as being something that would possibly or probably take place?/L/LKoslow: A month or two ago?/L/LLaRue: A month or two?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh, but I, I seriously did not think, in all honestly, think that it would actually happen./L/LLaRue: Well, when was it that it decided that a couple weeks ago that it was gonna to happen?/L/LKoslow: They didn't tell me. I mean, I, I don't think I was informed of what was going on./L/LLaRue: Well, during the time we rode down here in the car, uh, you had meetings with Brian and, and what uh, did you ever meet with this other friend of his named Dillinger [Editor's Note: Jeffrey Dillingham]?/L/LKoslow: No, I, I only met him once./L/LLaRue: Just once, how long ago was that?/L/LKoslow: Couple months./L/LLaRue: Did you ever talk about this robbery with uh, uh, with his friend?/L/LKoslow: I didn't, no./L/LLaRue: He talked about it with his friend several times and he told you about it?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh, I mean they told me about it, and I told them stuff, but I didn't, I mean I never talked to, to his friend, face to face or anything. I never specifically talked to him myself./L/LLaRue: When did you supply the code for the alarm to Brian?/L/LKoslow: Long time ago I said it. I mean I'll forget it, then I'll remember it./L/LLaRue: What's the last time that you reconfirmed the code to him?/L/LKoslow: About two or three weeks ago./L/LLaRue: Right before the murder?/L/LKoslow: I guess no, maybe it was two or three weeks before it happened. Times going so fast and stuff, I don't, he, he remembers things, but he's real smart, he understands, he helps me with things./L/LLaRue: Who gave him a plan, a floor plan of the house? Did you draw out a floor plan showing him where the rooms were?/L/LKoslow: Yeah, I just drew, drew out and showed him where stuff was. Just you know where, if they were home, where they'd be in relation to, to the bottom of the house and stuff like that./L/LLaRue: So, what, the conversation that you had with Brian was about robbing the house while your parents, while your, your father and step-mother were in the house and what to do when they got in./L/LKoslow: No, not, not if, not if they were in the house. I said if they were, you know to, know where, you know, where they were. I didn't want them to, I don't think he wanted to hurt them either. I don't think that was their intent, at least to my knowledge was not --/L/LLaRue: Okay . . ./L/LKoslow: and Brian doesn't usually lie to me./L/LLaRue: Where, uh, where did the boys get the guns that were used?/L/LKoslow: I'm not positive. I think they might have been Brian's dad's, I'm not sure./L/LLaRue: Well, you knew they's gonna, they were going to have to have guns, to, to do the robbery?/L/LKoslow: I don't know about stuff like that, they really didn't tell me everything that's going on. I didn't know if they would or not./L/LLaRue: Well, my, my point Kristi is, is how do, how do you expect that these boys are going to rob your father and, and step-mother without some type of weapons?/L/LKoslow: Well, I didn't think they were going to be home. I guess I just didn't think about something like that. I mean I wasn't being completely serious about it. I'm repeating all that stuff./L/LLaRue: Did you ever promise Brian or his friend, the one that was with him that night for the robbery, that there'd be some money in there for them to get? That tell him that there./L/LKoslow: There was stuff in there, yeah./L/LLaRue: Like cash?/L/LKoslow: I assumed there would be, I mean./L/LLaRue: You tell him where the cash might be?/L/LKoslow: My dad used to keep stuff in his drawers in the closet./L/LLaRue: What all did he keep in there?/L/LKoslow: Just money and stuff, he'd put on the top of it, but, um, stuff like that. I don't, I mean, I just, you know, I knew kind of where stuff was. I found out where the stereo was, stupid stuff./L/LLaRue: Well, what kind of stuff that are we would be talking about that, that they were supposed to rob?/L/LKoslow: I, I mean nothing specifically, just. I mean, I really didn't I didn't talk about that though, and I just said the stereo was or where money was, or something, I never specific, specifically said here's where something is, get this./L/LLaRue: So you drew out a map for Brian to know where the rooms were and, and things were in the house. Is that right?/L/LKoslow: Yeah, one night we were eating dinner, I just drew it out. I mean./L/LLaRue: You drew out their bedroom then?/L/LKoslow: I just drew out the whole house./L/LLaRue: All right./L/LKoslow: Not, I mean, I wasn't I, I just drew it out. I mean I, I don't know, I always draw stuff out./L/LLaRue: How often do you see Brian?/L/LKoslow: Every day./L/LLaRue: Do ya'll sleep together every night?/L/LKoslow: No, just, he spends the night sometimes./L/LLaRue: How often?/L/LKoslow: Just in the last week or so./L/LLaRue: He was staying at his parents' house prior to that?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh./L/LLaRue: Kristi, how long back have you seen him every day?/L/LKoslow: Since October./L/LLaRue: So you've seen him every day in/L/LKoslow: Five months, six months./L/LLaRue: For five months you've seen him every day and, and ya'll go out on dates nearly every night? You're with each other every night?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: And what you're, what you're telling me is that you gave him the code and this map and how long ago did you give him the map?/L/LKoslow: About two months ago. Well, no, he, he'd go have breakfast like 1:00 in the morning with Jeff a lot. He'd do stuff with, with Jeff, when he, I think he worked late, he worked for Blockbuster or something like that, and, and he would, he'd go and do stuff with him, and he'd call me and I'd be half asleep, and tell me when he got home./L/LLaRue: He didn't tell you the night that he was going to rob the place?/L/LKoslow: He said they were thinking about it. He was going to go meet with Jeff, and I just thought, I mean they said that every night, I just, I mean he said it all the time, oh we're going to do it tonight./L/LLaRue: Did Jeff ever come over to your house?/L/LKoslow: Uh uh./L/LLaRue: Didn't Jeff and, and Brian meet at, at your house and, and went up and robbed your father and step-mother and then came back to your house./L/LKoslow: If they did, I was asleep, they weren't in my house. They might have been in front of my house./L/LLaRue: When did you find out that uh, they had gone in and that your step-mother was murdered?/L/LKoslow: Brian called me at about 6:00 and said we did it./L/LLaRue: 6:00 when?/L/LKoslow: That morning. And he said well went in there and he was, he was really nervous, I couldn't understand him cause I was asleep and when I'm asleep nothing, nothing makes sense to me if, if you wake me up. And then my mom woke up and I wanted to talk to her and somebody called and told me what had happened and somebody, one of her friends called and said they had heard on the radio what had happened. And so he came over and he was trying to explain what happened and he said that he opened a door, I don 't know what door, uh, and Jeff was already upstairs by the time he found the alarm code. And,/L/LLaRue: Just, just ignore that phone./L/LKoslow: Okay. I know I wasn't going to get it./L/LLaRue: Even though it's hard too but/L/LKoslow: And that, what was I saying, oh go on, oh, and he, he said that Jeff was already up there and by the time he go up there, whatever happened, happened. I mean, he didn't really tell me cause that stuff makes me sick, it really does. Stuff like that makes me sick. And he said Jeff went in and started doing the stuff and he told me, and he could have been lying, but he said he did not do anything, that Jeff just went nuts. And that's, that was what he told me, I don't know if that's true or not, cause that's just him telling me something. He could have said that just so it wouldn't upset me and he said they just got out of there because they got scared. They didn't take anything. He said it was not, it was not meant to happen. That is what, that is what he told me, and I think, I think he was telling the truth, but now I can't say if he was or not. I mean, I'm not him./L/LLaRue: And he told you all this when?/L/LKoslow: Next morning./L/LLaRue: At 6:00?/L/LKoslow: Well, he started telling me, he started telling me what was going on and then, and then my mom woke up so I went in with her and the phone rang and it was one of her friends and then he, and then I called him and told what happened. That really upset me. It was like, I, I didn't know what was going on, it was like somebody else had done it, because I didn't know if he's being, you know, if he was telling me the truth or not, it just, it didn't seem real, cause I didn't think he actually did it. And. /L/LLaRue: He, go ahead./L/LKoslow: And he, he came over and, and we were in the car going to the hospital, going to see my dad./L/LLaRue: About what time was this?/L/LKoslow: 7:30, 8:00, I don't know, but I mean, he was over at my house that night for a long time, right before and then left to go with Jeff, but uh./L/LLaRue: Now wait a minute, let's back up now./L/LKoslow: Oh, okay./L/LLaRue: He was at your house the night before the/L/LKoslow: Yeah, he was there that morning./L/LLaRue: This attack with Jeff and, and they left?/L/LKoslow: No, no, not with Jeff. He left to go with Jeff. No he left to go, he was at my house and he left to go to IHOP, or uh, pancake place, I guess that's what it's called, the Waffle House or something. And so, they used to go there all the time, and he left to go, to go with Jeff./L/LLaRue: About what time was that?/L/LKoslow: Oh, uh, honestly I do not know. It was, it was late, it was like 2 or so./L/LLaRue: Like 2 in the morning?/L/LKoslow: Or maybe/L/LLaRue: So we're talking/L/LKoslow: One or two, it was late./L/LLaRue: So we're, if it was, if it was two in the morning, then we're talking about, about an hour and a half or, or two hours or so before they actually went in in your father's house?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: Is that correct?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: And he didn't tell you that that's what he was, they were getting ready to go rob the house?/L/LKoslow: No, no, he said, they, see, he, he always said oh we're going to talk about it and maybe do it. And I always thought he was joking and I, I've never really thought that they'd even attempt, and next thing I know he called me and said, we did it and I was like what did you do? He said we went over to your dad's house and he started telling me what was going on and about that time, I, my mom was there, so I mean I really couldn't talk to him and ask what was going on./L/LLaRue: What did they tell you that uh, that next day as you're going to the hospital and you're saying like 7 in the morning was when you went to the hospital?/L/LKoslow: No it was like 7:30 or 8./L/LLaRue: Well what did he tell you that they got out of the, out of the robbery?/L/LKoslow: Nothing, he said they were scared and left after it happened./L/LLaRue: Do you know that that's a lie?/L/LKoslow: I don't know if it was or not, that's what they told me, I mean./L/LLaRue: You don't know where your father's watch is right now?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: You don't know where your father's billfold is?/L/LKoslow: No, they, they took stuff? I mean, I really did not know that. They told me,, he said we got scared and left, that's all he said to me./L/LLaRue: Why wouldn't he be honest with you, if ya'll were this strongly uh, together all the time, ya'll were together every day for five months and he's uh, confided in you as soon as, once this crime is, is committed./L/LKoslow: I don't know, I mean he didn't have any money, he didn't have anything, afterwards, I don't think, I don't think he took anything. I don't think he knows anything is gone./L/LLaRue: Well, I, I can assure you they did take some things./L/LKoslow: Well, well, he didn't tell me./L/LLaRue: What other detail did they tell you that happened inside?/L/LKoslow: Can I have a kleenex, I'm sorry . . ./L/LLaRue: Sure . . ./L/LKoslow: uh, he just told me that he went in and Jeff was already upstairs by the time that he had the alarm cut off to see, I guess to see if they were up there, that's what I'm assuming, I mean, that late at night I guess they would be in their room, I, I don't, I mean I don't know what their intent, their intent was. But uh, they went up there, or Jeff went up there and I think Brian went up after him, this is just what they told me, and, and Jeff and my dad were fighting or something. They were like, I guess they, they were physically fighting. I mean, they wouldn't be arguing, they were physically fighting and Caren was saying something, and then he just said that they, Jeff hit her or something, and then he was still fighting with my dad and he didn't tell me what happened. He just said don't worry about it. I mean I had to hear what happened from the news and stuff and it was really kookie. Cause I didn't, I didn't know what happened, he didn't tell me. It was like, I felt like, okay everybody else, yo u know, I didn't, I didn't know what had happened. Everything was as big a shock to me as it was to everybody else./L/LLaRue: I want you to think real hard about this okay? I think you had told Detective [Curt] Brannan up here last week that you had jokingly kidded about coming into some money at some point./L/LKoslow: Oh, I, I always joke around like that, just because everybody says oh, your parents are so rich, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm so rich, I'm going to get it all. I mean, I say that all the time, I've always said that, cause everybody./L/LLaRue: Did you now?/L/LKoslow: Okay, I'm sorry./L/LLaRue: Did you tell Brian whether it was jokingly or not, that if your parents, your father was dead, that you would come into some money to where that could have been either taken seriously by Brian and passed on to Jeff or misunderstood by either one of them that they went in there with the intention of killing your father and your step-mother with the idea that you would end up with a lot of money and that they would get some of it? Now think about that./L/LKoslow: I have./L/LLaRue: If you need me to explain that to you./L/LKoslow: Oh, I understand what you're saying. I still, I, I mean, he might have heard me joking around. I mean, I'd, I'd say it. We, we'd go to parties and I'd get drunk. I don't know, I shouldn't, probably shouldn't be saying that to you, but, I mean, I'd joke around saying it when I was drunk and stuff, but I'm, I guess he heard me and thought I was being serious. but I/L/LLaRue: Kristi, have you ever been mad enough, now let's face it, every, all kids and parents will have their ups and downs./L/LKoslow: Yeah./L/LLaRue: And all of us say things that we meant to say at the time, but that we regret that we said later./L/LKoslow: Okay./L/LLaRue: Have you been mad enough at your father recently, and, and wanting attention, that you could have said, "I wish he was dead, I'm going to get a bunch of money if they're dead?" And the reason I'm asking you this, is it that because those type of statements are what we're getting from several other people at this point. And if that's what you said, then let's be frank about it, but, you know, whether you meant it or not, if you said it, we need to know that you did say it and somebody that I would, th ere would be a lot of money if somebody was to kill my father, I'm going to come into a lot of money and somebody would get some of it. Now if that's what, what you said, be honest with me/L/LKoslow: I will --/L/LLaRue: and say./L/LKoslow: I'm, I'm sure I've said, I mean, I know I've said in front of my mom, oh I wish Dad was just dead so I wouldn't have to worry about all this and we could just have his money and then that would be the end of it. I mean, I wish, I've said that before, but I didn't mean it seriously, I said it when I was mad because./L/LLaRue: Why do you think these two boys would have gone in there and killed somebody and tried to kill the second person in there, that being your father, unless they had the idea that they were going to be rewarded out of it, with a lot of money?/L/LKoslow: I don't know, I mean, I don't know, at least, alright, would you repeat, I'm sorry, I, the gum was ----------------------------------------/L/LLaRue: What I'm saying is a serious crime has taken place here./L/LKoslow: I understand that./L/LLaRue: And right now you're under arrest for it. Uh, so what in you mind would these two boys go in there and, and commit one murder and attempt to commit another murder unless they felt comfortable that they were going to get some kind of reward from you for doing so?