In an emotional hearing Tuesday in the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, Edwin Hall, 27, received a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder and raping of an Overland Park teenager.

Hall plead guilty in July of kidnapping, murdering, raping and sodomizing 18-year-old Kelsey Smith after maintaining for months that he was innocent. In exchange for the plea, Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline agreed not to seek the death penalty.

The case is likely to be the last big prosecution conducted by Kline, who will soon leave office.

District Court Judge Peter Ruddick read an itemized summary of Hall’s sentences, with a life in prison without possibility of parole for the first count of capital murder, 233 months in prison for aggravated kidnapping, 155 months for rape and 155 months for aggravated sodomy.

Smith, an Overland Park resident, was abducted in a Target store parking lot in June 2007. Her body was later found near Longview Lake in suburban Kansas City, Mo.

The courtroom was crowded and emotions ran high as Smith’s relatives, including her parents, aunt, brother and sisters, all expressed their heartache over the loss of Kelsey and their disdain for Hall, who broke down in tears and told the family he was “so, so sorry.”

Kelsey’s father also addressed the court and said that he had heard of an instance in one of Kelsey’s government classes in which she had said she would not support the death penalty.

“She was and is a better person than I,” Smith said.

The defense offered childhood molestation and abuse for reasons why Hall committed the crimes. Kelsey’s mother, Missey Smith, responded that she too knew what it was like to grow up in a single-parent home, and to be a victim of rape and abuse.

Smith, said while there was nothing she had to say to Hall she did feel sympathy for Hall’s young son for having to grow up with a convicted murderer and rapist as a father.

“I will continue to pray to God to protect that little boy,” Smith said. “He is going to need it.”

According to Kline, Hall will not have the ability to appeal the decision as he waived his rights to all appeals.

"Mr. Hall is no longer presumed innocent," Kline said in a statement posted on the Johnson County Kansas web site. "He is guilty of capital murder, for which the sentence is life without parole. Mr. Hall has waived his rights to all appeals. And once sentencing occurs and Mr. Hall is delivered into the state prison system for a lifetime as a convicted murderer it is my hope that Mr. Hall's name will be forgotten and that the name of Kelsey Smith, who she was, how she led her life and what she lived for will be what is remembered."

Kline's term as Kansas Attorney General will be remembered by many for his work in trying to enforce state laws by accusing several politically-connected Kansas abortion providers of having performed unlawful abortions. He was defeated in 2006 by Paul Morrison, a Democrat hand-picked by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to run against Kline. Morrison resigned after it was revealed he was conducting an illicit love affair. He was also accused of interfering in the investigations of the abortion clinics.

Kline was named Johnson County district attorney in January 2007. He and his staff have prosecuted more than 8,000 criminal cases in the last year. 

- Holly Smith

The Week in Review