/L/LKoslow: I don't know why they did it, I mean./L/LLaRue: Kristi, did you ask them or tell them you would get a lot of money and you would share it with them?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: Whether you were mad or whether you weren't mad at them, at your father./L/LKoslow: I didn't, no, I didn't say I was going to, if somebody killed them, I'd share money with them. I never said that, that, that's stupid for me to even say./L/LLaRue: Well, just a little earlier you said you joked around about it./L/LKoslow: I mean I said, I joked about saying stuff like that, but I've never, I've never joked around by saying, "Oh, if you killed them, then I'll give you money." I never said that. I, I've never said anything about somebody deliberately going in there and killing them. I mean, I've said, "If he was dead." You know what I'm saying, I said it like, like if he was dead, not if somebody went in there and killed him. But I, that never, that never was my intent./L/LLaRue: All right, let's, let's back up here and let me see if I'm understanding better./L/LKoslow: Okay, I'm sorry if I'm confusing you./L/LLaRue: If, if, what you're saying is that you might have said to Brian, "if my father was dead, I'd get some money and, and you might get some too." In other words, don't necessarily go in there and kill him, but if he was dead then./L/LKoslow: Yeah, if he was dead then, then I'd probably have money and I wouldn't have to, you know, my mom wouldn't have to get upset all the time because she wouldn't have to pay bills and all this other stuff. Just, I just said it out of anger because, because my mom's always goes through so much, so many horrible things and I feel like I have too because of my dad. I mean, but I never said that I wanted anybody to go in and kill him though./L/LLaRue: Do you love your father?/L/LKoslow: Yes, very much. That's why I never said I wished anybody'd go in there and kill him. I love him, I just wish he'd love me. And I wouldn't want anything to happen to him because I want, you know, I wouldn't want anything to happen to him because I want to know if he loves me. I mean, I just, I've been trying, the last couple of months, I've, I called to him, and you know, been calling him and trying to talk to him. And I've been trying to be a daughter, which is really hard./L/LLaRue: How did Brian tell you that they, they got in to the house? In other words, like got on the property? Do you, we have our ideas but how did he tell you?/L/LKoslow: He told me that they got on an air conditioner or something and jumped over a fence./L/LLaRue: Okay./L/LKoslow: I'm not sure where they, I think the air conditioner's on, on, on the side of the house by the next door neighbor./L/LLaRue: Did he tell you what they had with them in the way of guns?/L/LKoslow: I don't know anything about guns. They, they said they had, they had two guns, a .38 does that sound right and something else that has three numbers./L/LLaRue: Okay./L/LKoslow: Uh, 240 or 8, I don't know, something./L/LLaRue: Okay./L/LKoslow: Something like that. And./L/LLaRue: Go ahead./L/LKoslow: Oh, I'm sorry, you want me to tell you that they said they jumped over and they broke in a door, they didn't tell me which door./L/LLaRue: They say what they used to break in the door?/L/LKoslow: No, he didn't tell me that./L/LLaRue: This tape looks like it's about to, well, we'll give it another minute or two before I turn it over. Uh, okay, and then Brian disarmed the alarm and he told you that Jeff went upstairs?/L/LKoslow: Yes, he said Jeff went upstairs really fast that he/L/LLaRue: Did Brian tell you who did all the stabbing?/L/LKoslow: He said, well, I mean, he didn't tell me it was stabbing, he just said Jeff did it all. He said, "I was there." He said, "I," he said, you know "I was there and I regret it." He said, "But Jeff was up there doing something when I got up there." He said, "he just went crazy." That's, that's what he told me, but he could have just been saying that because I'm around him all the time./L/LLaRue: And they didn't tell you that they got anything?/L/LKoslow: No, Brian told me, he, he said, "We didn't get anything. Jeff said he wanted to leave and I said," I think, you know, they, they evidently agreed that they should leave, that is, that is what he told me./L/LLaRue: I'm going to turn this tape over./L/LKoslow: Okay./L/LLaRue: And the time on this side is 9:05 a.m. on the, the uh, 25th of March. I'm not sure I put a starting time on it or not, but it started at approximately 8:35. Okay, we're immediately continuing this tape on side two. Did, after Jeff somewhat lost it, according to Brian, if that what's Brian's telling you, is that correct?/L/LKoslow: Yes, I don't know what he means by that, I guess he just, I mean, I don't know what he means./L/LLaRue: Did they say what happened then?/L/LKoslow: No, he didn't tell me, I just I/L/LLaRue: Did he say how he left? How they left?/L/LKoslow: He said they, they went out of the gate./L/LLaRue: He said they had to do anything to get out the gate?/L/LKoslow: They had to, to pry it open or break it open or something./L/LLaRue: Did Brian tell you who, uh, who got the knife, uh, in your father's closet?/L/LKoslow: No, he didn't./L/LLaRue: Did Brian have any injuries on him?/L/LKoslow: No, he did not and none of his clothes had any, uh, I mean, it's so gross but they didn't have any blood or anything on them. Nothing that/L/LLaRue: What did he do with the clothes that he was wearing that morning?/L/LKoslow: They were in his room on the floor./L/LLaRue: In his room where?/L/LKoslow: On the floor with, in front of his bed/L/LLaRue: At his house?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh, yes./L/LLaRue: And what kind of clothes are those?/L/LKoslow: A pair of, of jeans and a blue "Gap" shirt, that's at my house right now./L/LLaRue: The blue "Gap" shirt's at your house?/L/LKoslow: Yes, it, I mean it was my shirt all along. I loaned it to him a long time ago, like seven or eight months ago when I first met him, he had, he had it and he, he borrowed, it's at my house because he has his clothes at my house./L/LLaRue: What kind of shoes was he wearing?/L/LKoslow: Uh, Cole Hahns, these little boots that just, they're not boots, they're like ankle high boots, they're Cole Hahns, you know what I'm talking about?/L/LLaRue: No, I'm not for sure./L/LKoslow: They just, they just go up to your ankle, they're they're real big, they're leather. They're like leather shoes with, with a boot up, up to your ankle./L/LLaRue: They're like leather soles or rubber soles?/L/LKoslow: I don't know./L/LLaRue: So the pair of blue jeans and that's at his house?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: And the uh, shirt, which is yours./L/LKoslow: It's a "Gap" shirt./L/LLaRue: A "Gap" shirt, and it's what color?/L/LKoslow: Navy blue./L/LLaRue: Navy blue. Uh, And whereabouts is it in your room?/L/LKoslow: I think it's hanging in my closet./L/LLaRue: What else, uh, does he wear, or was he wearing that morning?/L/LKoslow: That's all I can remember./L/LLaRue: And you looked at the "Gap" shirt and there wan't any blood on it?/L/LKoslow: No there was nothing on it. I looked, I mean, because I didn't believe him. I thought. if some, if that much happened, he may, he had to have done something. I, you know, I felt like he was lying to me and, it really made me mad what had happened. So I really/L/LLaRue: Have you/L/LKoslow: I'm sorry/L/LLaRue: Have you washed this "Gap" shirt since?/L/LKoslow: I, I don't know. I think, I think so. I think he washed it with his clothes and then brought it back to my house. Uh, in fact I know he did, because it was in his pile of laundry that we washed./L/LLaRue: Then he washed his blue jeans?/L/LKoslow: Yes. But, maybe or maybe not, I mean. I'm not positive, I think, I think he did because it was in a pile of clothes but that doesn't mean anything with Brian./L/LLaRue: When we get through talking here, would you have any problem of, you know what a Consent to Search is? It's basically a written form, uh, it's kind of like a fill in the blank that I would be showing you and filling in the blanks which apply to you and your home address and house./L/LKoslow: I understand what it is./L/LLaRue: In order to, did, did you say you understand what it is?/L/LKoslow: Uh huh, just an order to go in and get things out of my house right?/L/LLaRue: Right, it'd be evidence in this case, but we might want to go in and get that shirt. It, uh./L/LKoslow: But, I, I'm, uh, my mom has to do that cause it's her house, I mean I can't/L/LLaRue: Well you're an adult, you're seventeen years old./L/LKoslow: Oh, I understand that./L/LLaRue: And you can, you can, uh, give me permission to go in your room and, and your personal things but that's up to you. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to push the issue, that's that./L/LKoslow: Okay./L/LLaRue: But if us/L/LKoslow: Uh, I'd rather talk to my Mom first./L/LLaRue: Okay. Uhm, what else can you tell me about all of this?/L/LKoslow: Excuse me I, I'm not sure. I mean, I told you most of what I know. I mean, but, I know, this is what's strange to me, because of what you told me and what I thought was the truth, or what I thought, you know they told me was, they, they said they didn't get anything out of the house. That they went in and it was an accident and uh./L/LLaRue: I'm sorry. I'm just going to take this phone off the hook and they'll quit interrupting us./L/LKoslow: They, they went in and it was an accident and that they didn't mean for it to happen. That they didn't take anything, that they ran out because they were scared. Uhm, which I believed them you know. I guess that means I'm gullible, I'm, I'm naive, whatever the word is./L/LLaRue: Did you, did you tell them that there was about four thousand dollars in his billfold?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: About four thousand dollars in his dresser, I guess?/L/LKoslow: I said there was a lot of money. I didn't say how much because I don't know./L/LLaRue: Uh, there would, a lot of cash would be in the dresser?/L/LKoslow: No because usually he, he'd, he'd just well, well, he'd just have cash I'd say a couple hundred dollars, nothing big, not a thousand dollars./L/LLaRue: Well, then, are we talking about in the billfold or in the dresser?/L/LKoslow: In the dresser. He, he usually keeps a couple hundred dollars. I guess for an emergency or something./L/LLaRue: In the dresser area?/L/LKoslow: Yes, just on top of his dresser. But they did tell me that nothing was taken and I looked at Brian's clothes and there was no blood on him and I didn't/L/LLaRue: Did you look at/L/LKoslow: Understand what had happened. I mean it was confusing me./L/LLaRue: Did you recommend, Kristi, of, of anything else where there were valuables to get?/L/LKoslow: The stereo, the silvers in the, in one of the kitchen drawers by the, the uh, dining room. There are a whole bunch of little things that are expensive in the house./L/LLaRue: Kristi, you have to have in your mind here, telling them this, that your parents are going to be in the house, number one. Number two, what are they supposed to do when your, the, your parents wake up, uh, I'm saying your parents, I'm referring to your step-mother./L/LKoslow: Oh, I understand./L/LLaRue: And your father. Now, what are they supposed to do when they wake up? Are they supposed to tie them up, hold them at gun point, what, how are they supposed to do this?/L/LKoslow: They never, I never thought that, I never said anything to them or they never said anything to me about anything like that, cause we never talked it through. I mean, it wasn't like it was a real plan with me. I guess they did evidently but they never said, talked it through completely with me, they just/L/LLaRue: Okay./L/LKoslow: Just basically./L/LLaRue: Can you think of anything else?/L/LKoslow: I'm trying. Wait, I really, I can't think of anything else./L/LLaRue: Kristi, have I promised you anything for give, telling me all of this?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: Have I threatened you in any way?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: Have uh, I allowed you to have uh, access to the restroom facilities or water, coffee, or whatever you wanted?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: Uh, do you feel intimidated by me?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LLaRue: Do you feel intimidated by anything that's taken place this morning like did we, the other officers, has anybody scared you at all?/L/LKoslow: At first, yeah./L/LLaRue: Well, besides the arrest./L/LKoslow: Besides that, no./L/LLaRue: When I pulled up in front of your car? But other than that, you're here freely, voluntarily and knowingly telling me everything that you know about all of this. Is that correct?/L/LKoslow: Yes./L/LLaRue: Okay, it's now 9:15 on March 25th and I believe we're going to terminate this interview at this time./L/LInterview with Kristi Koslow/L/LMarch 25, 1992/L/LEditor's Note: The following is a transcript of an interview with Kristi Koslow by Detective D.F. LaRue of the Fort Worth Police Department. We have performed only minor editing of this transcript. Where you see a blank (------------------------), this does not indicate a deletion by editors. These blank spaces are contained in the original transcript./L/LThis is Detective C.D. Brannan, 1706 Fort Worth Police Homicide Unit M441./L/LThis is going to be an interview and statement made by Kristi Koslow./L/LDetective D.F. LaRue has previously interviewed Ms. Koslow who has made a statement which Detective LaRue has shown Detective Brannan. However, after reading the details of the statement and understanding details provided by other witnesses and Ap's involved in this case as well as being both familiar with the case in general, and background of the individuals involved, Detective Brannan is conducting this interview subsequent to Detective LaRue's. Presently it is 1123 hours and this is March 25, 1992./L/LThis interview is being conducted at 350 W. Belknap, Fort Worth, Texas, in the Police Administration Building on the third floor, the detectives' office, specifically in Lieutenant Foley's office./L/LBrannan: Kristi, auh we met several days ago is that right?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LDetective Brannan: And auh at that time we just seeking information from you concerning your relationship to your father and just in general gathering information, family background and such. Auh however, today you're aware that you've been arrested and you've been charged with auh Criminal Conspiracy to commit Capital Murder. Auh Detective LaRue has talked to you a little bit ago and auh this is my first opportunity to talk to you is that correct?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Okay, I'm gonna read to you the same rights that he read to you earlier and I'll ask you to acknowledge whether you understand each one as I read it to you./L/LNumber one, you have the right to remain silent, not make any statement at all and any statement you make may be used against you at your trial. Do you understand that?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Any statement you make may be used as evidence against you in court, do you understand that, huh?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: You have the right to have a lawyer present to advise you prior to and during any questioning, do you understand that?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: If you are unable to employ a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer appointed to advise you prior to and during any questioning, you understand that?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And last, you have the right to terminate the interview at any time, do you understand that?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Now you understand all of these rights and auh you told Detective LaRue same thing while ago when he talked to you, do you have any objections to talking to me now without the presence of an attorney?/L/LKoslow: No/L/LBrannan: Do you have any objections to telling me auh the truth about what happened and about how you were involved in it as much as it may hurt?/L/LKoslow: I have no objections/L/LBrannan: Okay, now you're very soft spoken, so I want you to lean over here with me and close to the tape recorder as you can. Now you told Detective LaRue some things which I think for the most part were true./L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: But you left out some things and some specific questions he asked you, you denied and those question were in regard to you requesting Brian and we're referring to your boyfriend, Brian Salter, to kill Caren and Jack Koslow. Now did you make such a request of Brian?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: You did?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Now will you tell me how you told him to do that?/L/LKoslow: I just told him it be easier if they were, if they were ------------------ It be easier for me and my mom both because they had both dealt with so much misery for the last nine or ten years and I guess I meant it when I said it, but I didn't think it would, it would actually happen, all like it's happened, I didn't think it, I didn't think it was, it -------------------- me./L/LBrannan: How much money did you offer Brian to offer to someone else to see that this was carried out?/L/LKoslow: I, I never specifically said I would give/L/LBrannan: Well, what did you specifically offer?/L/LKoslow: Just if, if I got any money, they could have it./L/LBrannan: That if you got any money who could have it?/L/LKoslow: He and Jeff./L/LBrannan: He and Jeff, Now Jeff is, do you know Jeff?/L/LKoslow: No, I've met him once./L/LBrannan: You've met him once? Do you know Jeff's last name/L/LKoslow: It starts with a D. I'm not, I can't remember what it is./L/LBrannan: Okay, it starts with a D, you're not sure what it is. If I said it would you recall it?/L/LKoslow: Oh yeah/L/LBrannan: Does Dillingham ring a bell?/L/LKoslow: I think that's it, is that it/L/LBrannan: Jeffrey Dillingham/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Okay, now is this the same Jeffrey that's a friend of your boyfriend's, Brian?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: They dealt you a lot of hurt in your life?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And you were resentful because Caren taking your daddy away?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: You felt alone?/L/LKoslow: Yes, cause he changed -------------- like he loved me, they continually saying horrible thing about me and make me feel horrible all my life./L/LBrannan: Well, I can understand the emotions involved, Kristi./L/LKoslow: I mean I been meaning for this to really happen. I didn't think it would really happen./L/LBrannan: Well you obviously meant for it to happen, you told him to carry this out./L/LKoslow: I mean, I didn't mean for it happen this way/L/LBrannan: Now how did you mean for it to happen?/L/LKoslow: Brian just told me, that he would hit them over the back of the head, or some way -------------------- back of the house, some, some ------------ that it wouldn't hurt them, nothing would be wrong, everything would be okay./L/LBrannan: Do you mean that they wouldn't suffer?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And it's bothering you right now?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Is that why you're telling me about this?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: I don't know, maybe you didn't mean for it to happen this way/L/LKoslow: I didn't/L/LBrannan: You say you didn't. Okay, but the fact of the matter is that you did solicit Brian to get some help to kill Jack and Caren Koslow, is that the truth?/L/LKoslow: Yes, it started out long time ago he and I talking about just stuff that they had in their house and stuff like that, then robbing the house and that was, we talked about that and then he and another one of his friends long time ago, Scott, this one Scott were like oh what would happen if they, you know if they weren't around. So they started, they started like pushing the idea on me, but this was a long time ago and then we started talking about it again. And I started pushing the idea on Brian. I guess we were both pushing it on each other./L/LBrannan: So what started it off, is just auh, a thought, like a little seed grew into an idea and then grew much bigger into auh a large tree?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And it got out of control?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And then you were at a point where you really wanted this carried out?/L/LKoslow: Yes, I just, I just kept hearing things all the time, my mom was upset, my dad would continually upset my mom and I just started thinking about everything that he's done to us, and I hated him for it./L/LBrannan: What did you think you would get if both Jack and Caren died at the same time?/L/LKoslow: I thought maybe I'd get money, but that really wasn't the big issue, I just, I thought I/L/LBrannan: How much money did you think you would get?/L/LKoslow: Brian kept telling me they had so much money, I'd probably get a lot./L/LBrannan: Like what? Did you discuss a figure?/L/LKoslow: A million or something, that's what he said to me/L/LBrannan: A million?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Did you tell Brian maybe five to ten million?/L/LKoslow: I just, I to him how much money I though she had/L/LBrannan: And what did you tell him?/L/LKoslow: Like ten or fifteen million/L/LBrannan: Ten or fifteen million/L/LKoslow: I didn't know/L/LBrannan: You thought you may get a portion of that if both of them died?/L/LKoslow: I thought I might get some of my Dad's/L/LBrannan: Some of your Dad's, and then with that what would you do with that money?/L/LKoslow: Told him that I'd, they could have it. Brian wanted a car and all this other stuff./L/LBrannan: Bryan wanted a car?/L/LKoslow: I just wanted to give my mother some money/L/LBrannan: Did Brian talk to you about wanting to start a business?/L/LKoslow: Yes, I told him he could have the money, I didn't care./L/LBrannan: If he would take care of Jack and Caren?/L/LKoslow: Yes, I just wanted to get money, I wanted my mom to have money. It wasn't about money, it was just about, about, about feeling horrible -------- about everything that I felt, everything they said to me and done to me, make me not like them, the money didn't matter, if the money mattered you know, I would have given it to my mom, if I would have had any money. She constantly had all these bills, she had cancer and all these bills ---------------- to pay with that and then my Dad had always does somet hing with her child support and she can't afford it. She has to hire a lawyer, constantly./L/LBrannan: So it's been a hard time./L/LKoslow: Yes, and it my, my Dad's been calling me and telling me how horrible I am, how horrible my mom is. Caren slapping me when I was little./L/LBrannan: Lot of things over the years have built up to this?/L/LKoslow: Yes, it just, it just gets to a point that you don't know what to do, you can't take it anymore./L/LBrannan: Did you know that night that this occurred that it was going to occur?/L/LKoslow: They had said that they were going to try to do it all these nights and it never happened and I./L/LBrannan: And they kept putting it off?/L/LKoslow: Yes, and I wasn't sure if it was or not. I/L/LBrannan: And how did you feel about that?/L/LKoslow: It scared me, it just, I didn't know, you know, what was going on. I said if you're going to do it, just do it, and I kept having more and more doubts, I just, I just/L/LBrannan: And after this occurred, did Brian call you at home?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And what did you tell him or what did you ask him?/L/LKoslow: I just said, I just said are they dead? And he said I think so and [transcript unreadable]./L/LBrannan: Did he tell you how it happened?/L/LKoslow: No./L/LBrannan: You didn't find that out until later on?/L/LKoslow: Un hum, he said it was kind of messy, that's all. He said then, he said it didn't happened like we planned it, like they had planned for it to happened and/L/LBrannan: Like they had planed for it to happen?/L/LKoslow: Well, like, like they had told me they had planned and told me./L/LBrannan: Okay, what else did he tell you?/L/LKoslow: Gosh, I can't remember the conversation, that he told me he was scared, he was really scared that they didn't, I said did you steal anything and he said no, he told me no they did not and aum, Detective LaRue told me no that they did steal something, but at the time Brian told me that they didn't./L/LBrannan: Okay, have ya'll talked about it since?/L/LKoslow: I'm sorry?/L/LBrannan: Have you and Brian talked about this since it happened, since that phone call?/L/LKoslow: Yes, he told me that they went in, he kinda told me what happened, he just told me that Jeff and my Dad were struggling and he said he stayed outside the door a lot of the time and then walked in after most of it had happened, this is what he's told me. I don't know if this was what really happened./L/LBrannan: Well you weren't there?/L/LKoslow: No, I wasn't, he just said they got scared and ran out and I didn't believe that it happened./L/LBrannan: Okay, Kristi, is there anything else you think that I should know about this, that I haven't asked you or that you want to tell me or you want to discuss about it?/L/LKoslow: No/L/LBrannan: Why did you lie to Detective LaRue when he asked you about/L/LKoslow: Because I was scared and all, Brian told me that he'd say that I didn't have anything to do with it, just told me not to worry, just not to say that I knew about it, then I got scared just do what he said/L/LBrannan: Okay, but then when I asked you about it you realized that we knew that you were lying?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: And felt badly about it?/L/LKoslow: Yes/L/LBrannan: Okay, well there is nothing else you want to say about it at this time, or nothing else you want to tell me then we'll end this right now, okay?/L/LKoslow: Okay/L/LBrannan: All right, then it is at this time 11:36 a.m. This will conclude the auh statement./L/L<&013>Jury hears Koslow talk about slaying<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Jurors in the Kristi Kowlow capital murder trialyesterday heard a tape recording of Koslow describing the first conversation with her boyfriend after he and another young man attacked her stepmother and father./l/l "I just said, `Are they dead? ' And he said, `I think so,' " Koslow is heard saying in a tape-recorded statement she made to police./l/l "He said it was kind of messy. . . . He said it didn't happen like we planned it, like they had planned for it to happen," the teen-ager says on the tape./l/l Prosecutors, presenting the heart of their case, played that recording and the recording of a second statement, both made to Fort Worth police detectives in the hours after her arrest March 25, 1992./l/l In the first statement, Koslow acknowledges that she helped plan a robbery at her father's house but she insists that she was joking and had no intention of either her father or stepmother being hurt or killed./l/l In the second statement, she says four times that she enlisted her boyfriend, Brian Salter, and his friend Jeffrey Dillingham to kill Jack and Caren Koslow in return for a portion of an inheritance she believed would amount to as much as $15 million./l/l Koslow, now 19, could face the death penalty if she is found guilty of capital murder in helping orchestrate the March 12, 1992, attack on the Koslow couple in the bedroom of their elegant Rivercrest home./l/l Caren Koslow, 40, was bludgeoned to death and her throat was cut in the attack. Her husband, businessman Jack Koslow, now 51, was also slashed and beaten, but he survived and has testified against his daughter./l/l The assault was so ferocious that the walls of the Koslows' bedroom were spattered with blood./l/l Among the photos admitted as evidence is one showing a sketch of Kristi Koslow that had hung in the bedroom. It is spattered with blood. The sketch of the 8-year-old had been made for a pastel portrait that Caren Koslow gave her husband shortly after their 1983 marriage./l/l A second photo shows Caren and Kristi Koslow in a snapshot taken when she was perhaps 10. It, too, is blood-spotted./l/l Almost two weeks after the attack, acting on a telephone tip from a young man whom Dillingham had told about the killing, police arrested Koslow, Dillingham and Salter./l/l Salter pleaded guilty to the slaying in exchange for a life sentence and is expected to testify against his former fiancee./l/l Dillingham was convicted in August of capital murder and sentenced to death./l/l After her arrest, Koslow was taken to the third floor of the police station for an initial interview by Fort Worth police Detective Danny LaRue./l/l In the 40-minute taped interview that was played for the jury, Koslow admitted only to kidding about a robbery./l/l "Oh, we joke around about, you know, a year ago. We just joked around about it," she said. " 'Cause I'd always be upset because my dad, my dad would upset me or something and I would be upset at him./l/l It was just a joke. " During the interview, however, Koslow acknowledged that she gave Salter the code to disarm the extensive security system at the house on Clarke Avenue./l/l She also said she drew a map of the house and told Salter the location of valuables./l/l "I wouldn't say she confessed; she implicated herself in some planning," LaRue told jurors./l/l After that interview, Detective Curt Brannan, the lead investigator on the case, took over the interrogation, the detectives testified./l/l Brannan told the jury that he had gathered a much different picture of Koslow's role during his questioning of Salter and Dillingham that morning./l/l "I explained to her that there was no purpose in lying any longer because I knew, Detective LaRue knew, the whole world would know exactly what happened," Brannan said./l/l "I accused her of setting up this whole tragedy, pulling the trigger on this tragedy," Brannan said. "I accused her of being a rich girl. . . . I accused her of being spoiled and having absolutely no concern for her parents or anyone else. " Brannan said that his words turned the conversation around and that he began tape-recording Koslow's confession./l/l The damaging statement begins with Brannan asking Koslow if she asked Salter to kill her parents./l/l "Yes," she replied./l/l "You did? " Brannan asked./l/l "Yes," she said again./l/l In the somewhat confused, 13-minute statement, Koslow at times says she was motivated by resentment and at other times by a wish to get money for her mother, Paula Koslow, who was Jack Koslow's first wife./l/l Asked how much money she offered Salter, Koslow replied, "I, I never specifically said I would give . . . just if, if I got any money, they could have it. " Later in the statement she said she thought the amount might be as much as $15 million./l/l Koslow, who is heard sobbing throughout the tape, said the attack had been postponed several times./l/l "I said, if you're going to do it, just do it," she told Brannan./l/l Asked why she told LaRue a different story, Koslow said: "Brian told me that he'd say that I didn't have anything to do with it . . ./l/l just not to say that I knew about it. . . . (I) just did what he said. " Tim Evans, Koslow's attorney, told jurors in his opening statement that he expects to show that Brannan "berated, badgered and bullied" a confession out of his client./l/l<&017>Father says Kristi Koslow deserves to die<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Saying "that's what she gave Caren," Jack Koslow testified yesterday that his teen-age daughter, Kristi Koslow, should be executed for the slaying of his wife./l/l "You would recommend she get the death penalty? " defense attorney Tim Evans asked Jack Koslow./l/l "Yes, sir," Koslow said in a low voice. "That's what she gave Caren. " Kristi Koslow, 19, who is accused of capital murder in Caren Koslow's slaying, looked toward her father but showed no emotion as he made the statement./l/l The jury was not in the courtroom when the 51-year-old businessman revealed his feelings yesterday, but today, the panel heard a taped recording in which the teen-ager admitted that she provided her boyfriend the alarm code and a layout drawing of her father's house./l/l She denied, however, that she wanted either her father or stepmother, Caren Koslow, dead./l/l Kristi Koslow is accused of hiring her boyfriend, Brian Salter, 22, and a high school friend of his, Jeffrey Dillingham, 21, to kill her father and his second wife. Prosecutors allege she promised them a share of what she expected to be a multimillion-dollar inheritance./l/l Koslow has denied the charges. Her attorneys insist that Salter set in motion the bloody March 12, 1992, assault that left Jack Koslow critically injured and Caren Koslow dead, her neck slashed and her throat crushed./l/l The tape played for the jury today is one of two she gave detectives within hours of her arrest on March 25, 1992. On the first tape, she denied any involvement in her stepmother's death; on the other, which the jury has not yet heard, she admitted her role./l/l Defense attorneys had sought to have the tapes ruled inadmissible, but the judge on Tuesday said the jury would be allowed to hear both./l/l On the tape this morning, Koslow said she had only joked about wanting her father and stepmother dead./l/l "I mean we had joked around about it," she said, explaining that her intent was only for her father to be robbed./l/l "He's always been mean to me and I didn't feel like he loved me and I thought it (a robbery) would get his attention," she said./l/l She is heard saying that she told Salter about a closet where her father kept money./l/l "I mean, but I never said, that I wanted anybody to go in and kill him, though," she said. "I love him. I just wish he'd love me. " On the morning of the slaying, Koslow said on the tape, Salter came to her home./l/l "He was trying to explain what happened and he said he opened the door - I don't know what door - and Jeff was already upstairs by the time he found the alarm code./l/l "He said Jeff (Dillingham) went in and started doing stuff and he told me, and he could have been lying, but he said he did not do anything, that Jeff just went nuts. " Yesterday, Evans' cross-examination of Jack Koslow took up much of the second day of testimony in a trial that has spectators jostling for the balance of the 60 seats not occupied by Caren and Jack Koslow's relatives; the media; Kristi Koslow's mother, Paula Koslow; and her friends and relatives./l/l Dillingham was convicted of capital murder in August and sentenced to death. Salter pleaded guilty to capital murder a month later in return for a life sentence and a promise to testify in the current trial./l/l Salter's younger brother, Joshua, testified yesterday about a telephone call he overheard his brother make about 4:15 a.m., within hours of the attack./l/l "I heard him say he was turning off the security alarm while someone else was upstairs," said the boy, who was 10 at the time./l/l He said he knew his brother was talking to Kristi Koslow because he repeatedly told her, "I love you. " "That was the only person he would say `I love you' to," the eighth-grader testified./l/l Earlier yesterday, Jack Koslow testified under questioning from both sides that he knew he initially was a suspect in the slaying./l/l The defense is trying to show, among other things, that police work was so shoddy that Jack Koslow was the only suspect until the day his daughter, Salter and Dillingham were arrested./l/l The defense team also is trying to attack a statement that Kristi Koslow gave police almost two weeks after the slaying, characterizing it as the work of an embarrassed detective who badgered her into confessing./l/l Jack Koslow's throat was slashed in the attack, and his head was so badly beaten that he suffered blind spots for months. He testified yesterday that he remembers waking in the hospital after the attack and seeing Fort Worth police Detective Curt Brannan, the lead investigator./l/l "He told me he thought that I was guilty from the first conversation," Koslow testified./l/l Koslow testified that Brannan questioned him numerous times, asked him to take a videotaped walk through his house while recounting his actions during and after the attack, and had technicians take a mold of his teeth on the day of his slain wife's funeral./l/l Brannan told Koslow that a bite mark on one of his hands helped make him a suspect, Koslow recalled. Brannan told him that the impression matched Caren Koslow's teeth. No explanation was given in court for Brannan's demand that Jack Koslow provide a dental impression./l/l Still, Koslow said, he fully cooperated with Brannan during the 13 days he was the prime suspect./l/l "I knew that I didn't do it," Koslow said. "In my mind, the whole world was a suspect. " The defense also sought to show that Kristi Koslow was a problem teen-ager whose troubles were compounded because Jack and Caren Koslow responded coolly to her./l/l Jack Koslow, who had weekend visitation privileges while his first wife was the custodial parent, said he was sometimes disappointed, angered and enraged by his daughter./l/l "It didn't mean I ever stopped loving her," he said./l/l Describing their deteriorating relationship, Koslow said the turmoil began when his daughter was about 13 and worsened until he saw very little of her in 1990 and 1991./l/l However, he said, "I wouldn't describe it as 10 years of war. " Koslow brushed off Evans' suggestions that a lack of warmth on his part contributed to the problem./l/l "Kristi didn't want to go to school. . . . That is the basic argument that Kristi and I had and that is the reason, in my opinion, she stopped seeing us," Koslow said./l/l The defense is seeking to highlight family problems to explain why Kristi Koslow told Salter and others that she wanted her father and stepmother dead./l/l<&003>Koslow's dad describes being suspect in slaying<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Jack Koslow testified under cross-examination today that, until the day his daughter was arrested, police considered him the prime suspect in the savage beating and stabbing death of his wife./l/l The testimony came as attorneys in Kristi Koslow's capital murder trial began focusing on what they contend was misdirected police work as they investigated the slaying of Caren Koslow./l/l Lead defense attorney Tim Evans yesterday told jurors Fort Worth homicide Detective Curt Brannan and other investigators were poised to arrest Jack Koslow as late as 24 hours before Kristi Koslow and two of her friends were taken into custody./l/l "Detective Brannan was concerned with nothing but that Jack Koslow had done it," Evans asserted. He went on to suggest that Brannan, "embarrassed and vindictive," needed to solve the case./l/l Today Evans concentrated his cross-examination on Brannan's dealings with Jack Koslow until the time Kristi Koslow was arrested./l/l "Detective Brannan read me the Miranda rights so many times, I figure it was an ongoing waiver," Jack Koslow testified./l/l He also said that Brannan had videotaped several of their question-and-answer sessions and that even on the day of his wife's funeral, he was asked to have dental impressions made for the investigation./l/l "I knew I was the suspect," Jack Koslow said./l/l Defense attorneys have suggested that police had gone so far as to swear out an arrest warrant affidavit for Jack Koslow the day before they arrested Kristi Koslow. The warrant, however, never was served./l/l Two weeks before that savage, murderous night in his fashionable Rivercrest home, Jack Koslow said he was surprised to see his 17-year-old daughter Kristi drive up with her boyfriend./l/l It seemed odd, Jack Koslow testified yesterday, because the father and daughter were not close anymore and did not see much of each other. Kristi Koslow had been a problem child and troubled teen-ager, virtually totally estranged from Jack Koslow and his wife, Kristi's stepmother./l/l "She said she wanted to stop by and give me a kiss," Jack Koslow testified./l/l Two weeks later, at 4:13 a.m. on March 12, 1992, less than an hour after a bloodied Jack Koslow stumbled to a neighbor's house pleading, "You've got to help me," Kristi Koslow took a telephone call from her boyfriend, Brian Salter./l/l One of the first things she wanted to know, prosecutor Alan Levy told jurors, was "Were they dead? " and why was Jack Koslow not killed./l/l They also discussed the alarm code at Jack Koslow's house and Salter told Kristi Koslow, "I love you," Levy said./l/l Salter's brother, 10 years old at the time, overheard that conversation and will testify about it at Koslow's capital murder trial, Levy revealed for the first time yesterday./l/l All those elements - the unexpected visit, the kiss, the telephone call - Levy asserted to the jury, are crucial to the state's contention that Kristi Koslow plotted and masterminded the attack that killed Caren Koslow and critically injured her father./l/l And jurors also will be able to hear two tape statements Kristi Koslow gave to police, denying in one, then admitting in the other, her involvement in her stepmother's slaying./l/l Defense attorneys, however, told jurors that Salter acted in greed and on Koslow's idle threats that she wanted her wealthy father and stepmother killed./l/l "This is a case of a number of tragic forces coming together in a tragic manner," Evans said./l/l Most of Koslow's friends viewed her not-infrequent wishes to see her parents dead as "popping off" or "a joke," Evans said./l/l But Salter, her boyfriend of five months, was "a person who had nothing going for him (and) had one thing in mind - getting a bunch of money," the lawyer said./l/l Yesterday, Jack Koslow, a businessman and former banker, took the stand to testify against his daughter and describe the furious attack in the bedroom of his home./l/l He recalled hearing intruders breaking down a door and running up the stairs. He remembered his terrified wife screaming, "They're in the house. " And he recounted how two men burst into the bedroom, how they intercepted him as he ran toward a gun closet and how he was ordered back into the middle of the room./l/l "Caren was sitting on the side of the bed," Koslow said. "She could not move. She was totally petrified. " And then they were ordered onto the floor./l/l "I remember the whole world turning black. I remember him beating me and beating me and beating me until I didn't remember any more," Jack Koslow told the packed courtroom./l/l Once he regained consciousness, Jack Koslow said, he rushed to his wife and tried to lift her from the floor./l/l "I knew then she was either dead or dying," he said, recalling that he was overcome with feelings of "rage and hatred. " He stumbled out of the house and went to the home of neighbor Kevin Levy for help./l/l "Ken, it's Jack. You've got to help me," Levy testified that he heard Koslow plead./l/l Levy described Koslow as `totally covered in blood. His face was swollen and mangled. He said, `We've been beaten and robbed. ' " Jack Koslow and his daughter seemed to deliberately avoid looking at each other in the courtroom, and she avoided looking when a gruesome photo of her stepmother's body was shown./l/l She is accused of hiring her fiance, Salter, 22, and his friend, Jeffrey Dillingham, 21, to carry out the attack in return for part of what she expected to be a multimillion-dollar inheritance./l/l Dillingham was convicted of capital murder in August and sentenced to death. In September, Salter pleaded guilty to murder in return for a life sentence and a promise to testify against Kristi Koslow, who could face a death sentence if convicted of capital murder./l/l The events that led to the killing were set off, Evans told the jury, by dysfunction in the Koslow family./l/l "You will learn about Kristi's emotional changes and swings and her temper, and quite frankly how she often said things, even about her own mother," he said./l/l The troubled teen was "dealt with by her father like a cold banker making a loan," Evans said./l/l Kristi Koslow, he said, was not responsible for what happened to her stepmother and father./l/l "Brian Salter and Jeffrey Dillingham planned this murder," Evans asserted./l/l He went on to attack Salter's plea bargain and said that the young man would be testifying for the state to save his life./l/l "As he sits in this chair, that death penalty is hanging over his head," said Evans, pointing to the witness stand./l/l After Kristi Koslow's arrest, Brannan "berated, bullied and badgered" her for an hour before turning on the tape recorder for her formal statement, Evans said./l/l "When he got it as good as he could get it, he went back and turned the tape on," he told the jury./l/l Suggesting that Kristi Koslow was intimidated by Salter after the attack, Evans said, "You will see why she said what she said. You will see the turmoil and conflict that was going on in her. " Alan Levy, who heads the criminal section of the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, told the jury that the state will show that Kristi Koslow provided Salter and Dillingham a drawing of her father's house and a code to disarm its alarms./l/l "They knew exactly which door to kick in," he said. "They were able to navigate through a 4,000-foot home in pitch dark. "/L<&012>Court hears daughter's confession, denials on Koslow<&LIST>/l/lBy Thomas Korosec/lFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Two tape-recorded statements by a sobbing Kristi Koslow - one a lengthy denial, another an admission of involvement in her stepmother's killing - were played for a packed courtroom yesterday as proceedings began in the teen-ager's capital murder trial./l/l Koslow, dressed in blue jail clothes, read along with a transcript while her recorded voice told a Fort Worth police detective why she wanted her wealthy stepmother and father killed./l/l "I just wanted to get money," she said, sobbing and sniffling. "I wanted my mom to have money. It wasn't about money; it was just about . . . feeling horrible, about everything that I felt, everything they said to me and done to me. " The tapes were played as defense attorneys worked to exclude their client's statements to detectives, made hours after her arrest on charges that she planned the slaying of her socially prominent stepmother, Caren Koslow./l/l Defense attorneys contend that the statements should not be admitted because they were given while attorneys had no access to Kristi Koslow./l/l State District Judge Bob Gill heard the statements and testimony surrounding them outside the presence of the jury. He is expected to rule on their admissibility before jurors begin hearing testimony, probably this morning./l/l Lead prosecutor Alan Levy has said he is confident that the statements were legally obtained./l/l Fort Worth homicide Detective Curt Brannan, who headed the slaying investigation, and former police detective Danny LaRue testified that they read Koslow her rights - including the right to request an attorney - three times on the morning of her arrest, which came 13 days after the slaying./l/l Koslow, 19, is charged with capital murder in the March 12, 1992, attack that killed her 40-year-old stepmother and critically injured her father, Jack Koslow, 50. She is accused of hiring her fiance, Brian Salter, 22, and his friend Jeffrey Dillingham, 21, to carry out the attack in return for part of what she expected to be a multimillion-dollar inheritance./l/l Dillingham was convicted of capital murder in August and sentenced to death. In September, Salter pleaded guilty to murder in return for a life sentence and a promise to testify in the current trial./l/l Koslow could face the death sentence if convicted of capital murder./l/l At least a dozen of Caren Koslow's relatives were in the standing-room-only audience that heard the tapes and testimony from Brannan, which painted a vivid picture of how Kristi Koslow came to admit her involvement./l/l Dillingham was arrested about eight hours before Koslow and Salter was arrested with her near her mother's house in near west Fort Worth. Both gave Brannan statements implicating Koslow./l/l LaRue said he was the first to interrogate Koslow, who was taken immediately after her arrest to a senior detective's office on the third floor of the police building./l/l Saying on the tape that she and Salter had talked about robbing her father's Rivercrest home, Koslow told LaRue between sobs: "I mean we had joked around about it before. . . . I mean, joked around, just. Cause he's always been mean to me and I didn't feel like he loved me and I thought maybe it would get his attention. " She went on: "Not really to hurt people. Just it was a joke. I didn't think people would take me seriously. " Brannan - who with his styled mustache, rodeo belt buckle and slow, deep voice is the picture of a Texas lawman - told the judge that he took over the interrogation of Koslow from LaRue as soon as he finished talking to Salter./l/l "I believed she lied to Detective LaRue, just like she lied to me on a previous meeting the Wednesday before," Brannan testified./l/l "I told her that Brian Salter and Jeffrey Dillingham were not protecting her. I told her I knew she was lying," Brannan said./l/l The detective said that Koslow, who was seated during the questioning, "hung her head, looked at the floor and shook her head, yes. " For the next 20 minutes, he said, "she talked a great deal. She babbled on . . . about how badly she had been treated all her life. " Prompting a quiet response from Koslow yesterday, Brannan told the courtroom: "I told her she was just in it for the money, that she set this whole thing up just for monetary benefits, whatever social status comes out that, because that seemed to be quite important to Kristi Koslow. " Seated at the defense table, the teen-ager silently mouthed a denial./l/l During the interrogation more than two years ago, Brannan continued, "She did a 180 and explained why she had this done. " On the tape, Brannan asked Koslow whether she asked Salter to kill Caren and Jack Koslow./l/l "Yes," she replied./l/l "How did you mean for it to happen? " he asked a bit later on the tape./l/l "Brian just told me that he would hit them over the back of the head or some way . . . that it wouldn't hurt them," she replied./l/l "Do you mean that they wouldn't suffer? " Brannan asked./l/l "Yes," she replied./l/l "And you found out later on that it was a bloody mess out there ./l/l . . is that why you're telling me about this? " "Yes," she replied./l/l/L<&010>Dillingham gets death<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L WICHITA FALLS - Jeffrey Dillingham, the one-time honor student who killed for what prosecutors say was the promise of $1 million, was sentenced to death yesterday for the murder of Caren Koslow of Fort Worth./l/l Dillingham, who shuddered or cried through most of the nine days of testimony and deliberations, hung his head and wept after the judge pronounced the sentence./l/l His mother, Antonette Dillingham, seated in a front row, slumped into the arms of her husband, Ray Dillingham, who cried with her./l/l Businessman Jack Koslow, the victim's husband, who was brutally beaten during the attack on him and his wife, showed no emotion as the sentence was read./l/l As he left the courtroom, surrounded by about two dozen friends and relatives, Koslow was asked if he was relieved the trial was over./l/l He smiled and answered "yes," then declined to comment further./l/l The jurors, who were sequestered, declined to comment after the verdict./l/l Tarrant County chief prosecutor Alan Levy said the sentence will encourage him to seek the death penalty for two other defendants accused of a murder-for-hire scheme./l/l "I think the people who commit these brutal crimes should get the death penalty like the night follows the day," Levy said./l/l The guilty verdict, which was reached Saturday, and death sentence will be automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals./l/l "This is certainly not the end of the road by any means," defense attorney Jack Strickland said./l/l The jury of eight women and four men took 3 1/2 hours to condemn the 20-year-old video store clerk to death for fatally beating Koslow in her posh west Fort Worth home March 12, 1992./l/l The victim's stepdaughter, Kristi Koslow, 18, and her boyfriend, Brian Salter, 21, face capital murder charges for what was portrayed in Dillingham's trial as an elaborately planned contract killing./l/l Authorities allege that Kristi Koslow enlisted Salter and Dillingham to murder her adoptive father, Jack Koslow, and his wife, Caren Koslow, for $1 million from what she expected to be a $12 million inheritance./l/l Caren Koslow was struck 27 times with a metal pry bar and her throat was cut, to autopsy results show. Jack Koslow, 49, was also beaten and slashed across the throat, but he recovered and testified as a key witness at Dillingham's trial./l/l Strickland said he fell short in his bid to win a life sentence for his client because "the circumstances of the murder are extraordinarily compelling . . . the planning, the premeditation, the length and quality of the preparation. " In a statement to detectives that was admitted into evidence, Dillingham said the crime had been planned for several months and postponed several times./l/l He admitted to prying open the back door of the couple's home, running to an upstairs bedroom and ordering them to lie face down on the floor. Jurors heard him describe on tape how he repeatedly beat the Koslows on the back of the head with the pry bar and then went looking through a closet for $4,000 he thought was hidden in a drawer. He left the scene, he said, with $120 and Jack Koslow's wallet./l/l Prosecutor Levy said after the trial that both sides understood "it was a tough case for the defense./l/l "The state had the upper hand all the way," he said. "It isn't that often you get a defendant that has committed these kinds of acts. " Among the issues Strickland said he will appeal is a ruling by state District Judge Bob Gill, based on state law, that did not let him inform jurors that the other possible penalty in the case, a life sentence, would have sent Dillingham to prison without a chance for parole for 35 years./l/l "I bet most jurors thought he could get out in 10 or 15 at the most," Strickland said./l/l During the punishment phase, which began Monday, the defense brought testimony that Dillingham had never been arrested before the Koslow murder, that he comes from a solid family from White Settlement and Aledo, and that he does not have the anti-social personality of a hardened criminal./l/l Defense attorneys said they hoped the jury would decide that Dillingham would not present a future danger to society; that is one of three decisions jurors had to make in arriving at the sentence./l/l Jurors, who ranged from an 18-year-old waitress to a 59-year-old bookstore manager, found he would be a danger, that he acted intentionally and that there were no mitigating factors such as age or mental awareness./l/l It might have been Dillingham's first offense, prosecutor Robert Mayfield said, "but he sure climbed up the high dive and into the deep end. . . . It was a chilling crime. " Defense attorney Strickland said he had information that the jurors had first split 9-3 in favor of death and took at least six votes before they became unanimous./l/l Before they began deliberating, they heard Strickland urge in summation, "Even a life sentence is a death sentence, a death of any kind of meaningful life./l/l "You may ask yourself why shouldn't we extend to Jeffrey Dillingham the same . . . degree of mercy that he extended to Caren Koslow? Why? Because we're better than the Jeff Dillinghams of this world. " Michael Ware, Strickland's co-counsel, told jurors: "Jeff still is a human being. Jeff is not a trophy for the prosecutors to go back to Fort Worth and display prominently on their wall. " Levy, calling defense arguments "smoke and mirrors," said: "This wasn't a momentary lapse; it was a careful methodical slaughter. His conscience was in his purse. " Mayfield told the courtroom audience of more than 100 people, "There is a monument to this man's greed in Fort Worth, Texas, that embodies what he was willing to do for $1 million and that monument reads, Caren Courtney Koslow, 1951 to 1992. "/l/L<&009>Jeffrey Dillingham found guilty in Koslow case<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L WICHITA FALLS - After hearing prosecutors describe Jeffrey Dillingham as a "butcher" with "a heart filled with a nest of scorpions," a Wichita County jury convicted him yesterday of capital murder in the bludgeoning death of Caren Koslow./l/l Jurors took an hour and 40 minutes to find the former Brewer High School honor student guilty of killing the 40-year-old Fort Worth resident during a March 12, 1992, break-in at her stately Rivercrest home./l/l The jury of eight women and four men will begin hearing evidence on sentencing tomorrow. They will be asked to choose a death sentence for the 20-year-old video store clerk or life without possibility of parole for 35 years./l/l Dillingham, already standing with his head down, dipped it a bit lower when the foreman read the verdict./l/l After a brief meeting with his parents in a side room, he cried openly as bailiffs led him from the courtroom./l/l Businessman Jack Koslow, the victim's husband, who was severely beaten and cut but survived the attack, sat unflinching as the verdict was read./l/l Moments later, he smiled reservedly as some of the 25 relatives and friends who sat with him in the courtroom shook his hand or patted his shoulder./l/l He and other members of his group, who have sat together and moved about town together throughout the trial, declined to comment yesterday, as they have since testimony began Monday./l/l Dillingham's father, Ray Dillingham, an engineering supervisor for Lockheed Fort Worth; his mother, Antonnette Dillingham; and his fiancee, Cassandra Force, appeared overcome with emotion as they left the courtroom. Their faces flushed and wet with tears, they also declined to comment./l/l "It's the verdict we expected," said Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield, whose case against Dillingham included a tape-recorded statement in which the defendant described how he beat the Koslows repeatedly with an 18-inch metal pry bar as part of a robbery and murder-for-hire plot. Other physical evidence, including the murder weapon and a pair of blood-spattered jeans, tied Dillingham to the crime./l/l Backed by statements taken from all three suspects in the case, authorities say that Dillingham and Brian Salter, 21, a friend from high school, set out to kill the couple in a scheme set up by Kristi Koslow, 18, the victim's stepdaughter./l/l Testimony in the trial showed that Kristi Koslow promised Dillingham and Salter as much as $1 million each from what she expected would be a large inheritance from her father and stepmother, a socially prominent couple./l/l Kristi Koslow and Salter, her boyfriend, face separate trials on capital murder charges./l/l Mayfield said the punishment phase of Dillingham's trial promises to be hard-fought, with several days of testimony from witnesses on both sides./l/l The state will seek the death penalty, he said. "But for people, given their sensitivities and feelings, this is a decision not easily reached. " Defense attorney Jack Strickland told reporters throughout the trial that the guilty verdict was expected, given the strength of the taped confession./l/l "When a jury is able to hear a spoken confession such is on this tape . . . I think it makes it even more chillingly real for the jury," he explained after the verdict./l/l He said he is more confident of his case in the punishment phase, in which he will attempt to persuade jurors not to sentence Dillingham to death./l/l "I have great hopes and a lot of reason to hope the next stage of the trial will turn to our advantage," Strickland said, noting that he expects to present a strong case for a life sentence./l/l He said his client has no prior criminal record. "On the contrary, he has an exemplary personal record," Strickland said./l/l He also said that he wants to take issue with whispered conversations in the audience about Dillingham's continuous trembling at the defense table./l/l "There is some theory that Jeffrey is faking; I have no reason to believe that . . . I am quite concerned about him," the defense attorney said./l/l During final arguments, Strickland conceded to the jury that the state produced "horrible facts, gory facts, facts from our worst nightmares. " But, he argued, prosecutors did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Caren Koslow died from the blow to the throat that Dillingham admitted in his confession./l/l He said in his soft-spoken summation that the cutting of the victim's throat, an act that Dillingham blamed on Salter, was more certain to have caused her death./l/l "My obligation is to ask you to follow the law, as unpleasant as it is," he said./l/l Responding in his animated closing statement, Tarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy thundered: "What a madcap world this would be if a murderer, a homicide, could escape the consequence of his actions by saying, `I did my best to kill . . . but maybe my partner, who went with me to kill, beat me to it. ' " Levy, whose statement moved Dillingham's mother, father and fiancee to tears, told the court, "What a heart filled with a nest of scorpions, what manner of man could walk across that room, knowing what he did. " After summarizing the wealth of evidence, he said, "The verdict is guilty of capital murder. He is a butcher and he must pay, and he will. " Mayfield, in his urging for conviction, picked up the heavy pry bar, pointed it at Dillingham and said, "His motive was money, and he didn't care if he had to step over dead bodies to get what he wanted. "/L/L<&014>Medical experts describe Koslow slaying<&LIST>/L/L By Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L WICHITA FALLS - Tarrant County prosecutors called their last of 25 witnesses yesterday in the capital murder case against Jeffrey Dillingham as graphic medical testimony moved some of the victim's friends and family to tears./l/l The state's final witness, Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani, told jurors that Caren Koslow died from a "blunt force injury" to the neck that crushed her larynx and caused her to suffocate./l/l He said the 40-year-old victim suffered 27 injuries, including heavy blows that broke her skull and jaw and loosened her teeth./l/l The medical examiner said a deep cut was made across the victim's throat. But he said that ample evidence in his autopsy led him to believe that the victim was dead or near dead when her neck was slashed./l/l Peerwani's findings were consistent with a taped statement played in court Tuesday in which Dillingham confessed to beating Koslow in the head and neck with a metal pry bar during an early morning break-in at her west Fort Worth home in March 1992./l/l Dillingham, 20, of Aledo, faces the possibility of a death sentence if convicted in the high-profile case./l/l The victim's husband, businessman Jack Koslow, was severely beaten and his throat cut, but he survived the attack./l/l Authorities say that Brian Salter, 21, of Fort Worth also took part in what they allege was a murder-for-hire scheme set up by the victim's stepdaughter, Kristi Koslow, 18. The two face trials later on capital murder charges./l/l Defense attorney Jack Strickland began what was expected to be a lengthy cross-examination of Peerwani yesterday. That questioning continued into the late evening./l/l Strickland has been attempting to shift some of the focus to Salter, who Dillingham in his confession said cut the Koslows' throats. Strickland tried to get Peerwani to describe the cut on Caren Koslow's neck as the fatal wound. During the testy cross- examination, Peerwani would not back off from his contention that Koslow died from a blow to her throat./l/l Attorneys were expected to finish questioning Peerwani this morning. The prosecution is then expected to rest its case./l/l The defense, which has not yet outlined its case for the jury, is expected to begin presenting its witnesses today./l/l Before Peerwani took the stand, state District Judge Bob Gill denied a defense motion to block prosecutors from showing photos of Caren Koslow's wounds to the jury./l/l "They're extremely gory," Strickland argued. "That gives rise to our objection about their prejudicial effect of the photographs. " Tarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy countered, saying that only photos could portray the depth, color and other characteristics of the wounds./l/l When the medical testimony began, several friends and relatives of the victim left the courtroom. Jack Koslow, who has been in court for all the testimony, sat motionless while several people with him dabbed at tears./l/l As the state moved toward completing its case yesterday, the accumulation of exhibits from four days of testimony formed a small drift before the witness stand./l/l The more than 180 exhibits include furniture from the Koslows' bedroom, weapons, numerous enlarged photographs, blood and genetic testing samples, maps, diagrams, a portion of the Koslow's tool-damaged back door, bloodstained clothing and a three-dimensional model used in analyzing blood spatters that covered various walls./l/l "It looks like tumbleweeds piled up by a dust storm," said Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield./l/l Yesterday, state witnesses testified that genetic testing showed that traces of Caren Koslow's blood were found on an 18-inch metal bar that a witness said Dillingham gave to him./l/l/L<&008>Dillingham trial to open with 911 call<&LIST>/L/lBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L WICHITA FALLS - Testimony in the first of three murder trials involving the death of Caren Koslow was expected to begin in Wichita Falls today with the playing of a dramatic, tape-recorded 911 call made after the socially prominent Fort Worth resident was fatally bludgeoned./l/l Koslow's husband, former bank executive Jack Koslow, who was knocked unconscious during the March 1992 early morning attack, was also expected testify during the opening day of the capital murder trial for Jeffrey Dillingham, 20, of Aledo./l/l Police say that Kristi Koslow, 18, adopted by Jack Koslow during his first marriage, engineered the murder-for-hire scheme, which was carried out by Dillingham, a former Brewer High School honor student, and his friend Brian Salter, 21./l/l Dillingham, on trial for capital murder, could face a death sentence. Salter and Kristi Koslow will undergo separate trials, yet to be scheduled, also on capital murder charges./l/l Caren Koslow, who was active in the arts and civic affairs, was beaten to death with a pry bar during the attack in the couple's posh Rivercrest home. The case jolted Fort Worth because of her prominence, the exclusive neighborhood, allegations of the stepdaughter's involvement, and the crime's brutality./l/l Jury selection in the Dillingham trial began June 14 and ended Saturday, when a pool of 51 eligible to be jurors was narrowed to a panel of eight women and four men, plus one man as an alternate./l/l Over 26 days, prosecutors Alan Levy and Robert Mayfield and defense attorneys Jack Strickland and Michael Ware interviewed 186 potential jurors./l/l Strickland, a veteran of numerous capital cases, called it the "most extensive" jury selection process in which he has ever been involved./l/l "Alan Levy is very careful, he leaves no stone unturned," Strickland said of his courtroom adversary. "That set the tone, and we fell into a routine where each juror was questioned for about 2 1/2 hours. " Levy could not be reached for comment after selection of the jury./l/l He declined to comment last week on his strategy for picking the jury until the trial concludes./l/l Strickland said he had attempted to pick a panel with a preponderance of women, people ages 48 to 60, and younger people, ages 18 to 22./l/l "I clearly think the 18- to 22-year-olds might feel some association with Jeff and the older age group, some identity with his parents," Strickland said./l/l Dillingham's mother and father, Ray Dillingham, an engineering chief at Lockheed Fort Worth, plan to attend the trial./l/l Four jurors fit the age ranges Strickland described./l/l The diverse panel, which includes two blacks and a Hispanic as the alternate, is mostly composed of people in middle-income occupations./l/l Among them are a 49-year-old women who works for an insurance company, a 59-year-old women who manages a bookstore, a 24-year-old man who works as an electrical engineer and a 29-year-old receptionist./l/l "It seems like a fair jury, but as I explained to my client, the only common denominator they exhibit is a willingness, if necessary, to kill him," Strickland said./l/l Only jurors who expressed a willingness to apply the death penalty are allowed to sit on cases in which capital punishment is an option./l/l State District Judge Bob Gill, who moved the trial to Wichita Falls to avoid possible prejudice from pretrial publicity, ruled Saturday that the jury be sequestered throughout trial. The jurors gathered at a Wichita Falls hotel last night./l/l Attorneys estimate that the trial will last at least 10 days./l/l "I expect the state's case to dominate the first phase of trial," Strickland said yesterday, referring to the so-called guilt-innocence phase./l/l A taped statement in which Dillingham describes repeatedly bludgeoning the Koslow couple is expected to be presented during the trial. Gill ruled the tape admissible at a pretrial hearing in June./l/l Strickland said he believes that prosecutors are more concerned about the strength of their case during the punishment phase, in which the options would be a sentence of death or life in prison./l/l "The state is going to have to bolster its request for the death penalty based on the circumstances of the crime," Strickland said./l/l "It would be easier for them if they could show prior acts of misconduct. " Dillingham has no prior criminal history, authorities have said./l/l/L<&005>Kristi Koslow, 2 friends indicted on murder charges<&LIST>/L/LBy Bill Hanna/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - A grand jury indicted Kristi Koslow and two of her friends yesterday on capital murder and attempted capital murder charges in a March 12 murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the death of Koslow's stepmother and wounding of her father./l/l The capital murder indictments against the 17-year-old Koslow and two 19-year-old men, Brian Salter and Jeffery Dillingham, allege "various forms of capital murder," said Assistant District Attorney Alan Levy./l/l The indictments contend that Koslow employed Salter and Dillingham to carry out a murder-for-hire plot in exchange for "proceeds from the estate of Jack Koslow. " Different counts of the indictments also contend that Caren Koslow was killed during a burglary and a robbery./l/l Caren Koslow, 40, was beaten to death in the attack at the couple's Rivercrest home in the 4100 block of Clarke Avenue. Her husband, Jack Koslow, was injured in the attack but survived./l/l All three teen-agers also were indicted on an attempted capital murder charge accusing them of trying to kill Jack Koslow, 48./l/l Different counts of these indictments also say the crime was committed during a robbery, a burglary or in exchange for money from Jack Koslow's estate./l/l All three had been charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder but were not indicted on that offense, Levy said, because the other two indictments were sufficient. Punishment for capital murder is death or a life sentence./l/l Kristi Koslow, her boyfriend, Salter, and Dillingham were arrested on March 25 in the killing. All three have since been held in the Tarrant County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail./l/l Defense attorneys have not asked for a hearing to reduce the $1 million against their clients, but if they do, Levy said, "Obviously, we will fight it. " The grand jury, whose session was scheduled to end April 1, is being retained as a precaution. It is not expected to meet again, Levy said./l/l A hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. today in 213th District Court on a motion a quash a subpoena for Kristi Koslow's psychiatric records. Salter and Dillingham are not expected to attend that hearing./l/l Kristi Koslow's attorney, Carl Mallory, also filed a motion yesterday asking to examine the evidence against his client. No date has been scheduled for a hearing on that motion./l/l Before the indictments were returned yesterday, lawyers for Kristi Koslow, Salter and Dillingham met with prosecutors behind closed doors to discuss the case./l/l When they emerged from the meeting, Dillingham's attorney, Jack Strickland, said the lawyers discussed scheduling and the addition of other defense lawyers to the case. Strickland said he expected each attorney to have another attorney on the case by the end of the week./l/l The parents of Salter and Kristi Koslow's mother, Paula Koslow, also were in court yesterday and talked briefly with their children in holdover cells adjacent to the courtroom./l/l After talking with her daughter, Paula Koslow said Kristi was doing well./l/l "She looked really good for what she was going through," she said./l/l "She looked really good. "/l/L<&006>Neighbors watched as Koslow arrested<&LIST>/l/L By Hollace Weiner/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - When a black Mercedes and a burgundy Chrysler hemmed in a third car at a stop sign yesterday and forced out the occupants, neighbors who watched the drama through their front windows dialed 911./l/l "I was thinking, God, isn't anybody safe in our neighborhood anymore," recalled a resident whose house was burglarized two weeks ago./l/l He watched, alarmed, as his 17-year-old neighbor, Kristi Koslow was hustled into a Mercedes 560 SEL that sped away from the stop sign at West 4th Street and Dorothy Lane, only nine doors from where she lives./l/l "She jumped in the Mercedes, and that driver literally burned rubber and left," the neighbor said./l/l When he phoned authorities, "police said they had already received a call. " Only when three patrol cars pulled up, followed by a tow truck and a crime-scene van, did neighbors realize that this was no kidnapping./l/l Rather, it was a police stakeout and a development in a mystery that has occupied the westside neighborhoods of Rivercrest and Monticello for the past 13 days./l/l Kristi Koslow and her boyfriend, Brian Dennis Salter, 19, were being arrested in connection with the slaying of her stepmother, Caren Koslow, and the stabbing of her father, Jack Koslow./l/l The father and stepmother lived a few blocks from the white brick house with the white wicker furniture where Kristi and her mother, Paula Koslow, had moved in September./l/l The unmarked Mercedes and Chrysler had been parked near the stop sign since 6 a.m. yesterday, said an early-morning jogger, who, like her neighbors, asked to remain anonymous because she is a friend of the Koslows./l/l The neighbors said they weren't being nosy when they ambled to the end of the street to investigate./l/l "It was a little hard to miss," said one./l/l "They didn't send that many police cars when my house was broken into," recalled another./l/l Two neighbors watched as police handcuffed Koslow's boyfriend and led him into a police car./l/l "He was wearing a coat and tie," said one. "He just got in very calmly. " Then Kristi Koslow's mother arrived at the arrest scene in a black Toyota convertible./l/l "Kristi was gone before she got there," a neighbor said./l/l "She appeared to be distraught," another added./l/l "She came flying up there and asked police, `Where is my daughter? ' " recalled a third. Then she roared away, back to the west, where she lives. " Meanwhile, police had lifted the hatchback of the suspects' white Ford Escort, which neighbors said was filled with clothing on hangers, a leather bag and a long, plastic tube./l/l "The policemen averted their heads, like something smelled," a neighbor said./l/l The Escort was towed from the street, a well-kempt block where children steering Big Wheels rode up and down the sidewalk and mothers shared their sense of shock at Kristi's arrest and relief that the slaying may have been solved./l/l "The kids haven't slept well since all of this happened," said one mother, who said police questioned her about how well Caren and Jack Koslow got along./l/l All week, undercover police dressed in jogging attire had run through neighborhood streets and alleys, occasionally looking under manholes, she said. "You knew they were police because when they opened the trunks of their cars, there was all this equipment. " "God this is so exciting," said a neighbor after watching the TV news at noon. "I can't believe I am in the middle of it, and I was thinking about moving. "/L/L<&004>Injured Koslow at wife's funeral<&LIST>/L/LBy Jack Douglas, Jr. and Richard Dotson/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Ashen-faced and showing signs of being severely beaten, Jack Koslow was assisted to the front pew of a church this morning to attend the funeral of his slain wife, Caren./l/l A standing-room-only crowd of several hundred family members and friends crowded into Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in downtown Fort Worth for the service./l/l Caren Koslow, 40, and her 48-year-old husband were attacked in their Rivercrest home during the early morning hours Thursday. Caren Koslow was beaten and died at the scene, police said. Jack Koslow suffered stab and slash wounds. He has been in a hospital, but officials have released no condition reports./l/l Jack Koslow, surrounded by friends and relatives, walked feebly as he was assisted into the church. The back of Koslow's head had been shaved, revealing numerous stitched wounds, and his neck and throat were bandaged./l/l The Rev. Thomas A. Powell said during the 30-minute service that he was among the closest friends of Jack and Caren Koslow./l/l "She was deeply in love with life," Powell said. "She was equally in love with her husband. I know for a fact they had a happy marriage. " The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Steenson said Caren Koslow had been improperly portrayed by the media./l/l "We are here today to restore the dignity to Caren's life," Steenson said, as he noted she could not be summed up by the description "socialite. " "Her memory has been tarnished by the cruel attraction to her tragedy . . . this is not a story about the rich and famous," Steenson said. Caren Koslow was a warm and loving person, he said./l/l Most of today's pallbearers are listed in the city's social register, including Rep. Pete Geren, D-Fort Worth. Koslow, who was an active member of St. Andrews, was to be buried at Greenwood Memorial Park./l/l Police have not released any new information concerning the Thursday morning slaying. Police were told that two men broke into the home and attacked Koslow and her husband, who suffered knife wounds in his upper body./l/l Since the slaying, Fort Worth police officers have been posted outside the home to guard the crime scene, which is still being examined by investigators./l/l Yesterday, two officers in police cruisers were parked in front of and beside the Koslows' home./l/l The house is sealed with yellow crime-scene tape, which investigators, at varying times, duck under to enter the back door./l/l Police at the scene yesterday declined to comment./l/l Meanwhile, unread newspapers have piled up on the front lawn. The recycling bin, left at the rear entrance of the home last week, remains full of empty bottles and newspapers./l/l Found in the alley near the Koslow home Saturday were two unspent .38-caliber bullets. Police were unsure whether the bullets were connected with the slaying./l/l A memorial fund has been established in Caren Koslow's name at St. Andrew's./l/l Police Chief Thomas Windham has said that the case may have been jeopardized because the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office on Thursday released the cause of Caren Koslow's death. Police at first believed she was fatally stabbed, but an autopsy revealed that her death was caused by blows on the head./l/l After Windham's complaint, Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani said that the cause of death was public record and that he perceived nothing wrong in releasing the information./l/l Neither Windham nor Peerwani would comment further on the autopsy./l/l The medical examiner said this weekend that he has filed a complaint with the Police Department, because his investigators were not notified about Caren Koslow's death until police had been on the scene for three hours./l/l/L<&002>Jack Koslow not a suspect in attack, police say<&LIST>/L/LBy Jack Douglas, Jr.;Stefani Gammage/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Police Chief Thomas Windham said yesterday that former bank executive Jack Koslow is not a suspect in an attack at his home Thursday morning that left him wounded and his wife, Caren, dead./l/l "He is not, no," Windham said, asked whether Jack Koslow is considered a suspect in the death of his socialite wife./l/l "He is not a focus of this investigation," the chief said, quelling fast-spreading rumors that Koslow may have been involved in the attack about 4 a.m. Thursday at the couple's posh home in the 4100 block of Clarke Avenue./l/l Windham remained tight-lipped about the case. "We've got some information we're working on," he said, adding, however, "I'm not going to comment on what we're looking into or not looking into. " Meanwhile, crime scene officers continued to comb the Rivercrest-area home for evidence that might lead to a suspect or suspects./l/l Officials at Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital declined last night to disclose the condition of Jack Koslow, 48. His daughter, Kristi Koslow, said she had been told that her father was in stable condition./l/l Police have said he suffered neck cuts and stab wounds./l/l Also yesterday, relatives arranged Caren Koslow's funeral and Windham complained of the possibility that the investigation had been jeopardized./l/l Windham chastised the medical examiner for releasing the woman's autopsy results./l/l "I was just very miffed about (Dr. Nizam Peerwani) releasing information about one of our murder investigations, particularly one that is of the whodunit variety," Windham said, standing outside the pink-brick home where police had found Caren Koslow, 40, lying dead on the floor beside the bed./l/l "I believe the release of that information has the very strong potential of jeopardizing our investigation," he said./l/l Peerwani disclosed Thursday evening that Caren Koslow died of a beating to the face, head and neck and not of stab wounds as police initially believed. That evidence, if kept confidential, would have aided police in questioning of possible suspects, Windham said./l/l "I think it seriously jeopardizes our ability to utilize that information for future polygraphs that are necessary, in future interviews we are doing, in future statements that we take from individuals who may or may not be suspects," he said./l/l Peerwani defended releasing the information and said he does not believe that it has harmed the investigation./l/l "That's clearly his opinion and I don't agree with that," he said./l/l "I really think the cause of death is part of the public record. . . ./l/l We never, never discuss any detail of a given death in the media. " While investigators continued their second day of work, relatives planned a funeral for Caren Koslow, a member of the Jewel Charity Ball, which raises funds for indigent care at Cook-Fort Worth Children's Medical Center. The service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Andrews Episcopal Church./l/l A wounded Jack Koslow, who told investigators that two knife-wielding intruders barged into the upstairs room and attacked the couple shortly before 4 a.m. Thursday, staggered to a neighbor's home to summon help after leaving his house through a side door./l/l Police said that Koslow - a onetime executive at Team Bank, formerly Texas American Bank - told them he was frantically trying to load a shotgun when intruders, described only as two white men, entered the bedroom./l/l Police Capt. David Reagan said a uniformed officer had been stationed outside Koslow's door./l/l "It's a courtesy at this point," Reagan said, adding that the officer was also acting as a liaison between family members and investigators./l/l Homicide Lt. J.P. Foley said the family "had concerns early on that these suspects might try to get Mr. Koslow again. " Foley said that investigators talked to Koslow yesterday, but the officer would not release details of the conversation./l/l "He's had quite an injury," Foley said. "When talking to him, we sort of have to do it in stages because we don't want to affect his health in any way. " Windham, calling homicide the "ultimate crime," said he returned to the crime scene yesterday because as a former homicide investigator he has a "professional interest" in the case./l/l He said police had no suspects and had not ruled out anyone as a possible suspect./l/l "We're using a very broad focus on this case," Windham said. "We haven't ruled anyone in or out in this case. " Neither Windham nor homicide detectives would say what forensic investigators had found in a late-night chemical examination inside the couple's darkened home Thursday./l/l "It's just another tool," Reagan said./l/l The forensic specialists remained at the house yesterday morning, and Windham said they did not expect to complete their work there until next week./l/l Some disarray was evident in the home, police said, such as opened drawers and articles strewn on the floor. And several weapons were recovered from the Koslow home, including a 4-inch pocketknife with a red-and-blue striped handle, police said./l/l Although tests were to be conducted to see whether any of the weapons were used in the attack, investigators would not comment on any evidence./l/l "We've got a long way to go," said Reagan, adding that detectives are in the preliminary stage of the investigation./l/l Foley, who would not discuss a possible motive, said investigators are being thorough in the search of the house and surrounding area./l/l "We're being very, very meticulous in our processing of this crime scene because of the size of the crime scene and the extent of the evidence," he said, declining to elaborate./l/l The house was the scene of a burglary in July when golf clubs, golf balls and a 12-pack of beer were taken from an unlocked garage, a police report shows. Another report shows that a maid had her locked Oldsmobile Cutlass stolen from the driveway of the house in January 1989./l/l Staff writer John Council contributed to this report./l/l/L<&001>Intruders kill socialite Caren Koslow, slash husband's neck<&LIST>/l/lBy John Council/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Socialite Caren Koslow was killed this morning and her husband, Jack, a former bank executive, was critically wounded by two knife-wielding intruders who repeatedly slashed and stabbed the couple in their upscale River Crest home./l/l The killers, police said, pried open a back door at 4100 Clarke, triggering the alarm system, and dashed up a flight of stairs to viciously attack the Koslows in their bedroom shortly before 4 a.m. Apparently startled awake by the alarm, Jack Koslow, 48, was trying to load a shotgun when the intruders barged in, slashed his neck and stabbed him repeatedly, said police spokesman Lt. Ralph Swearingen. His 40-year-old wife also was stabbed multiple times as Jack Koslow stumbled down the stairs and across the street to the home of a neighbor./l/l Police found Caren Koslow, an officer of the Jewel Charity Ball and other philanthropic organizations, lying dead beside the bed. Jack Koslow, who left a trail of blood from the bedroom to the neighbor's home, was taken to Harris Methodist Fort Worth, where hospital officials declined to release any information about his injuries./l/l Police, however, said he was in critical condition with a lacerated neck and numerous stab wounds./l/l Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani, who examined Caren Koslow's body at the scene, indicated the woman also might have been shot./l/l "We don't know how many times she was stabbed or shot," he said./l/l "We'll have to look into that. We'll have to do an autopsy, hopefully today. We'll be able to tell you more later on. " Homicide Lt. J.P. Foley said police had no motive for the attack and had not determined if anything was missing from the house, an expansive, two-story pink brick home the couple had built about five years ago./l/l "There's been some drawers tampered with, yes," Foley said, explaining that police were trying to contact the Koslows' insurance agent to get an inventory of possessions./l/l He said burglary might have been a motive, "but it (a motive) is real shaky right now. " Acknowledging that burglars normally don't carry knives, he said, "It's certainly not out of the question. " Swearingen described the bedroom scene as "grisly" and said "some items were slung around all over the place and (there was) a lot of blood. " "It looks as though they (the intruders) may have set the alarm off when they entered the rear of the house. The back gate and back door appeared to be pried open. " Swearingen said Jack Koslow was in a "state of shock" at the hospital and was able to described his attackers only as two white men./l/l He said Koslow escaped through a side door and went to the home of Kevin Levy, where Koslow made the 911 call to police./l/l Jack Koslow is a former executive vice president and manager of commerical lending at Team Bank, formerly Texas American Bank. He lost his job during a December 1990 reorganization of management and recently had formed a company dealing in electronic motors./l/l He had been with the bank and its forerunners since 1976 and at the time of his dismissal said he was "oversatisfied" with his severance compensation./l/l "They've put together their team (of managers), and unfortunately, I'm not part of the plan," he told the Star-Telegram at the time./l/l His wife was a member of the Jewel Charity Ball, which raises funds for indigent care at Cook-Fort Worth Children's Medical Center, and served as secretary of the 1991 ball. In previous years she had served on the organization's executive committee, as treasurer of the engagement book and in other capacities./l/l She and her husband were on the board of directors of the Fort Worth Ballet Association and last year she assumed his position on the association's executive committee. She served in an advisory capacity on several committees and at the time of her death was in the midst of organizing a March 24 benefit style show and luncheon at the ballet studios./l/l "Needless to say, we're all very shocked and saddened," said ballet Executive Director David Mallette./l/l Caren Koslow was a 1969 graduate of Fort Worth Country Day School and had remained active in alumni affairs after graduation. She was a 1971 graduate of Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and a 1973 graduate of the University of Texas, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority./l/l She was a member of the Assembly and made her Steeplechase debut in 1971./l/l She had been a member of St. Andrews Episcopal Church since 1975 and was treasurer of the Altar Guild, attended Thursday morning Bible study and was a member of St. Martha's Guild./l/l She also was recording secretary of the Fort Worth Garden Club and was a former employee of Texas American Bank./l/l This morning's attack shocked residents in the Koslows' neighborhood of well-manicured yards and large homes./l/l "It seems terrible," said neighbor Garland Lasater, an insurance executive. "I don't know what the facts are, but it seems terrible. " His wife, former Fort Worth school board president Mollie Lasater, described the Koslows as "very good neighbors. " She said she was lying in bed awake about 4 a.m., but didn't hear any suspicious activity or the alarm at the Koslow home./l/l "I was lying awake and sometimes, you know, you just wake up and don't know why," she said. "It seems like I heard sirens but they were in the distance./l/l "It certainly changes your attitude about this neighborhood. " Terry Dunlap, Jack Koslow's longtime friend and hunting companion, arrived at the home after hearing radio reports about the stabbings./l/l "I spoke with him a couple of days ago to plan a hunting trip," Dunlap said. "He's a super nice guy. I wouldn't think Jack had an enemy in the world. " Staff writer Carol Nuckols contributed to this report./l/l<&011>Salter pleads guilty and gets life in Koslow murder<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/L FORT WORTH - Brian Dennis Salter, the former fiance of Kristi Koslow, pleaded guilty to capital murder yesterday in exchange for a life sentence in the fatal beating and throat-slashing of Koslow's wealthy stepmother. Tarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy broadly hinted after the plea was entered before state District Judge Bob Gill that a similar deal won't be offered to Koslow, 18, who is awaiting trial on a capital murder charge. She is accused of masterminding a murder-for-hire scheme and faces the possibility of a death sentence if convicted. "I can tell you right now, I anticipate there will be a trial," Levy said. Salter agreed as a condition of his plea to testify against Koslow and provided a 23-page statement detailing the planning and execution of the crime. Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield said Salter passed a lie detector test on the statement's contents. "The prosecution has to feel pretty strong about their case against Kristi now," said defense attorney Stan Hatcher, one of Salter's two attorneys. Salter, 21, of Fort Worth, acknowledged entering the posh west Fort Worth home of Caren Koslow on March 12, 1992, and killing her robbing her and her husband, Jack Koslow, who was beaten in the attack but survived. Under his capital murder life sentence, which the judge will not approve until after Kristi Koslow's trial, Salter must serve 35 years before he will become eligible for parole. He would have faced the possibility of a sentence if he had gone to trial. "Very thoughtful and careful consideration was made over a great deal of time," said Salter's other defense attorney, Gary Medlin. "Certainly the status of the evidence and the outcome in Wichita Falls had something to do with it. " Salter's accomplice in the killing, Jeffrey Dillingham, 20, of Aledo, was convicted of capital murder in August and sentenced to death by a jury in Wichita Falls, where the case was moved because of publicity in Fort Worth. Mayfield said there was not "a whole lot of downside" for the prosecution in offering the plea. There is no chance of appeal, he explained, and it can be withdrawn if Salter does not cooperate fully. A similar offer was made to Dillingham and rejected, Levy said. Levy said the Koslow family was "consulted about the entire situation. " "They know what our options were, and I think they understand our position," he said. "They were here today. " Caren Koslow's sister, Cynthia Siegel, and three other relatives left the courtroom without comment. Salter's father, Steven Salter, an accountant, and other relatives also declined to comment. Besides the families, only a detective, an investigator and members of the news media were in the courtroom audience during the morning proceedings. Salter, who appeared in court in jail blues, was accused of carrying out the murder plot with Dillingham, a one-time honor student, for what authorities said was the promise of $1 million from the $12 million Kristi Koslow expected to inherit from the deaths of her adoptive father and stepmother. As the plea was entered, Salter took the stand and answered several questions from prosecutors. "Was property taken from the Koslow residence pursuant to the plan to rob and murder Jack Koslow and Caren Koslow? " Mayfield asked. "Yes," said Salter in a clear voice. "Is it true that you helped to plan, along with Jeffrey Dillingham and Kristi Koslow, the murder of Caren Koslow? " "Yes," Salter said. Kristi Koslow's defense attorney, Tim Evans, said yesterday that the plea agreement did not surprise him. He quickly discounted Salter's potential testimony. "Human experience teaches us to expect that a person caught in wrongdoing will attempt to blame others," Evans said. "When you threaten that person with death, the expectation becomes a virtual certainty. " Evans also took issue with prosecutors' discussion of Salter's lie detector test. "The reason polygraph results are inadmissible in court is because they are so unreliable. The only reason a prosecutor would ask about them during a plea of guilty is so he can publicize something he can't bring up at trial. " Evans said he was disturbed that such "dangerously unreliable methods" would be used to "poison the minds of potential jurors in this community. " Participants in the case have discussed the possibility of a trial date in January for Kristi Koslow, who has been held in lieu of $350,000 bail since her arrest March 25, 1992, but no trial date has been set. Prosecutors revealed yesterday that Salter, who attended Brewer High School and All Saints Episcopal School, both in White Settlement, had held himself out to friends as Koslow's fiance. "I think the wedding plans are off," Mayfield said. Salter's statement, which by agreement among the attorneys was not put in the court record or made public, discusses Kristi Koslow's role in the case at length, his attorneys said. "He is anxious for the complete story to come out," said Medlin, declining to discuss specifics of the statement./L/L <&015>Jury convicts Koslow of capital murder in slaying of stepmother<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/LFORT WORTH -- After hearing Kristi Koslow described as either the hate-filled "boss" of a murder-for-hire plot, or a naive teen-ager given to idle words of spite, a Tarrant County jury convicted her of capital murder yesterday in the slaying of her wealthy stepmother./L/LJurors are expected to begin hearing evidence today to help them decide whether to place Koslow among the four women now on Texas' Death Row or to give her a life sentence -- the only choices under the law./L/LKoslow, 19, wiped back tears in the minutes after state District Judge Bob Gill announced the verdict, which came after three hours and 15 minutes of jury deliberation./L/LA few minutes later, as Koslow was given several minutes alone with her mother, Paula Koslow, both cried openly as they hugged at the back of the courtroom./L/LAt the center of the room, among the stack of evidence used in the case, sat a large, gold- framed pastel portrait of the defendant wearing a white dress and an unaffected smile. Her stepmother commissioned the portrait when the defendant was 8./L/LJack Koslow, her father, sat dispassionately as the verdict was read and left the courthouse without comment./L/LThe 50-year-old businessman was also a victim of the attack that killed his wife, oil heiress Caren Koslow. He testified last week outside the jury's presence that he would recommend that his daughter receive the death penalty./L/LTarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy huddled with Jack Koslow after the verdict and later described Koslow's reaction as "reserved."/L/L"He's not a person given to big displays. . . It's not a happy time," Levy said./L/LMark Daniel, one of two defense attorneys Koslow's mother hired, said: "We plan to be a lot more successful tomorrow. . . . There are a lot of significant issues; a great deal will come out about her and her background."/L/LAsked what could save his client from the death penalty, lead defense attorney Tim Evans said: "This is just not the kind of person I think juries generally sentence to death. She is a young girl with no past criminal history, and there is a lot of mitigating evidence that has come out during this trial."/L/LLevy said the planning that went into the murder-for-hire plot will be among his most persuasive evidence as he turns his efforts to seeking a sentence of death by injection./L/L"The thought process that went into it, the premeditation, that may be the most persuasive thing for a jury," said Levy, who has asked juries 10 times before to deliver death sentences and has never been denied./L/LLevy conceded that the defendant's age and gender could work in her favor. "It's always hard to sell the jury on the death penalty, and it should be," he said./L/LKoslow was convicted of orchestrating the fatal March 12, 1992, attack on her stepmother and father, who were startled from their sleep when two intruders broke into their stately Rivercrest home./L/LCaren Koslow, 40, was fatally bludgeoned and her throat was cut in the early-morning attack. Her husband was beaten and his throat was also cut./L/LProsecutors called 23 witnesses in their attempt to show that Koslow hired Brian Salter, who was her boyfriend, and his friend Jeffrey Dillingham to do the killing in return for a share of what she expected would be as much as a $14 million inheritance./L/LThe judge instructed jurors to determine whether Koslow hired the killers and therefore was guilty of capital murder./L/LThey also were told to find Koslow guilty of capital murder if they found that she acted as an accomplice in what became a murder during a burglary of the Koslow home./L/LSalter, 22, and Dillingham, 21, have been convicted of capital murder after both admitted to authorities that they carried out the bloody attack./L/LDuring testimony, jurors heard a taped statement in which Koslow admitted offering inheritance money for her father's and stepmother's deaths./L/LSalter testified that Koslow helped plan and cover up the crime, and an array of physical evidence supported both accounts./L/L"There was a variety of things, mutually supporting each other, that when you add them up, it's a compelling case," Levy said after the verdict./L/LSaid Evans, "We knew it was a rough case from the beginning. . . . Alan's also a very good lawyer."/L/LIn closing arguments, Levy and Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield portrayed Koslow as "the boss" behind the murder plot, a deceptive teen-ager who was filled with hatred for her stepmother./L/L"She was consumed with this malignancy -- it always grows; it always needs feeding," Levy said./L/LHe labeled as ridiculous defense contentions that Salter and Dillingham acted on Koslow's idle threats that she wanted her stepmother and father killed./L/L"You'd have to be levitated to another solar system with another system of logic," Levy said, adding at another point, "How stupid do they think we are?"/L/LMayfield cast Koslow as the mastermind of the murder-for-hire scheme./L/LCiting testimony that Salter telephoned Koslow minutes after he returned home from the attack, Mayfield told jurors: "When an employee finishes an assignment, what do they do? They check with the boss."/L/LDefense attorney Daniel, on the other hand, told jurors that Koslow "does not have the intellect or the maturity to organize a rock fight."/L/LEvans, who told the jury that Koslow was given to mouthing threats "out of spite formed by years of family turmoil," told the jury that prosecutors failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt./L/LHe closed his rousing summation with his hand on Koslow's shoulder./L/L"I give you the life of Kristi Koslow," he said, choking back tears. "I wish you godspeed."/L/L/L <&016>Koslow trial shifting to punishment phase<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/LFORT WORTH -- Twelve people were to begin hearing evidence to help them decide whether Kristi Koslow should live or die./L/LThe jurors will either place Koslow among the four women now on Texas' Death Row or give her a life sentence that would keep her in prison at least 35 years./L/LThe panel yesterday convicted Koslow of masterminding the slaying of her stepmother, Caren Koslow./L/LKoslow, 19, wiped back tears after state District Judge Bob Gill announced the verdict, which came after three hours and 15 minutes of jury deliberation./L/LKoslow was given several minutes alone with her mother, Paula Koslow. Both cried openly as they hugged at the back of the courtroom./L/LAsked what could save his client from the death penalty, lead defense attorney Tim Evans said: "This is just not the kind of person I think juries generally sentence to death. She is a young girl with no past criminal history, and there is a lot of mitigating evidence that has come out during this trial."/L/LTarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy, who has asked juries 10 times before to deliver death sentences and has never been denied, said the planning that went into the murder- for-hire plot will be among his most persuasive evidence as he turns his efforts to seeking a sentence of death by injection./L/L"The thought process that went into it, the premeditation, that may be the most persuasive thing for a jury," said Levy./L/LLevy conceded that the defendant's age and gender could work in her favor./L/L"It's always hard to sell the jury on the death penalty, and it should be," he said./L/LKoslow was convicted of orchestrating the fatal March 12, 1992, attack on her stepmother and father, who were startled from their sleep when two intruders broke into their stately Rivercrest home./L/LCaren Koslow, a 40-year-old oil heiress, was fatally bludgeoned and her throat was cut in the early- morning attack. Jack Koslow, a 50-year-old businessman who was also a victim of the attack that killed his wife, sat dispassionately as the verdict on his daughter was read. He left the courthouse without comment./L/LHe testified last week outside the jury's presence that he would recommend that his daughter receive the death penalty./L/LLevy huddled with Jack Koslow after the verdict and later described Koslow's reaction as "reserved."/L/L"He's not a person given to big displays./L. . . It's not a happy time," Levy said./L/LProsecutors called 23 witnesses to show that Koslow hired Brian Salter, who was her boyfriend, and his friend Jeffrey Dillingham to do the killing in return for a share of what she expected would be as much as a $14 million inheritance./L/LThe judge instructed jurors to determine whether Koslow hired the killers and therefore was guilty of capital murder./L/LThey also were told to find Koslow guilty of capital murder if they found that she acted as an accomplice in what became a murder during a burglary of the Koslow home./L/LSalter, 22, and Dillingham, 21, have been convicted of capital murder after both admitted to authorities that they carried out the bloody attack./L/LDuring testimony, jurors heard a taped statement in which Koslow admitted offering inheritance money for her father's and stepmother's deaths./L/LSalter testified that Koslow helped plan and cover up the crime, and an array of physical evidence supported both accounts./L/L"There was a variety of things, mutually supporting each other, that when you add them up, it's a compelling case," Levy said after the verdict./L/LSaid Evans, "We knew it was a rough case from the beginning. . . . Alan's also a very good lawyer."/L/LIn closing arguments, Levy and Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield portrayed Koslow as "the boss" behind the murder plot, a deceptive teen-ager who was filled with hatred for her stepmother./L/L"She was consumed with this malignancy -- it always grows; it always needs feeding," Levy said./L/LHe labeled as ridiculous defense contentions that Salter and Dillingham acted on Koslow's idle threats that she wanted her stepmother and father killed./L/L"You'd have to be levitated to another solar system with another system of logic," Levy said, adding at another point, "How stupid do they think we are?"/L/LMayfield cast Koslow as the mastermind of the murder-for-hire scheme./L/LCiting testimony that Salter telephoned Koslow minutes after he returned home from the attack, Mayfield told jurors: "When an employee finishes an assignment, what do they do? They check with the boss."/L/LMark Daniel, one of the two defense attorneys Koslow's mother, told jurors that Koslow "does not have the intellect or the maturity to organize a rock fight."/L/LEvans, who told the jury that Koslow was given to mouthing threats "out of spite formed by years of family turmoil," told the jury that prosecutors failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt./L/LHe closed his rousing summation with his hand on Koslow's shoulder./L/L"I give you the life of Kristi Koslow," he said, choking back tears. "I wish you godspeed."/L/L <&018>Heiress given life sentence in slaying of stepmother<&LIST>/L/LBy Thomas Korosec/LFort Worth Star-Telegram/L/LFORT WORTH, Texas -- Jurors in the capital murder trial of a teen-age heiress sentenced the young woman to life in prison Thursday after rejecting prosecutors' demands for the death penalty during an emotionally charged final day in court./L/LThe Kristi Koslow, 19, was convicted Wednesday of orchestrating the murder-for-hire of her wealthy stepmother. She breathed a visible sigh of relief Thursday when state District Judge Bob Gill read the jury's decision./L/LThe six-man, six-woman panel, which deliberated 1 hour, 20 minutes, found that Koslow had acted intentionally but that prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Koslow would present a future danger to society./L/LUnder Texas law, their answer to the question of future dangerousness automatically ruled out the death penalty./L/LJuror Keri Glyn Gill said after the decision that the jury decided on its first vote for a life sentence./L/L"We never thought she would ever be a continuing threat to society," the juror said./L/LJack Koslow, who was injured in the March 12, 1992, attack that killed his wife, Caren Koslow, showed no emotion as his daughter's sentence was read. The 50-year-old businessman and about a dozen other family members left the courthouse without comment./L/LBut Will Courtney, Caren Koslow's uncle, said later: "We're not so much disappointed as we're glad this trauma is over. We feel our lives must go on."/L/LPaula Koslow, the defendant's mother, also had no comment after the trial. However, she took the stand earlier Thursday and tearfully told the jury: "Please don't give her the death penalty. That's all I have to say. Please."/L/LHilary Tomlinson, 19, who testified as a childhood friend of Kristi Koslow, said after the sentencing: "We're relieved . . . . I hoped I helped."/L/LTarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy said, "We thought we'd get the maximum penalty but this is not a penalty that's unacceptable."/L/LHe said he thought that Koslow's age and lack of criminal record worked for the defense./L/LThe prosecution presented no witnesses during the punishment hearing because Kristi Koslow had no prior criminal history./L/LDefense attorney Tim Evans said: "Virtually any jury in this state would have reached the same decision on this issue. Anybody who listened to every word would have come to the same decision. It would serve no purpose to give Kristi Koslow the death penalty."/L/LUnder Texas law, his client must serve a minimum of 35 years in prison before she is eligible for parole./L/L"It certainly was not anything that I'd call a lenient sentence," Evans said./L/LMark Daniel, who underlined his client's emotionally troubled childhood during his summation in the daylong hearing, said he was not surprised by jury's sentence./L/L"This was not a crime that showed she would be a danger to society," he said. "It is a crime that was focused on a family member."/L/LOnly four women are on death row in Texas and historically the death penalty has been assessed rarely against women./L/LKristi Koslow was convicted of helping to plan the fatal attack on her stepmother and father in their home in the well-to-do Rivercrest section of west Fort Worth./L/LCaren Koslow, 40, was fatally bludgeoned and her throat cut. Her husband Jack Koslow was beaten and cut but survived./L/LProsecutors established during the eight days of testimony in the trial's first phase that Kristi Koslow hired her boyfriend, Brian Salter, 22, and Jeffrey Dillingham, 21, to do the killing in return for a share of an expected $14 million inheritance./L/LSalter pleaded guilty to capital murder and accepted a plea bargain for a life sentence in return for his testimony in his ex-fiance's trial./L/LDillingham rejected a similar plea offer and a jury in August sentenced him to death./L/LDaniel and Evans portrayed their client as the product of a dysfunctional family who was raised by a permissive mother and who developed deep resentment against her father and his second wife./L/LDuring his emotion-laden summation, Daniel made much of the prosecutors' decision to give Salter, who admitted to cutting the victims' throats, a life sentence./L/L"What did the state bring to you to help you peer into the future?" he said. "Our law lets you decide whether she was 17 years old, a child, at the time this occurred, a child who did not have a positive stable adult influence throughout her life./L/L"I am not saying she sits in the chair she does because of her parents, but she had Paula Koslow, who provided a lot of warmth but a lot of misguided parenting. She had Jack Koslow, who had some structure, but warmth and compassion simply wasn't part of the package. She had Caren Koslow. In all respect to her, she was placed in the impossible position of a stepparent."/L/LLevy, whom Daniel described to jurors as "the only lawyer in this state who could talk a jury into killing this girl," took aim at Daniel's mention of the victim as he paced and talked in his closing./L/L"What greater crime can occur than for this defendant to steal from Caren Koslow her life, her hopes, her dreams . . . and then come into court and blame the victim," Levy said./L/LLevy, whose rousing legal arguments have led to death sentences in 10 previous trials, told the jury: "It will not do to say, `My stepmother was mean to me and therefore I sent two people to kill her.' It will not do to say, `I will kill my father because he was stern and uncaring.'/L/L"The philosophy that someone's parents or one's schools or environment should diminish their moral responsibility is a bankrupt philosophy. It is the philosophy that turned the Koslow home on March 12 into a slaughterhouse."/L/LIn his closing, Tarrant County prosecutor Robert Mayfield waved a videotape of the press conference that Kristi Koslow gave on the lawn of her stepmother's house the day after the attack./L/L"What manner of person could give a press conference on the lawn of 4100 Clarke Ave. while behind her the blood of her father and stepmother was drying on the walls?" he said./L/LDuring the punishment hearing, the defense team brought seven witnesses, including three Tarrant County jailers who described Koslow as a model inmate./L/L"She is one of the most respectful and considerate people I've ever had in my pod," said Norma Sue Cook, who supervised Koslow for 20 months. "If I had 71 more like her, I wouldn't have any problems."/L/LThe defense also questioned Tomlinson, a student at the University of Texas at Austin who said she had known Koslow since they were 2./L/LShe recounted how the defendant had been deeply affected by her parents' divorce when she was 7 and how she would plead with her mother not to send her off to weekend visits with her father and stepmother./L/L"She'd be a nervous wreck, tying knots in her hair, sucking her thumb," Tomlinson said./L/LKenny Pannell, a former psychotherapist at Charter Hospital of Fort Worth, told jurors that Kristi Koslow was caught in the middle of a deep rift between her divorced parents./L/LHe said she "enmeshed" herself with her mother, a woman he described as "a little flaky" and a lax parent, and sided with her mother against a stepmother and father./L/LDuring meetings at the psychiatric hospital, to which Kristi Koslow was admitted for several months at age 13, Pannell said he could see there was little emotional contact between his patient and Jack Koslow./L/L"There was a lack of warmth and affection you'd expect to see between a father and a daughter," he said./L/L